Lattices Weekly Shipped Review: v0.4.3 to v0.4.9

This was a dense week for Lattices: seven releases in eight days, from v0.4.3 through v0.4.9.

The visible shape was a lot of feature work: companion surfaces, mouse gestures, better tiling flows, update checks, and a calmer CLI. Underneath that, we also did the release and architecture work that makes shipping at this pace feel less fragile: signed DMGs, npm releases, e2e coverage, and a clearer Swift source layout.

Here is the review.

Executive summary

The last seven days moved Lattices in three directions at once:

• More surfaces: a local-network iPad/iPhone companion path, cockpit controls, and a live Home dashboard.
• More natural control: mouse shortcuts, middle-click gestures, smart tiling polish, organize-windows flow, and Caps Lock Hyper remapping.
• More reliable distribution: signed and notarized DMGs, standalone arm64 binaries, npm releases through 0.4.9, in-app updates, and automatic update checks.

The CLI and app also got a needed product reset. Bare lattices now orients you instead of immediately launching tmux, and starting a workspace is explicit with lattices start or lattices tmux.

Companion surfaces

The upcoming Lats.dev companion app was one of the largest chunks of the week, but it was not the only story.

We added the foundation for a local-network companion: shared DeckKit models, Mac bridge endpoints for deck, cockpit, and trackpad control, a Mac-side cockpit editor, persisted shortcut layouts, iPhone/iPad discovery, action execution, and a Talkie-style trackpad surface.

That grew into live cockpit data: CPU, memory, GPU, battery, thermal state, SkyLight Spaces, activity logs, transcript lines, cockpit replay state, agent state, tinted preview windows, and forwarded keyboard input through keys.send.

On iPad, the Lats.dev prototype became a full-screen companion surface with a cockpit shell, trackpad area, shortcut grid, and status bar. The Home dashboard followed with real DeckRuntimeSnapshot wiring, honest empty states, machine sections, scenes, routines, sync status, recent activity, cloud state, and a voice error model.

So what: Lattices is starting to become a workspace system with multiple surfaces, and Lats.dev is the next companion surface to watch.

Bridge security

A local-network bridge that can trigger actions on the Mac needs a real trust model.

This week added device pairing, signed requests, encrypted payloads, a standalone companion bridge port, trusted-device state in Settings, and then a stricter pass that made sharing default-off, capability-scoped, visible, and revocable per paired device.

So what: The companion work shipped with the controls it needed. Pairing and revocation are product features, not just security plumbing.

Input and navigation

Lattices also got more physical.

We added configurable mouse shortcuts, middle-click gestures, a mouse finder, smart tiling polish, screen-map hit testing fixes, and an organize-windows command flow. Caps Lock Hyper remapping landed too, giving Lattices a nicer path for power-user shortcuts without requiring a separate remapping app.

So what: Workspace management should work from whatever input surface you are already using: keyboard, mouse, voice, or companion device.

CLI and app UX

Bare lattices used to launch or attach to a tmux session immediately. That was convenient once you knew the tool, but a little abrupt if you were trying to get oriented.

Now bare lattices shows a workspace overview: current directory, session name, config state, panes, tmux state, app state, and common commands.

Starting a workspace is explicit:

lattices start
lattices tmux

Zero-config sessions also stopped assuming Claude. If there is no .lattices.json, Lattices now opens a plain shell and, when it can detect one, starts your dev server in a second pane.

So what: Lattices feels more like a general developer workspace manager and less like a tool with one assumed workflow.

Updates and distribution

Fast releases only help if people can receive them.

This week moved the app from “you can download a build” toward “the app can keep itself current.” The update flow is now discoverable from Settings and the menu bar, backed by GitHub releases, and clear about what happens during install.

By v0.4.9, Lattices checks for new releases automatically using a lightweight GitHub-release strategy. Settings shows the current version, a new available version, release notes preview, auto-check toggle, check-now, skip, and release-notes actions. The install confirmation names the current version, the version to install, and the quit/replace/relaunch handoff.

It also checks whether you are already on the latest version before initiating installation.

So what: The release pipeline and app UX now match the pace of development better.

Architecture and quality

The Swift source tree was regrouped into AppShell, Core, and UI. Desktop, actions, overlays, input, companion, daemon, voice, system, and workspace code now have clearer homes.

A central intent schema landed. Session window lookup moved into a dedicated locator. Shared overlay panel primitives appeared. Daemon and voice end-to-end coverage landed in the same release window.

So what: This is the work that keeps a fast week from becoming a brittle one.

Release timeline

Every current release ships through GitHub with a signed, notarized DMG. Recent releases also include a standalone macOS arm64 binary, and npm is current at @lattices/cli@0.4.9.

What changed

The week was not just a pile of features. It was a broad pass across product surface, control ergonomics, trust, architecture, and distribution.

Lats.dev is the separate new companion story, and the broader Lattices release train matters too: Lattices got easier to install, easier to update, safer to pair, less surprising at the CLI, and more flexible in how you control your workspace.