Sasha Studio Release Notes: v1.0.1220 to v1.0.1264

Release Period: February 2026
Version Range: 1.0.1220 → 1.0.1264
Total Commits: 144

TL;DR - Business Summary

What's New in Plain English:

This release delivers 3 headline capabilities — a new presentation engine, a file manager that's evolving to replace the Knowledge tab, and serious memory management improvements — plus infrastructure and transcription fixes:

Board Pack Designer - A brand-new standalone engine that turns structured data into branded PowerPoint presentations and Google Slides. Define your brand's design pack once, feed it data, and get polished board packs with charts, layouts, and theming — no manual slide-building required.
File Manager → The New Knowledge Hub - The file manager took a giant leap toward replacing the Knowledge tab entirely. Inline document preview with Notion-style rendering, file conversion (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HEIC), download buttons, Mermaid diagrams, fullscreen mode, collapsible folder trees, tag editing and search — all inside the file manager. The old full-tab Files view is now a compact side panel.
Memory Management & Stability - Per-child-process memory limits prevent OOM kills, memory leaks plugged with proper SIGTERM cleanup, SQLite busy timeouts and journal mode changes eliminate database locks during deploys, graceful shutdown handles all server resources, and WebSocket heartbeats keep long-running sessions alive.
AWS Zero-Downtime Deploys - Rolling ECS deployments keep the service online during updates. Session recovery handles container restarts gracefully.
Teams Meeting Bot Fix - The Teams transcriber bot now works reliably on AWS by handling the "light-meetings" experience that Teams routes to in headless environments.

Business Value:

Executive Reporting: Board Pack Designer automates branded presentation creation from data — no more manual slide-building
Self-Service Documents: The file manager is becoming the single place to browse, preview, convert, and download all your documents
Reliability: Memory management, graceful shutdown, and database hardening mean fewer crashes and no data loss during deploys
Uptime: Zero-downtime deploys and session recovery mean no service interruptions during updates

Executive Summary

The headline addition is the Board Pack Designer, a standalone TypeScript engine that takes structured JSON data and branded design packs to produce polished PowerPoint presentations. It includes a layout system with fit rules, chart rendering with themed value labels and shadows, Google Slides export, and example board packs for quarterly ops reviews, market analysis, and fundraising decks. This is a new top-level module (board-pack-publisher/) with its own CLI — the beginning of automated executive reporting.

The file manager is evolving into the primary knowledge interface, on track to replace the current Knowledge tab. This release added inline preview panels with Notion-style markdown rendering, document conversion (HEIC/TIFF, DOCX, Excel, PowerPoint to PDF), download buttons for DOC/PDF/MD formats, fullscreen toggles, Mermaid diagram rendering, collapsible folder trees, tag editing with bulk drag-to-folder, and tag search filtering. The old full-tab Files view was converted to a compact toggleable side panel. With these capabilities, the file manager now handles document browsing, preview, conversion, and organization — all the functions that previously required switching to the Knowledge panel.

Memory management and server stability received major attention. Per-child-process memory limits prevent OOM kills that previously crashed containers under load. Memory leaks were plugged with proper SIGTERM process cleanup. SQLite got busy timeout and DELETE journal mode for concurrent access during rolling deploys. Graceful shutdown now properly cleans up HTTP server, WebSocket connections, and SQLite. The WebSocket heartbeat keeps long-running sessions alive during silent CLI periods. Session recovery was hardened with six successive fixes to handle session-not-found scenarios without losing user messages.

Major Features & Improvements

Board Pack Designer

New Engine - Standalone TypeScript module that generates branded presentations from structured data
Design Pack System - JSON-based brand configurations with palettes, tokens, layouts, chart themes, and fit rules
Chart Rendering - Data-driven charts with themed value labels, shadows, and configurable aesthetics
Layout Automation - Multiple layout types (summary, text-chart, performance, org charts, dividers) with auto-fitting
Export Targets - PowerPoint (.pptx) and Google Slides export with coordinate mapping
Example Board Packs - Quarterly ops review, market analysis, startup fundraise, and general samples included
CJK Design Pack - Custom branded design pack for CJK Associates with finance hero imagery

File Manager → Knowledge Hub

Inline Preview Panel - Auto-opens home.md with Notion-style markdown rendering and Phosphor icons
File Conversion - HEIC/TIFF to preview, DOCX to preview, Excel to markdown, PowerPoint to PDF
Download Buttons - DOC, PDF, and MD download from markdown preview
Mermaid Diagrams - Live rendering of Mermaid diagram blocks in markdown preview
Fullscreen Toggle - Both file manager and document preview panels support fullscreen mode
Content-Type Headers - Proper MIME types on file download endpoint for PDF preview

File Manager Organisation

Collapsible Folder Trees - Folder nodes expand/collapse for easier navigation of deep structures
Tag Editing - In-file-manager tag editing with bulk drag-to-folder support
Tag Search - Filtering with auto-hide of unselected tags when search is empty
Side Panel Conversion - Files tab converted from full tab to toggleable side panel, decluttering the interface
Decluttered UI - Removed category banner, toned down buttons, cleaner layout
Hidden File Filtering - Hidden files and directories filtered from sidebar
Special Directory Handling - Special and infrastructure folders no longer excluded from Knowledge menu

Memory Management

Per-Process Memory Limits - Child processes have enforced memory caps to prevent OOM kills that crashed containers
Memory Leak Fixes - Proper SIGTERM process cleanup stops gradual memory growth
Graceful Shutdown - HTTP server, WebSocket connections, and SQLite all clean up properly on container stop
WebSocket Heartbeat - Keeps long-running sessions alive during silent CLI periods, preventing stale connection buildup

AWS & Cloud Infrastructure

Zero-Downtime Deploys - ECS rolling deployments keep the service online during updates
OneDrive Graph Search - Extended Graph Search API to OneDrive connections
Claude Sonnet 4.6 - Added to available models and Bedrock discovery configs
Native Bedrock 1M Context - Removed Claude Code binary patch, uses native ANTHROPIC_BETAS
Claude CLI Upgrade - Updated from 2.1.33 to 2.1.45

Meeting Transcription

Teams Light-Meetings Fix - Bot handles the light-meetings experience Teams uses on AWS headless environments
Max Duration Setting - Configurable maximum meeting duration with 4-hour default
joinOnWeb Handler - Clicks "Continue on this browser" button on Teams launcher page
Name Input Selector - Added prejoin-display-name-input for light-meetings pre-join screen

Stability & Reliability

Session Recovery

Session-Not-Found Handling - Six successive improvements to gracefully recover when sessions expire
Input Restore - User message text restored to input box on session failure instead of silently dropping
Stub Session Detection - Pre-check detects stub sessions to prevent silent fallback
Stale Closure Fix - Used ref for retry logic to avoid React stale closure bugs

Database & Server

SQLite Busy Timeout - Prevents SQLITE_BUSY errors during rolling deploys
DELETE Journal Mode - Switched from WAL to DELETE mode with integrity checks for better container compatibility
Graceful Shutdown - Proper cleanup of HTTP server, WebSocket connections, and SQLite on SIGTERM
Memory Limits - Per-child-process memory limits prevent OOM kills
WebSocket Heartbeat - Keeps clients alive during silent CLI periods

Docker & Deployment

Health-Check Stub - Prevents Sliplane deploy timeouts during container startup
LibreOffice in Base Image - Added LibreOffice and chart extraction dependencies
Office Template Upload - Support for .dotx, .potx, .xltx and macro variants

UI Fixes

No Auto-Scroll - Prevented auto-scroll to bottom after streaming completes
Processing Indicators - Show immediately on message submit
Binary File Preview - No longer navigates to Knowledge panel
Sidebar Resize - Lowered z-index prevents bleeding through Quick Settings
macOS Zip Artifacts - Filtered from extraction

Developer Experience & Docs

Documentation

AWS Hosting Guide - Rewritten with hosting models and setup recipe
Excel-to-Markdown Guide - Systems extraction workflow documentation
SQLite Startup Docs - Added busy_timeout configuration section
Docker Health Logging - Improved health-stub logging documentation

Control Panel

Auto Semver Versioning - Automatic version bumping with sidebar display
Sliplane Info Page - New informational page in control panel
Sliplane Provider Pill - Visual indicator on client deployment list
Latest Version Resolution - Uses GitHub Packages API to resolve "latest" image version

Security & CI

Weekly Security Scans - Changed from nightly to weekly Wednesday (CodeQL, Semgrep, Trivy)
Path Traversal Fixes - Resolved code scanning alerts for path traversal and format strings
Dependency Updates - Bumped trivy-action to 0.34.0 and osv-scanner to 2.3.3

Upgrade Notes

Board Pack Designer

New Module: The board-pack-publisher/ directory is a standalone TypeScript project. Run npm install in that directory if you plan to generate board packs.
No Impact on Existing: This is additive — no changes to existing Sasha Studio behavior.

Meeting Transcription

Max Duration Default: Meetings now default to a 4-hour maximum duration. Configure via the meeting settings if longer meetings are needed.

Database

Journal Mode Change: SQLite switched from WAL to DELETE journal mode. This happens automatically on startup — no manual action required.

Breaking Changes

None in this release.

Changelog Summary (since v1.0.1220)

Features

Board Pack Designer engine with design packs, chart rendering, layout automation, and PPTX/Google Slides export
Data-driven chart themes with value labels and shadows
Inline preview panel with auto-open home.md and Notion-style rendering
Convert-to-preview buttons for HEIC/TIFF, DOCX, and Excel files
PowerPoint to PDF conversion and preview
DOC, PDF, MD download buttons in markdown preview
Mermaid diagram rendering in MarkdownPreview
Fullscreen toggle for file manager and document preview
Collapsible folder nodes in Knowledge sidebar
Tag editing in file manager with bulk drag-to-folder
Files tab converted to toggleable side panel
Description headers and learn-more sections added to side panels
Extended Graph Search API to OneDrive connections
Claude Sonnet 4.6 added to available models and Bedrock configs
Native ANTHROPIC_BETAS for Bedrock 1M context (removed binary patch)
WebSocket heartbeat for silent CLI periods
Sliplane informational page in control panel
Auto semver versioning with sidebar version display
Per-child-process memory limits to prevent OOM kills
Office template file upload support (.dotx, .potx, .xltx and macro variants)
Collapsible AWS setup guide on AWS Accounts page
Persistent EFS volume mount paths shown in AWS client detail
Max meeting duration setting with 4-hour default
LibreOffice and chart extraction deps added to Docker base image
Claude Code CLI upgraded from 2.1.33 to 2.1.45
Nav regrouped with Agentic Management section
Sliplane provider pill on client deployment list

Fixes

Teams transcriber handles light-meetings experience for AWS
Zero-downtime ECS deployments enabled
File manager clicks no longer open Knowledge SPA
Excel converter result normalization
Six session-not-found recovery improvements (auto-retry, input restore, stub detection, ref fix, deferred submit, transparent retry)
SQLite busy_timeout prevents SQLITE_BUSY during rolling deploys
DELETE journal mode with integrity check for container compatibility
Graceful shutdown for HTTP server, WebSocket, and SQLite
Health-check stub prevents Sliplane deploy timeouts
Hidden files and directories filtered from Knowledge sidebar
Tag search filtering with toolbar CSS fixes
Auto-scroll prevention after streaming
Processing indicators show immediately on submit
Binary file preview stays in file manager
Sidebar resize z-index lowered
macOS artifacts filtered from zip extraction
Sonnet 4.6 Bedrock model ID format corrected
PPT conversion resolved for project/conversation file paths
Content-Type header set on file download endpoint
System badge corrected in Help projects
Special folders no longer excluded from Knowledge menu
Directory recursion hardened in getFileTree and collectFilesFromDir
ReferenceError for undefined isSpecialRootDirectory resolved
Text overflow fixed on Shared Drives provider cards
Bug reporting section removed from AI admin settings
Latest version resolution via GitHub Packages API
Memory leaks fixed with SIGTERM process cleanup
AWS: region badge, version resolution, domain display, pause state detection, ECS service name extraction, EFS access, idempotent resource creation, VPC selection fixes
Duplicate response prevention in --print mode session retry

Infrastructure & Chores

Security scans changed from nightly to weekly Wednesday
Dependency bumps (trivy-action 0.34.0, osv-scanner 2.3.3, npm_and_yarn group)
Path traversal and format string code scanning alerts resolved
.worktrees/ added to gitignore
notion-style.css synced to deployed-md-files

Looking Ahead

Board Pack Designer Integration - Bringing the Board Pack Designer into Sasha Studio's UI for interactive presentation building
File Manager as Knowledge - Completing the transition from the Knowledge tab to the file manager as the primary document interface
Enhanced Meeting Intelligence - Broader meeting platform support beyond Teams
Knowledge Graph - Cross-document relationship mapping for deeper institutional knowledge analysis

Jargon Buster - Technical Terms Explained

Board Pack

A set of presentation slides prepared for a board of directors or executive team, summarizing business performance
Think of it as "the quarterly report, but as slides" — financial results, KPIs, strategic updates
The new Board Pack Designer automates creating these from structured data

ECS Fargate

Amazon's serverless container service — runs Docker containers without managing servers
Like renting a kitchen that scales up when you're busy and scales down when you're not
Zero-downtime deploys mean the new version starts before the old one stops

Light-Meetings Experience

A simplified version of the Teams meeting interface that Microsoft serves to certain browsers
Like getting the mobile version of a website instead of the desktop version
The bot now handles both versions so transcription works reliably on cloud infrastructure

SQLite Busy Timeout

A setting that tells the database to wait briefly instead of immediately failing when another process is writing
Like a polite queue at a single checkout — wait your turn instead of walking out
Prevents database errors during container deployments when two versions run briefly in parallel

Mermaid Diagrams

A text-based format for drawing flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and other visuals using simple syntax
Instead of dragging boxes in PowerPoint, you write A --> B and it draws the arrow for you
Markdown preview now renders these diagrams live instead of showing raw text

WebSocket Heartbeat

A periodic "ping" message sent between browser and server to keep the connection alive
Like saying "still here?" on a phone call during a long silence so neither side hangs up
Prevents the browser from disconnecting when Claude is thinking for a long time

OOM Kill (Out of Memory Kill)

When a process uses too much memory, the operating system forcibly terminates it to protect the server
Like a circuit breaker tripping when too many appliances are running — it cuts power to prevent damage
Per-process memory limits now prevent individual tasks from consuming all available memory and crashing the container

Design Pack

A JSON-based brand configuration for the Board Pack Designer containing colors, fonts, layouts, and chart styles
Like a PowerPoint template, but machine-readable so the designer can automatically apply branding
Each client can have their own design pack with custom logos, palettes, and layout rules

Thanks for upgrading. This release brings the Board Pack Designer for automated executive reporting, a file manager that's becoming your single knowledge hub, and the memory management and stability improvements needed for production reliability.