Vestra Code 1.17
A new look, on Mac and on the web.
A calmer design you can make your own, Vestra Code on your Mac and in your browser, chats that can run twice as long, and upgrades on your terms.
Vestra Code 1.17 is the first big change to how Vestra Code looks since launch, and the first time it runs anywhere other than Windows. There’s a native app for Apple silicon Macs, a version that runs in your browser, and room for twice as much conversation on Max. And from now on, moving to a new version is your choice.
- 3Places to use it: Windows, Mac and the web
- 128KTokens of conversation on Max, up from 64K
- 3Looks to choose from: Opaque, Frosted and Liquid Glass
A new look
Everything in Vestra Code now sits on rounded cards over a softly tinted background, in light and dark. Text is set in Inter and code in JetBrains Mono, and there’s more space between lines. Mint is the one colour for anything you can click or change. Amber, red and green only ever mean a status, such as LIVE, a warning, or lines added and removed.
- Chat and Code. A switch at the top of the sidebar picks what it lists: your conversations, grouped by day with starred ones first, or your projects, servers and background runs. Hide sidebar (Ctrl+B, ⌘B) folds it to a slim rail.
- Settings is a full page, with a list of sections and a search box. Every setting from 1.16 is still there, and on/off settings are now switches.
- Your choice of material. Opaque is the default: solid, calm and lightest on battery. Frosted blurs what’s behind the panels. Liquid Glass bends the light behind them, with a slider for how strong it is. Text, plans, diffs and code are never drawn on glass, and Liquid Glass steps down to Frosted on battery saver or when your computer can’t draw it smoothly.
- Custom CSS. Restyle the app with your own stylesheet, live as you type, under Settings → Appearance.
We also went through the whole app for small inconsistencies: one style of scrollbar, one way of showing that something is live, menus that stay on screen in small windows, and panels that no longer clip.
Vestra Code for Mac
Vestra Code now has a native app for Macs with Apple silicon.
- Close the window with ⌘W and your task keeps running. Vestra Code stays in the Dock, and approvals reach you as notifications.
- Commands run in your own zsh, with the same PATH as your terminal, so your tools just work.
- It updates itself like the Windows app, never in the middle of a task, and puts your version back if anything goes wrong.
- Computer use works on Mac, and so do iOS projects when Xcode is installed. Your sign-in stays in your Keychain.
Vestra Code on the web
Open ai.vestra.systems/code/web and start from a git repository or an empty workspace. The agent works on a Vestra cloud machine, with the same model choice and effort slider as the app. Browse and edit the files, review the changes, and download the result.
Your sessions are kept, so you can close the tab and carry on from another device. Add it to your Home Screen to use it like an app on your phone or tablet. Sessions use your plan’s cloud machine hours, the same as background runs.
Longer chats on Max
On Max 10x and Max 20x, a chat can now run to 128K tokens, twice the 64K limit before. In our test, the model still found a single fact planted 100,000 tokens into a conversation, and it still passed every one of our coding checks.
Long context costs more to run, so input past 64K in a request is charged at twice the normal input price, and counts 1.25 times towards your allowance. Reading a very long chat for the first time takes a while; after that, each new message only adds what’s new.
You don’t have to keep a chat going that long. When a chat passes 64K, Vestra Code offers Start fresh with a summary: a new chat that begins with a summary, the plan and the files that changed, linked to the old one. On other plans, chats stop at 64K and offer the same button.
Upgrades on your terms
Lots of people liked how 1.16 looked, and that’s fair. So new versions no longer install themselves.
- Fixes still arrive by themselves. Updates within a version, such as 1.17.0 to 1.17.1, install in the background as before.
- A new version is your choice. When the next one comes out, Settings → Updates shows an Upgrade to Vestra Code card with what’s new and an Upgrade button. Move when you’re ready, or stay where you are.
- Older versions keep getting security fixes until they are three versions behind. 1.16 is looked after until 1.19 comes out.
- Prefer to always have the newest? Turn on Install new versions automatically.
If you’re on 1.16, you’ll get 1.16.3, which adds the Upgrade to Vestra Code 1.17 card. Nothing changes until you press it.
Also in 1.17
- No more going in circles. The agent no longer re-reads the same files over and over, notices when it has stalled, reads small files whole, and keeps a digest of what it learned when a long chat is compacted.
- Restarts you won’t notice. When our model server restarts, your message waits with Model server restarting and carries on by itself.
- Beta updates. Turn it on in Settings → Updates to get new versions early. Turning it off never moves you back.
Get it
Vestra Code comes with paid VestraAI plans. Sign in at ai.vestra.systems and open Vestra Code from your account menu to download it for Windows or Mac, or open it on the web. If you have 1.17 already, it updates itself. If you’re on 1.16, upgrade from Settings → Updates whenever you’re ready.
Every change is listed in the changelog. Questions or feedback? Write to [email protected] or find us on Discord.
