New In Karea: Light Mode, Update Your AI Tools From Karea, And A Smarter Karea Connect

This release brings one of the most requested changes yet: Karea now comes in light mode. Karea Connect also got a long list of improvements, from updating Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode with one click to finding any session in seconds. Here is what changed.

Light Mode Is Here

• Pick your look. Go to Settings > Display > Appearance and choose Dark, Light or System. System follows your computer's setting and switches live when your computer does.
• It follows you. Your choice is saved on your account, so every browser and device you sign in from shows Karea the same way, with no dark flash while the page loads.
• Readable everywhere. Pop-up windows, the quick actions panel and floating panels stay solid and easy to read, and only the page behind them is dimmed.
• The terminal stays dark. In Karea Connect, the chat view follows your theme, while the terminal view keeps its familiar dark look.

New accounts start in light mode. If you already use Karea, nothing changes until you pick a new look.

Update Your AI Tools From Karea

• Hover your machine's name at the top of the Connect page, or in a session's header, and choose Update AI tools.
• See what needs updating first. Karea checks each tool on that machine and shows its installed and newest version (for example "2.1.9 -> 2.2.0 available"). Only tools with an update can be ticked.
• Follow each tool's progress, even after closing the card or reloading the page.
• Your sessions keep running while the tools update.
• If something goes wrong, you get a notification with a link to a detailed log, saved in your Resources.

Karea Connect: Find, Organise And Control Your Sessions

• Search your sessions by name, task, project, tool, folder, machine or tag, with an Archived switch to include archived ones.
• A roomier Shared View. It now holds up to five sessions, three open at a time. Opening a fourth folds the one you opened longest ago, right where it was. Your Shared View is saved on your account, so it comes back after a restart and on your other devices.
• A tidier Tasks view. Tiles are grouped by project in foldable groups, you can pin important tasks to the top, and New session starts on the task you have open.
• Manage folders and worktrees from a new menu on the Connect page, and delete worktrees you no longer need (archiving the last session in one offers it too). You can also start a session in a worktree that already exists on your machine.
• Keyboard shortcuts for the floating window. Option/Alt + Shift + M minimises it, + C closes it and + O opens the session on the Connect page.
• Esc stops a running turn, just like in Claude Code.
• Arrow Up edits a queued message, taking it back into the box so you can change or drop it before it is sent. Up also recalls messages from earlier sessions in the same folder.
• A message box that grows with your text, up to three lines.
• Slash commands anywhere. Type / in the middle of a message and the command list opens.
• A chime of its own. A finished session now plays a distinct chime, easy to tell apart from other alerts.

Easier Machine Setup

• Missing tools are offered for you. When you pair a machine, the connector checks for tmux and Git and offers to install them, asking you first.
• Always on by default. The start window now suggests running the connector as a background service, so it starts on its own when you log in, on macOS, Linux and Windows.
• Back after sleep. The connector notices when your computer wakes up and reconnects by itself.
• No more hunting for the ~ key. A button next to each folder field types it for you.

Machines update the connector on their own, and some of these features (live update progress, Arrow Up on queued messages, waking from sleep) need the latest connector version.

Resources, Reminders And Open Questions

• Videos play in the preview, with seeking, on the Resources page and from tasks. If your browser cannot play a format, Karea says so and offers the download.
• Upload messages name the file ("Uploaded report.pdf"), and clicking one opens the preview without leaving the page.
• Open and snooze for 1 minute. The reminder popup has a new button that opens the task, meeting or question and brings the reminder back a minute later. On Fridays you can also snooze until Monday morning.
• Notes on open questions. You can now add, edit and clear notes right from the open question window.

For Claude Code And MCP Users

• Upload bigger files to your resources from Claude Code, by file path or with a short-lived upload link, instead of pasting the file into the conversation.
• More filters when listing open questions, meetings and resources (by task or by text).
• Tidier AI Context: entries stay one per topic instead of piling up.
• Open questions and meetings: when Claude creates several questions at once, the Karea plugin asks about the meeting only once, and meetings already under way today are offered.

Other Small Fixes And Improvements

• Blank lines in descriptions and notes now stay exactly as you typed them, including in hover previews.
• Search finds files when you type their name with the extension.
• Pressing Escape on an alert now closes just the alert.
• Adding a note with a colon in it from the side panel now works as expected.
• Opening another task from the side panel shows that task's own related counts.
• Subtasks on project boards start folded under their parent.
• The task preview above a Connect session refreshes every minute.
• Sessions stopped with Ctrl+C stay in the floating window's list, marked as ended.
• Ending a session from its header shows it as ended straight away.
• A resumed session no longer shows "working" when nothing is running.
• A message sent after stopping the AI is no longer joined to the previous one.
• Queued messages and question cards in the chat show more reliably.
• Switching one session between chat and terminal no longer changes the others.
• The off-topic check for sessions is more accurate.
• If the duplicate check cannot run when creating a task with AI, Karea tells you.

As always, tell us what you think from the feedback button in Karea.