A new Terminal, a fuller Mail app, and help for both.

October 17 brought Ecliptic’s own Terminal, more ways to manage everyday mail, and updated Phobos help—alongside careful checks and work still ahead.

October 17 was a busy day for the apps around the desktop. Ecliptic Terminal became a working application, Mail grew beyond its first reader and writing window, and the built-in help caught up with both. The focus was on useful everyday work, whether that means finding a message or returning to a project on another computer.

A Terminal with room for your work

Ecliptic Terminal brings local command windows and saved SSH connections into one place. Its start page offers sessions and saved arrangements. Tabs and split panes can be moved around while their running work and scrollback stay intact, and a pane can be enlarged temporarily without losing the arrangement around it.

Connections can have groups, tags and favorites. Preferences now separates general settings, mouse and clipboard choices, appearance and notifications. Optional selection-copy and right-click paste are available without changing the familiar keyboard controls.

There are also reviewed command snippets, SSH tunnel controls and an option to reconnect to named tmux sessions. The distinction matters: a saved arrangement remembers the layout and connections, not an ordinary running job. Continuing work after a terminal window closes needs a persistent session such as tmux; saving a layout does not make a job survive a reboot.

Less work around the inbox

Mail gained a richer writing window with formatting, links, spelling suggestions, formatted signatures and files dropped into a message. Drafts keep their own attachment copies, so moving the original file does not break the unfinished message. If two windows edit one draft, both versions are kept rather than silently losing one.

Junk and Not junk controls, a combined Junk view, sender rules and a local learning filter make it easier to sort unwanted mail. The filter learns from corrections and needs examples before judging new messages. Sender warnings add context when a message deserves a second look; they are not a guarantee that a message is safe or dishonest.

Rules can be previewed before running, with history and Undo. Search gained visible filters and saved searches. Folder management, watched-folder notification choices, message-file export and printing, and reviewed unsubscribe actions also moved into the development app.

Sending and recovery, with clearer outcomes

The Outbox now keeps a history and distinguishes what happened for each recipient. If a server takes a message but the connection disappears before its answer, Mail keeps a “Maybe sent” result instead of automatically sending another copy. Repairing a missing Sent copy is a separate operation, not a reason to send again. Acceptance by a server still is not proof of delivery.

Send later, snooze and follow-up reminders were added. These run on this computer, rather than being a scheduling service in the cloud. A scheduled send missed by more than thirty minutes is held for review instead of going out late on its own.

Backup and restore cover work kept locally, including settings, drafts, attachments and unsent messages. They leave passwords out and hold restored unsent mail for editing. This is not a complete archive of every message on the provider’s servers. Storage controls separately help inspect and free older downloaded copies.

Agent help, with explicit permissions

Mail’s optional agent connection can now allow drafting and organization as well as reading. Permissions are chosen for each account and assistant. Sending normally waits for review of the exact message; changing it invalidates the earlier request. Sending without individual approval is a separate permission for one specifically named assistant and account.

Changes are logged, with Undo for supported organization actions. Agent tools cannot permanently delete mail or change Junk decisions, filtering rules or blocked senders.

Ecliptic AI gained a connection to these tools for supported cloud-model conversations, with proposed changes shown as cards first. It was tested through the Mail service with synthetic accounts; using a real model in the assistant window remained to be tried.

Help that keeps up with the apps

Mail and Terminal now have task-focused help pages covering their actual controls and limitations. Phobos 0.8B version 4 was trained with questions about those pages, including follow-ups and requests to open the apps.

A fresh evaluation set showed better answers about both apps than the preceding version. That is a bounded development check, not a promise that every answer will be right. Phobos still provides explanations and supported desktop hand-offs; this update does not give it Mail’s action tools or access to your messages.

Preparing the next installation

The desktop and installer sources were updated to choose Ecliptic Terminal and Mail as defaults for new installations. Existing homes keep their own mail choice. These source changes do not announce a newly tested or publicly available ISO, and longer daily-use checks remain open.

The installer also gained a graphical Wi-Fi connection window, with network selection and plain-language errors. It was tried in a virtual machine with simulated wireless radios, including a wrong password and saving the chosen network for the installed system. Work or school networks requiring a username are not supported by that window.

What was checked, and what remains

Terminal’s release checks covered real terminal processes, local test SSH connections, moving running panes, interrupted connections, persistent sessions and cleanup. Stress checks found retained window controls and tab headers; fixes were added and tested. These were bounded tests, including a two-minute output test, rather than proof of days of uninterrupted use.

Mail’s tests exercised uncertain sending, recipient-specific retries, backup restoration, rules, restart handling and agent permission boundaries against a test mail server. A missing file in the Mail package also broke the sync service during an update; it was corrected, with a check added to catch missing modules in future packages.

Longer daily use, sleep and network changes, accessibility checks and broader provider testing still need attention. Google sign-in remains a development registration awaiting verification before public release. This entry records progress through October 17, not a finished OS or a completed reliability program.