GitStudioHQ · antonarnaudov · Sep 30, 2026 · Sep 29, 2026 · Sep 29, 2026 · Sep 29, 2026
diff --git a/HANDOFF.md b/HANDOFF.md
@@ -14,15 +14,15 @@ You're picking up GitStudio. This doc is the context you need so you don't relit
 1. **One flagship extension, not a swarm.** GitStudio is `gitstudio.gitstudio` — a single extension that grows pillar by pillar (the GitLens model). Merge Studio stays a separate, focused product. They **share an engine, not a listing**.
 2. **Publisher = brand, extension = product.** The publisher id `gitstudio` is the umbrella; products are extensions under it. (This distinction cost us a day of confusion — see the war-story; don't repeat it.)
 3. **Reuse before rebuild.** The merge engine and webview ribbon stack are proven. Extract, don't fork-and-drift.
-4. **AI (GitBrain) is optional + BYO-key.** Don't make the core depend on it.
+4. **AI is optional + BYO-key.** Don't make the core depend on it.
 
 ## Suggested first moves (highest leverage first)
 
 1. **Extract the shared engine.** Pull `merge-studio/src/engine/` (and the parts of `webview/` that render ribbons/decorations) into a `@gitstudio/engine` package this repo can consume. Keep Merge Studio building against it too. This is the foundation — do it first and do it cleanly.
 2. **Scaffold the extension** from `../vscode-extension-starter` (esbuild bundling, `vscode:prepublish`, `.vscodeignore`, CI + release workflows). You get a publishable shell in minutes.
 3. **Ship pillar #1: Blame & history.** It's the highest-value, lowest-risk feature after merge — ambient (decorations + hovers, no custom editor needed), and it makes the extension immediately useful. Resist starting with the commit graph (high effort, easy to get visually wrong).
 4. **Then the commit graph / log**, reusing the webview muscle.
-5. **GitBrain last**, once there's a surface to attach it to (commit-message gen on the staging view, "explain this diff" on the diff/history view).
+5. **AI features last**, once there's a surface to attach it to (commit-message gen on the staging view, "explain this diff" on the diff/history view).
 
 ## How to work with the codebases
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ Don't hand-publish. Use the pipeline:
 
 - License for GitStudio (Merge Studio is MIT — match it, or go source-available?).
 - Monorepo (merge-studio + gitstudio + shared engine) vs. separate repos with a published `@gitstudio/engine`?
-- Free vs. freemium for the suite (GitBrain/AI is the natural paid tier).
+- Free vs. freemium for the suite (AI is the natural paid tier).
 - How much of Merge Studio folds *into* GitStudio vs. stays standalone long-term.
 
 Start with the engine extraction and blame pillar. Everything else builds on those.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ Everything ships in one extension (`gitstudio.gitstudio`) and one desktop app, b
 | **Rewrite** | Drag-to-reorder interactive rebase (pick · reword · edit · squash · fixup · drop); a universal, reflog-powered **Undo** safety net (never hijacks `Ctrl/Cmd+Z`). |
 | **Manage** | Branches (live ↑/↓ badges, fetch-in-place, pull without checkout), remotes, tags, first-class stashes, worktrees; GitHub-style branch compare; status-bar sync with in-view Push/Pull. |
 | **Collaborate** | In-editor GitHub pull-request review — list, check out, diff, comment inline, submit, merge, create. |
-| **Assist** | GitBrain — optional, bring-your-own-key (Anthropic or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including local Ollama / LM Studio) or zero-key (Copilot): AI commit messages, explain-diff, summaries. With Copilot it works with nothing to set up, otherwise it is off until you connect a provider; keys live in SecretStorage; AI never gates a Git operation. |
+| **Assist** | AI features — optional, bring-your-own-key (Anthropic or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including local Ollama / LM Studio) or zero-key (Copilot): AI commit messages, explain-diff, summaries. With Copilot it works with nothing to set up, otherwise it is off until you connect a provider; keys stay on your machine in GitStudio's own encrypted store; AI never gates a Git operation. |
 
 ## The desktop app
 
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ Issues and pull requests are welcome at [GitStudioHQ/gitstudio](https://github.c
 npm test && npm run check-types && npm run check-purity
 ```
 
-[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) has the rest, and [`docs/merge-studio.md`](docs/merge-studio.md) explains how the merge code is shared with Merge Studio and how a pull request opened on its repository comes back here.
+[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) has the rest (and the [code of conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md); report security problems privately, as [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) says), and [`docs/merge-studio.md`](docs/merge-studio.md) explains how the merge code is shared with Merge Studio and how a pull request opened on its repository comes back here.
 
 ## Facts
 
@@ -213,6 +213,8 @@ npm test && npm run check-types && npm run check-purity
 | **Desktop** | [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/GitStudioHQ/gitstudio/releases) — `.dmg` (arm64 + x64), `.exe`, `.AppImage`, `.deb`, `.rpm`, `.tar.gz` |
 | **Website** | [gitstudio.dev](https://gitstudio.dev) |
 | **License** | **Apache-2.0** |
+| **Privacy** | What each product sends, and how to turn it off: [desktop](apps/desktop/PRIVACY.md) · [extension](apps/extension/PRIVACY.md) · [Merge Studio](apps/merge-studio/PRIVACY.md) |
+| **Security** | [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) — report privately, through the repository's Security tab |
 | **Sibling product** | [Merge Studio](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=gitstudio.merge-studio) — `gitstudio.merge-studio`, the merge-only extension. Built from `apps/merge-studio` and the shared packages here, exported to [GitStudioHQ/merge-studio](https://github.com/GitStudioHQ/merge-studio). Shares its merge editor, not a listing. |
 
 ## Architecture notes

diff --git a/apps/desktop/CHANGELOG.md b/apps/desktop/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,9 +9,17 @@ The VS Code / Cursor extension has its own changelog at
 separately — desktop releases are tagged `app-v*`, extension releases `ext-v*` —
 but they share the same engine, so most Git behaviour lands in both at once.
 
-## [Unreleased]
+## [2.4.0] - 2026-09-29
 
 ### Added
+- **Dark style: Graphite or Neon.** Settings ▸ Appearance has a new *Dark
+  style* choice, shown as each style's Dock icon beside a swatch of its
+  window, and it sets both at once. **Graphite** (the default) is the grey
+  icon macOS shows while GitStudio is closed, with the familiar dark theme, so
+  opening the app no longer changes the Dock icon. **Neon** is the
+  near-black icon with a deeper, more violet dark theme; its Dock icon applies
+  while GitStudio runs, and macOS still shows the Graphite icon while it is
+  closed. The launch screen opens in the chosen style from its first frame.
 - **A launch screen.** GitStudio's window now opens straight onto the
   whole GitStudio mark — the app icon's cube, its commit graph and the name,
   settling gently into place — instead of appearing late and painting itself
@@ -71,6 +79,28 @@ but they share the same engine, so most Git behaviour lands in both at once.
   Dock doesn't get your shell's PATH, and a Windows app keeps the PATH it
   started with.
 
+- **Push no longer re-creates a branch someone deleted on the remote.** When a
+  branch's remote copy was deleted but it still tracked it, Push published it
+  again. It now stops and says the branch it tracks is gone.
+- **A repository with no commits yet shows "No commits yet"** in the graph,
+  not "Couldn't load history".
+- **A failed clone says why.** The clone sheet showed git's last line — often
+  a fragment like "and the repository exists." — instead of the reason.
+- **On Windows, repositories are grouped inside the folders they sit in.**
+  The folders you track came from the folder picker with backslashes, and
+  every repository landed outside them.
+- **Release tags show their date.** Annotated tags — most releases — came
+  back with no date.
+- **A reword keeps its `#` lines after the rebase pauses**, a rebase git
+  refuses up front is no longer shown as stopped on conflicts, and Stash &
+  Retry is not offered for a branch or commit git doesn't know.
+- **Merge editor: a conflict is written where it happened**, and an add/add
+  conflict no longer carries an extra blank line on each side.
+- **The Assistant:** cancelling a chat just as its message was sent could
+  crash the app's main process; an Azure OpenAI address ending in `/` before
+  its `?api-version=` produced a broken URL; and the first connection added on
+  a fresh install could leak into later ones.
+
 ### Security
 - **Crash reports no longer carry a commit's subject, or a branch name git
   prints without quotes.** When a rebase, cherry-pick, revert or `git am`

diff --git a/apps/desktop/README.md b/apps/desktop/README.md
@@ -57,7 +57,15 @@ when their secrets are absent.
 
 ## Privacy
 
-No accounts, no usage tracking. During the beta the app sends **anonymous,
-scrubbed crash reports** (on by default; toggle via **Help → Send Anonymous
-Crash Reports**) to the same collector as the extension. Details in
-[PRIVACY.md](PRIVACY.md).
+No accounts, no usage tracking. What the app does send:
+
+- **anonymous, scrubbed crash reports**, on by default (**Help → Send
+  Anonymous Crash Reports** turns them off), to the same collector as the
+  extension;
+- **update checks** to GitHub Releases, which ask before downloading;
+- **commit authors' pictures** from Gravatar (**Settings ▸ Appearance** turns
+  it off) or GitHub;
+- **GitHub requests** while you're signed in, and your diff to the **AI
+  provider** you connect, only when you ask.
+
+Every connection, in full: [PRIVACY.md](PRIVACY.md).
diff --git a/apps/desktop/build/compile-icon.sh b/apps/desktop/build/compile-icon.sh
@@ -29,8 +29,12 @@
 # Apple's grid expects — at dock size the old framing read as a small mark
 # floating in a large empty square.
 #
-# NOTE: build/icon.icns comes from brand/gitstudio-dock-1024.png, NOT from this
-# SVG, so it does not inherit the zoom. It is only used on macOS 11-15.
+# NOTE: build/icon.icns comes from brand/gitstudio-dock-graphite-1024.png — the
+# Graphite tile, which is this icon as macOS 26 draws it (see
+# brand/gitstudio-icon-graphite.svg) — so a closed GitStudio looks the same on
+# 11-15 as on 26, and the same as the running app in the default dark style
+# (Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Dark style; main.ts setDockIcon leaves the bundle's
+# icon alone for Graphite). It is only used on macOS 11-15.
 
 set -e
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
@@ -49,7 +53,7 @@ ISET="$OUT/icon.iconset"; mkdir -p "$ISET"
 python3 - "$ISET" <<'PY'
 import sys
 from PIL import Image
-src = Image.open("../../../brand/gitstudio-dock-1024.png").convert("RGBA")
+src = Image.open("../../../brand/gitstudio-dock-graphite-1024.png").convert("RGBA")
 for n in (16, 32, 128, 256, 512):
     src.resize((n, n), Image.LANCZOS).save(f"{sys.argv[1]}/icon_{n}x{n}.png")
     src.resize((n * 2, n * 2), Image.LANCZOS).save(f"{sys.argv[1]}/icon_{n}x{n}@2x.png")

diff --git a/apps/desktop/build/icon.icns b/apps/desktop/build/icon.icns
diff --git a/apps/desktop/esbuild.js b/apps/desktop/esbuild.js
@@ -163,6 +163,11 @@ function copyStaticAssets() {
     // dockIconPath) so a runtime theme swap never shrinks the icon.
     "brand/gitstudio-dock-1024.png": "dock.png",
     "brand/gitstudio-dock-light-1024.png": "dock-light.png",
+    // Dark style ▸ Graphite (shared/darkStyle.ts): the tile macOS draws for
+    // the closed app, for a dev build's Dock (its bundle icon is Electron's)
+    // and Settings' preview.
+    "brand/gitstudio-dock-graphite-1024.png": "dock-graphite.png",
+    "brand/gitstudio-icon-graphite-512.png": "icon-graphite.png",
     "brand/gitstudio-icon.svg": "brand-icon.svg",
     "brand/gitstudio-icon-light.svg": "brand-icon-light.svg",
     "brand/gitstudio-wordmark-light.svg": "brand-wordmark-light.svg",

diff --git a/apps/desktop/harness/check.mjs b/apps/desktop/harness/check.mjs
@@ -207,6 +207,11 @@ const CASES = [
   ["row-meta-columns-align", "explore~type:git~key:Enter"],
   ["the-dock-reserve-tracks-the-dock", "changes~click:.dock-chevron"],
   ["changing-the-theme-keeps-what-you-typed", "settings"],
+  // Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Dark style: Graphite (default) or Neon, for the
+  // window and the Dock; and a window opened on Neon is Neon throughout.
+  ["the-dark-style-picks-the-window-and-the-dock", "settings"],
+  ["the-neon-style-paints-from-its-tokens", "graph", { extra: "darkstyle=neon" }],
+  ["the-launch-screen-covers-the-start-and-hands-off", "dashboard", { extra: "darkstyle=neon" }],
   ["a-compare-diff-that-fails-says-so", "compare~text:Changed%20files"],
   ["placeholders-fit-their-field", "orgs"],
   ["placeholders-fit-their-field", "branches"],