Changelog

Phase 19 focuses on first-time user experience, discoverability, and accessibility. Adds an Onboarding Wizard, Command Palette, Provider Health Dashboard, improved error handling, and WCAG accessibility improvements across both engines.

Onboarding & Discoverability

• Onboarding Wizard: Guided first-time setup flow that walks new users through plugin installation, API key configuration, and sending their first message
• Command Palette: Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open a searchable command palette for quick access to any tool, setting, or action without navigating menus
• Chat empty state: New users see Quick Start suggestions and example prompts instead of a blank chat window

Provider Health Dashboard

• Replaces API Keys panel: Combined key management with live provider health monitoring, latency tracking, and rate limit visibility
• Status indicators: Real-time connection status, last response time, and remaining quota for each configured provider
• Quick actions: Test, rotate, or reconfigure keys directly from the health dashboard

Error Handling & Safety

• Actionable error messages: Error notifications now include specific suggestions for resolution instead of generic failure messages
• node_batch atomic rollback: Batch operations now fully roll back on partial failure, ensuring no half-completed state changes
• Provider fallback improvements: Smarter automatic fallback when a provider is rate-limited or temporarily unavailable

Accessibility (WCAG)

• Font size scaling: All UI text respects system font size preferences with minimum 14px base size
• Contrast ratios: Updated all text and interactive element colors to meet WCAG AA contrast requirements
• Keyboard navigation: Full keyboard support for all sidebar panels, chat input, and tool browser
• Screen reader labels: Added ARIA labels and tooltips to icon-only buttons across the dashboard

Major update achieving full feature parity for Manny (Unity), introducing the Manny Avatar system, real speech-to-text transcription, 19 new tools across 3 categories, and the Engine Swap cross-engine converter (beta).

Manny Avatar System

• 2D Avatar (Dashboard): Procedural Painter2D rendering — skull dome, fedora, hinged jaw, collar lapels, Art Deco corner accents. MannyYellow glow with state-driven animations
• 3D Avatar (Scene View): Primitive-based avatar (sphere skull, cylinder fedora, cube jaw/collar) with dynamic emissive Standard shader materials and smooth camera following
• 6 states: Idle (slow glow), Thinking (hat tip + gold shimmer), Speaking (jaw synced to TTS amplitude), Recording (red pulse), Transcribing (teal glow), Error (red flash)
• Avatar Manager: Singleton lifecycle with EditorPrefs persistence, show/hide toggle, scale slider (0.5–2.0x)
• SVG fallback: Static icon for non-animated contexts

Speech-to-Text (Unity)

• 2 STT providers: OpenAI Whisper (whisper-1 model, auto language detection) and Azure Speech Services (region-based, configurable language)
• Microphone recording: Unity Microphone API with 16kHz mono WAV output, real-time amplitude visualization
• STT Settings panel: Provider selection, language code, microphone device dropdown, and Test Microphone button
• Full pipeline: Click mic → record → stop → transcribe → text inserted in input field

Unity Tool Parity (57 → 76 tools)

• Planning Tools (7): plan_overview, plan_phases, plan_tasks, plan_assets, plan_platforms, plan_plugins, agent_memory — backed by MannyPlanStore (persistent JSON)
• Dashboard Tools (8): dashboard, feedback, help, settings, provider_config, key_management, cache_management, transaction_history
• Workflow Tools (4): query_project (project-wide search), enhanced_input (Input Action Asset editing), console (log reader), level_management (multi-scene)

Engine Swap (Beta)

• Cross-engine converter: Bidirectional UE5 ↔ Unity project conversion via Intermediate Representation (IR)
• 60+ IR data structures: Actors, components, materials, physics, input, animation, and logic in engine-neutral format
• 7 mapping databases: Shared JSON files for components, types, events, nodes, materials, input, and physics equivalences
• 5 UE5 tools: engineswap_scan_project, engineswap_status, engineswap_export_assets, engineswap_export_materials, engineswap_import_assets
• 2+ Unity tools: engineswap_scan_project, engineswap_import_assets (more export tools in development)
• Session management: Folder watching for incremental re-exports, phase tracking, conversion manifests

Planning Panel Overhaul (UE5)

• Renamed "Agent" to "Planning" across all UE5 UI
• Reduced from 7 to 4 tabs: Overview (live dashboard), Phases, Plans, Assets
• New Overview dashboard: progress bars, metric cards, phase grid with zebra striping
• Visual polish: section headers, styled text, zebra-striped list rows across all tabs

Major update with full text-to-speech system, 3-window UI split, themed thinking animations, per-message speaker buttons, and comprehensive visual polish across both engines.

3-Window Dashboard Split

• Main Dashboard: Chat + 6 sidebar panels (Dashboard, Planning, Actions, Keys, Memory, Feedback) — down from 10
• Creative Studio: Dedicated window for 3D Studio, Image Gen, Audio Gen, and Creative Settings
• Settings Window: Unified settings with General, API Keys, Providers, Creative, STT, TTS, and Data tabs
• All three windows are dockable Nomad tabs (UE5) / EditorWindows (Unity) — arrange like native editor panels
• Tab persistence remembers your last selection per-project between sessions

Text-to-Speech (TTS) System

• 4 TTS providers: Windows SAPI (offline), ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Azure Cognitive Services
• Per-message speaker buttons: Click to speak any assistant message — shows idle, generating, and playing states
• Auto-speak: New responses automatically spoken aloud with queuing for rapid messages
• 5 verbosity levels: Brief (first sentence), Actions (tool summaries), Plan Briefs, Content (minus code), Full
• Voice selection: Per-provider voice picker with 6-8 voices each
• Speech rate & volume: Adjustable 0.5x-2.0x rate, 0-100% volume
• Interrupt on typing: Auto-speak stops instantly when you start typing
• Audio caching: Replaying a message uses cached audio for instant playback
• Fallback provider: If primary TTS fails, automatically tries fallback (e.g., SAPI)

Themed Thinking Verbiage

• Circuit theme (UE5): 25 circuitry-themed thinking phrases like "Routing signals...", "Traversing node graph...", "Compiling blueprints..."
• Manny theme (Unity): 25 noir/Grim Fandango phrases like "Consulting the case files...", "Skulking through the shadows...", "Rattling some bones..."
• Toggle in Settings to switch between themed and default "Thinking..." text
• Displayed in status bar, message bubbles, and thinking dot overlays

Speaking Animations

• Pulsing glow: Message bubble border oscillates with CoreBlue/SunriseGold while speaking
• Waveform bar: 5-bar audio visualizer driven by playback amplitude
• Speaker rings: Expanding concentric circles on the speaker icon during playback
• Avatar pulse (Unity): Manny avatar scales subtly in sync with speech

Speech-to-Text Visual Feedback

• Recording overlay with pulsing red dot, elapsed timer, and cancel button
• Phase indicators: Recording (red), Sending (amber), Transcribing (amber dots), Complete (green checkmark)
• Animated dots during transcription phase (staggered sine-wave pattern)

Planning Panel Expansion

• Expanded from 4 to 7 sub-tabs: Dashboard/Overview, Phases, Tasks, Assets, Platforms, Plugins, DevDocs
• Renamed "Agents" to "Planning" across both engines

Visual Polish

• Custom animation system with fade-in, shimmer, pulse, slide, and hover effects
• Toast notification system for plan updates, Q&A alerts, and progress messages
• Q&A cards: Styled clickable answer options inline in chat with hover effects and selection state
• Message fade-in and scale animations on new messages

The first public release of BlueprintForge, bringing AI-powered automation to both Unreal Engine 5 and Unity with 76+ tools, 10 AI providers, and a Creative Suite for 3D, image, and audio generation.

Core Platform

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with HTTP endpoint for external client connections
• Node.js MCP bridge for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and other MCP clients
• Tool registry with 76+ tools across 4 categories
• Transaction system with full undo support for all tool operations
• Key-value cache for inter-tool data sharing and session persistence
• Asset search with glob patterns and type filtering

ScriptTools / BlueprintTools (26 tools)

• Code generation: Create, modify, and delete C# scripts (Unity) and Blueprint classes (UE5) from natural language
• Roslyn integration (Unity): Syntax-safe code modifications with compile-time validation
• Variable and method management: Add, edit, and remove fields, properties, and methods with attribute support
• Scene management: Spawn, move, and delete GameObjects/Actors with full transform control
• Component system: Add and remove components with initial property configuration
• Prefab management: Create and modify prefabs/Blueprints from scene objects
• Materials: Create materials with render-pipeline-aware shader selection (Built-in, URP, HDRP)
• Input configuration: Set up input actions and bindings (Unity Input System, UE5 Enhanced Input)
• Batch operations: Execute multiple tools in a single atomic transaction
• Scene I/O: Open and save scenes/levels programmatically

AnimTools (6 tools)

• Animator query: Inspect full controller structure including layers, state machines, and parameters
• State machine management: Create and configure state machines with default states
• State management: Add, modify, and remove animation states with speed, mirror, and IK settings
• Transition editing: Create transitions with conditions, duration, exit time, and interruption settings
• Clip and blend tree assignment: Assign clips to states and configure 1D, 2D, and Direct blend trees
• Validation: Detect missing clips, unreachable states, and parameter mismatches with optional auto-fix

AI Router (18+ tools)

• LLM providers: Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), and OpenRouter with automatic model routing
• Image generation: DALL-E and Stable Diffusion with size, style, and quality controls
• Texture generation: Seamless tileable textures with normal, roughness, and metallic map support
• 3D mesh generation: Meshy and Hyper3D with async task management, status polling, and GLB/FBX import
• Audio generation: ElevenLabs for voice/dialogue and Suno for music and sound effects
• Blender MCP: Connect to Blender, execute Python commands, and import/export models between engines
• Provider management: Configuration, status monitoring, cost estimation, model listing, and usage history

Dashboard UI

• BlueprintForge (UE5): Slate UI with 12-tab sidebar, chat-primary layout, and per-session history
• Manny (Unity): UI Toolkit dashboard with 10-panel sidebar, Art Deco theme, and Grim Fandango-inspired aesthetic
• Chat interface with streaming responses and code block rendering
• Plan and Agent mode switching with per-plan sessions
• Tool browser with search and category filtering
• Project plan viewer with phase/task tracking and progress indicators
• AI provider configuration panel with validation and status monitoring
• Memory panel for context management

Platform Support

• Unity: 2022.3 LTS, 2023.2, Unity 6 — Built-in, URP, and HDRP render pipelines
• Unreal Engine: 5.3, 5.4, 5.5
• Operating systems: Windows 10/11, macOS 12+