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Unreleased (main)

Status of the main branch. Changes prior to the next official version change will appear here.

  • General:

    • Support serena --version CLI command for displaying the current version #1347
    • Fix: Check for ignored path ignored .git folder only at the top level, not in every subdirectory (Project._is_ignored_relative_path) #1350
    • GetSymbolsOverviewTool: ignored paths were not respected in LSP variant (fix in SolidLanguageServer)
    • Fix: Duplicate comments in re-saved YAML configuration files #1285

  • JetBrains:

    • Move and SafeDelete tools: transform empty string to None (counteracts client errors)

  • Dependencies:

    • pywebview: Switch back to official release (new version 6.2) #1253

  • Language Servers:

    • Fix: clangd capability checks now tolerate valid initialize response shape differences and invalidate cached C++ document symbols when clangd/compile commands context changes #1359
    • Fix: rename_symbol for Vue files now correctly propagates edits to the TypeScript server, enabling cross-file renames in .vue files
    • Fix: Lean4 stale cache — empty document symbol responses (returned before lake build completes) are no longer persisted, preventing symbols from being permanently hidden #1356

v1.1.2 (2026-04-14)

  • General:

    • Support environment variable SERENA_USAGE_REPORTING (set to false to disable usage reporting)
    • Extended the list of always ignored directories (by language servers) with common cases.
    • Improve exposed toolset: With mode switching no longer being a feature, we now fully apply tool exclusions defined by modes when in a single-project context (limiting exposed tools to a minimum)
    • Fix: When scanning for .gitignore files, the presence of files that could not be made relative to the project root would cause the scan to fail. #1317

  • Dashboard:

    • Fix handling of read news, saving each read news entry separately #1338

  • JetBrains:

    • Improve handling of relative_path parameter
      • Improve its documentation to avoid usage errors
      • Replace escaped characters in relative_path with their unescaped counterparts (< and >)
      • FindSymbolTool: Force search_deps=True if relative_path pertains to external dependencies.

  • Language Servers:

    • Add mSL (mIRC Scripting Language) support (custom pygls-based language server; symbols, references, definitions)
    • Fix initialisation issues in Vue language server #1333

v1.1.1 (2026-04-12)

  • General:

    • Enable cert verification for HTTPS request to oraios-software.de #1320

  • JetBrains:

    • JetBrainsRenameTool can now also rename occurrences in comments and text.

  • Language Servers:

    • Fix Dart LSP returning only symbol name as body instead of full method body.

v1.1.0 (2026-04-11)

  • General:

    • Major: Add commands for hooks and documentation of recommended setup. Consider setting up the recommended hooks !
    • Add serena init and serena setup commands
    • Rework installation instructions, switching to releases on pypi for distribution. Please update your mcp startup commands!
    • Add minimal usage data collection on startup (only Serena version, language backend, OS, dashboard enabled status; no personally identifiable information)
    • Fix: git commit id in Serena version strings was incorrect

  • Language Servers:

    • Add support for Haxe via vshaxe/haxe-language-server. Requires Haxe compiler 3.4.0+ and Node.js. Auto-discovered from the vshaxe VSCode extension or configurable via ls_path in ls_specific_settings.
    • Add Crystal language support (uses Crystalline language server)
    • Fix: Reactivation of the same project restarted language servers #1280

  • JetBrains:

    • JetBrainsFindReferencingSymbolTool: Include context lines (when using plugin version 2023.2.15+)

  • Dashboard:

    • Add version display
    • Fix: Dashboard viewer (Windows): Add a parent monitoring thread to ensure termination. Some clients would terminate the MCP server in a way that did not ensure proper termination.
    • Fix: Manual server shutdown triggered by GUI tool/dashboard not cleaning everything up.

v1.0.0 (2026-04-03)

  • General:

    • Add monorepo/multi-language support
      • Project configuration files (project.yml) can now define multiple languages. Auto-detection adds only the most prominent language by default.
      • Additional languages can be conveniently added via the Dashboard while a project is already activated.
    • Add support for querying projects other than the currently active one via new tools QueryProjectTool and ListQueryableProjectsTool. The QueryProjectTool allows Serena tools to be called on other projects.
      • For the LSP backend, calling symbolic tools require a project server to be spawned that will launch the respective language servers
      • For the JetBrains backend, all projects for which IDE instances are open can directly be queried
    • Support overloaded symbols in FindSymbolTool and related tools
      • Name paths of overloaded symbols now include an index (e.g., myOverloadedFunction[2])
      • Responses of the Java language server, which handled this in its own way, are now adapted accordingly, solving several issues related to retrieval problems in Java projects
    • Major extensions to the dashboard, which now serves as a central web interface for Serena
      • View current configuration
      • View news which can be marked as read
      • View the executions, with the possibility to cancel running/scheduled executions
      • View tool usage statistics
      • View and create memories and edit the serena configuration file
      • Log page now has save (downloads a snapshot) and clear (resets log view) buttons alongside the existing copy button
    • Language server backend:
      • New two-tier caching of language server document symbols and considerable performance improvements surrounding symbol retrieval/indexing
      • Allow passing language server-specific settings through ls_specific_settings field (in serena_config.yml)
    • Add the JetBrains language backend as an alternative to language servers
    • Improve management of Serena projects
      • Facilitate project activation based on the current directory (through the --project-from-cwd parameter)
      • Add notion of a "single-project context" (flag single_project), allowing user-defined contexts to behave like the built-in ide-assistant context (where the available tools are restricted to ones required by the active project and project changes are disabled)
      • The location of Serena's project-specific data folder can now be flexibly configured, allowing, in particular, locations outside of the project folder, thus improving support for read-only projects.
      • Add support for project.local.yml for local overrides that should not be versioned
    • Various fixes related to indexing, special paths and determination of ignored paths
    • Memories:
      • Add support for global memories (shared across projects)
      • Add read_only_memory_patterns configuration option
      • Add ignored_memory_patterns configuration option
    • Improved client support, e.g. new mode oaicompat-agent and extensions enhancing OpenAI tool compatibility

  • Tools:

    • Additional symbol meta-information (hover, docstring, quick-info) is now provided as part of find_symbol and related tool responses.
    • Added QueryProjectTool and ListQueryableProjectTool (see above)
    • Added RenameSymbolTool for renaming symbols across the codebase (if LS supports this operation).
    • Replaced ReplaceRegexTool with ReplaceContentTool, which supports both plain text and regex-based replacements (and which requires no escaping in the replacement text, making it more robust)
    • Add JetBrains tools which leverage the corresponding JetBrains language backend through our plugin
    • Decreased TOOL_DEFAULT_MAX_ANSWER_LENGTH to be in accordance with (below) typical max-tokens configurations

  • Language support:

    • Add support for Lean 4 via built-in lean --server with cross-file reference support (requires lean and lake via elan)
    • Add support for OCaml via ocaml-lsp-server with cross-file reference support on OCaml 5.2+ (requires opam; see setup guide)
    • Add Phpactor as alternative PHP language server (specify php_phpactor as language; requires PHP 8.1+)
    • Add support for Fortran via fortls language server (requires pip install fortls)
    • Add partial support for Groovy requires user-provided Groovy language server JAR (see setup guide)
    • Add support for Julia via LanguageServer.jl
    • Add support for Haskell via Haskell Language Server (HLS) with automatic discovery via ghcup, stack, or system PATH; supports both Stack and Cabal projects
    • Add support for Scala via Metals language server (requires some manual setup)
    • Add support for F# via FsAutoComplete/Ionide LSP server.
    • Add support for Elm via @elm-tooling/elm-language-server (automatically downloads if not installed; requires Elm compiler)
    • Add support for Perl via Perl::LanguageServer with LSP integration for .pl, .pm, and .t files
    • Add support for AL (Application Language) for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central development. Requires VS Code AL extension (ms-dynamics-smb.al).
    • Add support for R via the R languageserver package with LSP integration, performance optimizations, and fallback symbol extraction
    • Add support for Zig via ZLS (cross-file references may not fully work on Windows)
    • Add support for Lua via lua-language-server
    • Add support for Nix requires nixd installation (Windows not supported)
    • Add experimental support for YAML via yaml-language-server with LSP integration for .yaml and .yml files
    • Add support for TOML via Taplo language server with automatic binary download, validation, formatting, and schema support for .toml files
    • Dart now officially supported: Dart was always working, but now tests were added, and it is promoted to "officially supported"
    • Rust now uses already installed rustup: The rust-analyzer is no longer bundled with Serena. Instead, it uses the rust-analyzer from your Rust toolchain managed by rustup. This ensures compatibility with your Rust version and eliminates outdated bundled binaries.
    • Kotlin now officially supported: We now use the official Kotlin LS, tests run through and performance is good, even though the LS is in an early development stage.
    • Add support for Erlang experimental, may hang or be slow, uses the recently archived erlang_ls
    • Ruby dual language server support: Added ruby-lsp as the modern primary Ruby language server. Solargraph remains available as an experimental legacy option. ruby-lsp supports both .rb and .erb files, while Solargraph supports .rb files only.
    • Add support for PowerShell via PowerShell Editor Services (PSES). Requires pwsh (PowerShell Core) to be installed and available in PATH. Supports symbol navigation, go-to-definition, and within-file references for .ps1 files.
    • Add support for MATLAB via the official MathWorks MATLAB Language Server. Requires MATLAB R2021b or later and Node.js. Set MATLAB_PATH environment variable or configure matlab_path in ls_specific_settings. Supports .m, .mlx, and .mlapp files with code completion, diagnostics, go-to-definition, find references, document symbols, formatting, and rename.
    • Add support for Pascal via the official Pascal Language Server.
    • C/C++ alternate LS (ccls): Add experimental, opt-in support for ccls as an alternative backend to clangd. Enable via cpp_ccls in project configuration. Requires ccls installed and ideally a compile_commands.json at repo root.
    • Add support for Solidity via the Nomic Foundation @nomicfoundation/solidity-language-server (automatically installed via npm)

v0.1.4 (2025-08-15)

Summary

This likely is the last release before the stable version 1.0.0 which will come together with the jetbrains IDE extension. We release it for users who install Serena from a tag, since the last tag cannot be installed due to a breaking change in the mcp dependency (see #381).

Since the last release, several new languages were supported, and the Serena CLI and configurability were significantly extended. We thank all external contributors who made a lot of the improvements possible!

  • General:

    • Initial instructions no longer need to be loaded by the user
    • Significantly extended CLI
    • Removed replace_regex tool from ide-assistant and codex contexts. The current string replacement tool in Claude Code seems to be sufficiently efficient and is better integrated with the IDE. Users who want to enable replace_regex can do so by customizing the context.

  • Configuration:

    • Simplify customization of modes and contexts, including CLI support.
    • Possibility to customize the system prompt and outputs of simple tools, including CLI support.
    • Possibility to override tool descriptions through the context YAML.
    • Prompt templates are now automatically adapted to the enabled tools.
    • Several tools are now excluded by default, need to be included explicitly.
    • New context for ChatGPT

  • Language servers:

    • Reliably detect language server termination and propagate the respective error all the way back to the tool application, where an unexpected termination is handled by restarting the language server and subsequently retrying the tool application.
    • Add support for Swift
    • Add support for Bash
    • Enhance Solargraph (Ruby) integration
      • Automatic Rails project detection via config/application.rb, Rakefile, and Gemfile analysis
      • Ruby/Rails-specific exclude patterns for improved indexing performance (vendor/, .bundle/, tmp/, log/, coverage/)
      • Enhanced error handling with detailed diagnostics and Ruby manager-specific installation instructions (rbenv, RVM, asdf)
      • Improved LSP capability negotiation and analysis completion detection
      • Better Bundler and Solargraph installation error messages with clear resolution steps

Fixes:

  • Ignore .git in check for ignored paths and improve performance of find_all_non_ignored_files
  • Fix language server startup issues on Windows when using Claude Code (which was due to default shell reconfiguration imposed by Claude Code)
  • Additional wait for initialization in C# language server before requesting references, allowing cross-file references to be found.

v0.1.3 (2025-07-22)

Summary

This is the first release of Serena to pypi. Since the last release, we have greatly improved stability and performance, as well as extended functionality, improved editing tools and included support for several new languages.

  • Reduce the use of asyncio to a minimum, improving stability and reducing the need for workarounds
    • Switch to newly developed fully synchronous LSP library solidlsp (derived from multilspy), removing our fork of multilspy (src/multilspy)
    • Switch from fastapi (which uses asyncio) to Flask in the Serena dashboard
    • The MCP server is the only asyncio-based component now, which resolves cross-component loop contamination, such that process isolation is no longer required. Neither are non-graceful shutdowns on Windows.
  • Improved editing tools: The editing logic was simplified and improved, making it more robust.
    • The "minimal indentation" logic was removed, because LLMs did not understand it.
    • The logic for the insertion of empty lines was improved (mostly controlled by the LLM now)
  • Add a task queue for the agent, which is executed in a separate and thread and
    • allows the language server to be initialized in the background, making the MCP server respond to requests immediately upon startup,
    • ensures that all tool executions are fully synchronized (executed linearly).
  • SearchForPatternTool: Better default, extended parameters and description for restricting the search
  • Language support:
    • Better support for C# by switching from omnisharp to Microsoft's official C# language server.
    • Add support for Clojure, Elixir and Terraform. New language servers for C# and typescript.
    • Experimental language server implementations can now be accessed by users through configuring the language field
  • Configuration:
    • Add option web_dashboard_open_on_launch (allowing the dashboard to be enabled without opening a browser window)
    • Add options record_tool_usage_stats and token_count_estimator
    • Serena config, modes and contexts can now be adjusted from the user's home directory.
    • Extended CLI to help with configuration
  • Dashboard:
    • Displaying tool usage statistics if enabled in the config

Fixes:

  • Fix ExecuteShellCommandTool and GetCurrentConfigTool hanging on Windows
  • Fix project activation by name via --project not working (was broken in previous release)
  • Improve handling of indentation and newlines in symbolic editing tools
  • Fix InsertAfterSymbolTool failing for insertions at the end of a file that did not end with a newline
  • Fix InsertBeforeSymbolTool inserting in the wrong place in the absence of empty lines above the reference symbol
  • Fix ReplaceSymbolBodyTool changing whitespace before/after the symbol
  • Fix repository indexing not following links and catch exceptions during indexing, allowing indexing to continue even if unexpected errors occur for individual files.
  • Fix ImportError in Ruby language server.
  • Fix some issues with gitignore matching and interpreting of regexes in search_for_pattern tool.

2025-06-20

  • Overhaul and major improvement of editing tools! This represents a very important change in Serena. Symbols can now be addressed by their name_path (including nested ones) and we introduced a regex-based replaced tools. We tuned the prompts and tested the new editing mechanism. It is much more reliable, flexible, and at the same time uses fewer tokens. The line-replacement tools are disabled by default and deprecated, we will likely remove them soon.
  • Better multi-project support and zero-config setup: We significantly simplified the config setup, you no longer need to manually create project.yaml for each project. Project activation is now always available. Any project can now be activated by just asking the LLM to do so and passing the path to a repo.
  • Dashboard as web app and possibility to shut down Serena from it (or the old log GUI).
  • Possibility to index your project beforehand, accelerating Serena's tools.
  • Initial prompt for project supported (has to be added manually for the moment)
  • Massive performance improvement of pattern search tool
  • Use process isolation to fix stability issues and deadlocks (see #170). This uses separate process for the MCP server, the Serena agent and the dashboard in order to fix asyncio-related issues.

2025-05-24

  • Important new feature: configurability of mode and context, allowing better integration in a variety of clients. See corresponding section in readme - Serena can now be integrated in IDE assistants in a more productive way. You can now also do things like switching to one-shot planning mode, ask to plan something (which will create a memory), then switch to interactive editing mode in the next conversation and work through the plan read from the memory.
  • Some improvements to prompts.

2025-05-21

Significant improvement in symbol finding!

  • Serena core:
    • FindSymbolTool now can look for symbols by specifying paths to them, not just the symbol name
  • Language Servers:
    • Fixed gopls initialization
    • Symbols retrieved through the symbol tree or through overview methods now are linked to their parents

2025-05-19

  • Serena core:

    • Bugfix in FindSymbolTool (a bug fixed in LS)
    • Fix in ListDirTool: Do not ignore files with extensions not understood by the language server, only skip ignored directories (error introduced in previous version)
    • Merged the two overview tools (for directories and files) into a single one: GetSymbolsOverviewTool
    • One-click setup for Cline enabled
    • SearchForPatternTool can now (optionally) search in the entire project
    • New tool RestartLanguageServerTool for restarting the language server (in case of other sources of editing apart from Serena)
    • Fix CheckOnboardingPerformedTool:
      • Tool description was incompatible with project change
      • Returned result was not as useful as it could be (now added list of memories)

  • Language Servers:

    • Add further file extensions considered by the language servers for Python (.pyi), JavaScript (.jsx) and TypeScript (.tsx, .jsx)
    • Updated multilspy, adding support for Kotlin, Dart and C/C++ and several improvements.
    • Added support for PHP

2025-04-07

Breaking Config Changes: make sure to set ignore_all_files_in_gitignore, remove ignore_dirs and (optionally) set ignore_paths in your project configs. See updated config template

  • Serena core:
    • New tool: FindReferencingCodeSnippets
    • Adjusted prompt in CreateTextFileTool to prevent writing partial content (see here).
    • FindSymbolTool: allow passing a file for restricting search, not just a directory (Gemini was too dumb to pass directories)
    • Native support for gitignore files for configuring files to be ignored by serena. See also in Language Servers section below.
    • Major Feature: Allow Serena to switch between projects (project activation)
      • Add central Serena configuration in serena_config.yml, which
        • contains the list of available projects
        • allows to configure whether project activation is enabled
        • now contains the GUI logging configuration (project configurations no longer do)
      • Add new tools activate_project and get_active_project
      • Providing a project configuration file in the launch parameters is now optional
  • Logging:
    • Improve error reporting in case of initialization failure: open a new GUI log window showing the error or ensure that the existing log window remains visible for some time
  • Language Servers:
    • Fix C# language server initialization issue when the project path contains spaces
    • Native support for gitignore in overview, document-tree and find_references operations. This is an important addition, since previously things like venv and node_modules were scanned and were likely responsible for slowness of tools and even server crashes (presumably due to OOM errors).
  • Agno:
    • Fix Agno reloading mechanism causing failures when initializing the sqlite memory database #8
    • Fix Serena GUI log window not capturing logs after initialization

2025-04-01

Initial public version