TalkPipe 1.0.2__tar.gz → 1.0.2b1__tar.gz

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/.github/workflows/ci-cd.yml

@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ jobs:
         # --cov-report=term makes the [tool.coverage.report] fail_under floor
         # in pyproject.toml fail this step; xml/html are for Codecov and
         # local inspection.
-        pytest --cov=src --cov-report=term --cov-report=xml --cov-report=html
+        pytest --cov=src --cov=appcenter --cov-report=term --cov-report=xml --cov-report=html
     
     - name: Upload coverage to Codecov
       if: matrix.python-version == '3.11'
@@ -152,6 +152,17 @@ jobs:
         print("all entry points resolve")
         PY
 
+    - name: Run the TalkPipe App Center the way users do
+      run: |
+        # appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py is a single file users run with `uv run`; it
+        # must work from a plain interpreter that has only its one declared
+        # dependency, from any directory, without the talkpipe package.
+        python -m venv .appcenter
+        .appcenter/bin/pip install "textual>=8,<9"
+        cp appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py /tmp/talkpipe_appcenter.py
+        (cd /tmp && TALKPIPE_APPCENTER_OFFLINE=1 UV=/bin/true "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.appcenter/bin/python" talkpipe_appcenter.py list)
+        .appcenter/bin/python /tmp/talkpipe_appcenter.py --version
+
   lockfile-check:
     # uv.lock is a development convenience only -- CI installs with pip on
     # purpose (see README, "Development environment"). This job installs
@@ -208,8 +219,8 @@ jobs:
 
     - name: Run Bandit security scan
       run: |
-        bandit -c pyproject.toml -r src/ -f json -o bandit-report.json
-        bandit -c pyproject.toml -r src/ -f txt
+        bandit -c pyproject.toml -r src/ appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py -f json -o bandit-report.json
+        bandit -c pyproject.toml -r src/ appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py -f txt
 
     - name: Run Safety dependency scan
       run: |
@@ -353,9 +364,9 @@ jobs:
     # blocked behind a skipped job everywhere else. The container image is
     # published independently by that job on github.com.
     needs: [test, lint, package, security-scan]
-    # Version tags only: publishing a release under any other tag would upload
-    # a distribution whose setuptools_scm version came from a tag that is not
-    # one.
+    # Version tags only. The rolling `experimental` release is a container for
+    # assets, not a version: publishing from it would upload a distribution
+    # whose setuptools_scm version came from a tag that is not one.
     if: github.event_name == 'release' && github.event.action == 'published' && startsWith(github.event.release.tag_name, 'v')
 
     steps:
@@ -384,3 +395,70 @@ jobs:
         TWINE_USERNAME: __token__
         TWINE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.PYPI_API_TOKEN }}
       run: twine upload dist/*
+
+  release-assets:
+    # The TalkPipe App Center is one file users run with `uv run <url>`; each
+    # release attaches it, stamped with the tag so a copy can report which
+    # release it came from, plus the two bootstrap scripts. GitHub only: the
+    # upload uses the GitHub token and the releases/latest/download URL.
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    needs: [test, lint, package, security-scan]
+    # Version tags only, so a re-publish of the rolling `experimental` release
+    # cannot stamp its own tag name into the file it then re-attaches.
+    if: github.event_name == 'release' && github.event.action == 'published' && github.server_url == 'https://github.com' && startsWith(github.event.release.tag_name, 'v')
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v7
+
+    - name: Set up Python
+      uses: actions/setup-python@v7
+      with:
+        python-version: '3.11'
+
+    - name: Stamp the release version into the App Center file
+      run: |
+        tag="${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"
+        version="${tag#v}"
+        sed -i "s/^STAMPED_VERSION = \"0.0.0+unknown\"$/STAMPED_VERSION = \"${version}\"/" appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py
+        grep -q "^STAMPED_VERSION = \"${version}\"$" appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py
+        python -m venv .appcenter
+        .appcenter/bin/pip install "textual>=8,<9"
+        reported="$(.appcenter/bin/python appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py --version)"
+        test "$reported" = "talkpipe-appcenter ${version}"
+
+    - name: Attach the App Center and its bootstrap scripts to the release
+      env:
+        GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      run: |
+        gh release upload "${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}" \
+          appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py appcenter/install.sh appcenter/install.ps1 --clobber
+
+    - name: Refresh the rolling experimental channel
+      # `releases/latest/download/` resolves to the newest release GitHub does
+      # not consider a pre-release, so it cannot serve a beta at all. The
+      # `experimental` release is a fixed anchor that always holds the assets of
+      # the newest release of either kind -- deliberately unlike the container
+      # `experimental` tag above, which pre-releases only, so that a beta is not
+      # served forever after a full release supersedes it.
+      #
+      # Assets move; the tag does not. `upload --clobber` replaces the files
+      # without touching the commit the release points at, so nobody's fetched
+      # tags are ever rewritten. That commit is therefore meaningless, which is
+      # what the notes below exist to say.
+      env:
+        GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      run: |
+        tag="${{ github.event.release.tag_name }}"
+        notes="Rolling channel: these assets are from ${tag}."
+        notes="${notes} The \`experimental\` tag itself is a fixed anchor and does not track that release's commit."
+        notes="${notes} See RELEASING.md."
+        gh release view experimental >/dev/null 2>&1 || \
+          gh release create experimental --prerelease \
+            --title "Experimental (rolling)" --notes "${notes}"
+        gh release upload experimental \
+          appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py appcenter/install.sh appcenter/install.ps1 --clobber
+        gh release edit experimental --prerelease --notes "${notes}"
+        reported="$(.appcenter/bin/python appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py --version)"
+        echo "experimental channel now serves ${reported}"

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/AGENTS.md

@@ -52,3 +52,10 @@ TalkPipe is a Python toolkit for creating, testing, and deploying workflows that
 - When creating a new source or segment, add it to the talkpipe.sources or talkpipe.segments entry points in [pyproject.toml](pyproject.toml). Use the update-entry-points skill to generate and apply entry points automatically: `.venv/bin/python .cursor/skills/update-entry-points/scripts/update_entry_points.py`. See [docs/architecture/protocol.md](docs/architecture/protocol.md) for protocol conventions.
 - When writing documentation for segments or sources, do not document the parameters.
 - When writing new sources or segments, use Annotated in the parameter lists to explain the type and purpose of each parameter.
+
+## The TalkPipe App Center (appcenter/)
+- `appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py` is a single file users run with `uv run <url>`; it is **not** part of the `talkpipe` package and has one dependency, Textual (dev extra only, capped at its major). Do not split it into a package, add a dependency, or import talkpipe from it.
+- Every external touchpoint (uv, HTTP, the launcher's helper commands, home directory, platform) is injectable; `appcenter/tests/` never runs the real uv or touches the network (see the fake uv in `appcenter/tests/conftest.py`).
+- Applications need no awareness of the App Center; never ask an app to change for the App Center's sake. The catalog (`appcenter/talkpipe.toml`, embedded in the file, a test checks they match) carries only what PyPI cannot supply: launch command, port, health path, icon, data dirs, external services.
+- The file reports the talkpipe release it shipped with: CI stamps the tag into `STAMPED_VERSION` on release; never edit that line by hand. `appcenter/README.md` is its user documentation.
+- Two delivery channels, because `releases/latest` skips pre-releases: the stable assets, and a rolling `experimental` release CI refreshes on every release (a fixed anchor tag — its assets move, its commit does not, and the release jobs ignore any tag not starting with `v`). Which copy you run and which versions it installs are **independent**: the channel for installs comes from `--experimental` / `TALKPIPE_APPCENTER_CHANNEL`, never from this file's own version, and is recorded per application so a later `uv tool install --upgrade` cannot replace a pre-release with the newest release.

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -2,32 +2,6 @@
 
 ## Unreleased
 
-## 1.0.2 (2026-09-25)
-
-- **`max_tokens` caps the length of an LLM response.** `llmPrompt` and the
-  guided-generation segments built on it (`llmScore`, `llmExtractTerms`,
-  `llmBinaryAnswer`) accept `max_tokens`, as do the Ollama/OpenAI/Anthropic
-  prompt adapters: the most tokens the model may generate per response
-  (output only; prompt tokens do not count). The Ollama adapter's chat path
-  sent only `temperature`, so a model that never emitted a stop token
-  generated until its context window filled; `timeout` fails the pipeline
-  in that case, while `max_tokens` bounds the item. It maps to `num_predict`
-  on Ollama, `max_output_tokens` on the OpenAI Responses API, and
-  `max_tokens` on Anthropic, where it replaces the adapter's 4096 (still the
-  value when unset). The default is `None`, which leaves every request
-  exactly as it was; there is no global config key, the option is
-  per-segment. On reasoning/thinking models the thinking tokens count
-  against the cap, and a truncated response from a guided-generation segment
-  fails schema validation rather than returning a partial result. Prompt
-  adapters that take no `max_tokens` (such as `eliza`, or third-party
-  adapters that predate it) keep working and ignore it.
-- **Removed: the TalkPipe App Center.** The single-file installer previewed in
-  the 1.0.2 betas (`appcenter/`, its release assets, and the rolling
-  `experimental` GitHub release that served them) is gone; it never shipped in
-  a full release. The TalkPipe applications install directly with
-  `uv tool install` — the README lists them with the commands. Textual and
-  pytest-asyncio left the `dev` extra. The `experimental` *container* image
-  tag for pre-releases is unaffected.
 - **Deprecated: omitting the `|` between an input source and the first
   segment.** `INPUT FROM echo[data="1,2"] print` has always parsed as though
   the pipe were there — an accident of the grammar, and an inconsistent one,
@@ -41,6 +15,38 @@
   input source of its own — a fork branch, a fork consumer
   (`fork_name -> print`), or a fragment such as `| print` — still begins with
   a bare segment, and spellings that were errors before are still errors.
+- **An experimental channel for the App Center, so pre-releases are reachable
+  at all.** `releases/latest/download/` resolves to the newest release GitHub
+  does not consider a pre-release, so a beta was not merely hard to get — the
+  documented one-liner returned "Not Found", which uv then ran as Python and
+  reported as `SyntaxError`. Release assets are now also attached to a rolling
+  `experimental` release, refreshed on every release, giving a stable URL that
+  serves the newest one of either kind:
+  `releases/download/experimental/talkpipe_appcenter.py`. The bootstrap scripts
+  take the channel by name — `install.sh --experimental`, or
+  `TALKPIPE_APPCENTER_CHANNEL=experimental` for both scripts, the only
+  mechanism Windows has since a piped `irm | iex` cannot receive arguments.
+
+  Installing pre-release *applications* is a separate choice, so that a
+  released App Center can install betas and a beta one installs releases unless
+  told otherwise: `--experimental` (or `--pre`), before or after the
+  subcommand, passes `--prerelease allow` to uv — which covers the application
+  and its dependencies, since a pre-release application may require a
+  pre-release library. The choice is recorded per application beside the saved
+  catalogs, because uv replays its own recorded settings for `uv tool upgrade`
+  but not for the `uv tool install --upgrade` the App Center runs; without the
+  record, a later upgrade would quietly reinstall the newest release over a
+  pre-release. `--no-experimental` leaves the channel and forgets the record.
+  On that channel the App Center no longer claims to know the latest version,
+  since PyPI's is the newest *release* and not an upgrade target for a
+  pre-release: the row reads `installed (pre-release)`.
+
+- **Fixed: `appcenter/install.sh` exited with status 2 instead of starting the
+  App Center** whenever the process had no controlling terminal — a CI runner, a
+  cron job, a detached session. `/dev/tty` exists and passes a readability test
+  in those cases, so the redirect that reattaches the keyboard for `curl | sh`
+  has to be guarded by actually opening it.
+
 - **Documentation: TalkPipe is provider-neutral, and the docs now say so.**
   Several places read as though Ollama were required — prerequisite lists that
   named only Ollama, a quickstart whose LLM section began "requires
@@ -58,6 +64,29 @@
   `makevectordatabase` / `chatterlang_workbench` help text, and the workbench's
   example scripts name the alternatives too.
 
+- **The TalkPipe App Center** (`appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py`), the part
+  of TalkPipe that installs applications: one file, run with
+  `uv run https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe/releases/latest/download/talkpipe_appcenter.py`,
+  that installs, upgrades, launches, and uninstalls applications with
+  `uv tool install`, each into its own environment, and adds desktop
+  launchers on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It is designed to make the
+  TalkPipe-based applications (TalkPipe Vault, the TalkPipe Writing
+  Assistant, the ChatterLang Workbench) easy to install and ships with a
+  catalog of them, but any pip-installable Python application with a
+  console script can be listed in a catalog of one's own: `--catalog`
+  (before or after the subcommand) uses one for a run, `--remember` or
+  `catalog add` saves it so every later run loads it (`catalog list`,
+  `catalog remove`). An app-store-like terminal screen
+  plus equivalent subcommands (`list`, `info`, `install`, `upgrade`,
+  `uninstall`, `launch`, `stop`, `open`, `shortcut`). Driven by a TOML
+  catalog (`appcenter/talkpipe.toml`, embedded; `--catalog` overlays or
+  replaces it) whose entries name only what PyPI cannot supply; summaries,
+  publishers, homepages, and latest versions come from PyPI at run time.
+  `appcenter/install.sh` and `appcenter/install.ps1` install uv when it is missing
+  and hand over to the App Center. Each GitHub release attaches the file, stamped
+  with the release version, and the two scripts. The library gained no
+  runtime dependency; Textual and pytest-asyncio joined the `dev` extra.
+
 - **`serverag` no longer fails silently.** With no embedding or completion
   model configured — the state a first-time user is in — it exited 1 with
   nothing on stdout or stderr, in both web and `--interactive` mode. The
@@ -101,6 +130,10 @@
     the snippet actually passes, the Python-API example passes the model it
     precaches, and the offline section warns that a model missing from the
     cache fails under `HF_HUB_OFFLINE=1` with an error that does not name it.
+  - The App Center's `uv run <release asset>` commands are documented as
+    needing a release that post-dates the App Center, with the checkout
+    invocation as the alternative; against an older release the URL 404s and
+    uv reports it as a `SyntaxError`.
   - The reference-browser walkthrough showed invented transcripts —
     `filterEmails`, `extractAttachments`, `mongoConnect`, `mongoQuery`,
     `parseEmailHeaders`, and a `readEmail` parameter list the source never
@@ -120,6 +153,8 @@
     `pip install "talkpipe[...]"` extras so they work in zsh, and pointed the
     Python prerequisite at the versions CI actually tests.
 
+## 1.0.2
+
 - `chatterlang_workbench` now exits within a couple of seconds of Ctrl-C even
   while a request is still running. It used to wait for that request to
   finish — a script started from the editor, or the suggestions sidebar's LLM
@@ -133,6 +168,7 @@
   `TreeObject.insert_child`; the floor is a security minimum, and every
   fresh install already resolved above it.
 
+
 ## 1.0.1
 
 - The Anthropic adapter no longer sends the `temperature` parameter. The

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/PKG-INFO

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Metadata-Version: 2.4
 Name: talkpipe
-Version: 1.0.2
+Version: 1.0.2b1
 Summary: Python internal and external DSL for writing generative AI analytics
 Author-email: Travis Bauer <tlbauer@sandia.gov>
 Maintainer-email: Travis Bauer <tlbauer@sandia.gov>
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ Requires-Dist: pytest>=9.0.3; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: pytest-mock; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: pytest-cov>=2.0.0; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: mongomock; extra == "dev"
+Requires-Dist: textual<9,>=8; extra == "dev"
+Requires-Dist: pytest-asyncio>=0.23.0; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: ruff<0.17,>=0.16.3; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: mypy<3,>=2.3; extra == "dev"
 Requires-Dist: pre-commit>=4.0; extra == "dev"
@@ -111,7 +113,12 @@ Entry points for different usage scenarios, from interactive development to prod
 - **[chatterlang_workbench](docs/api-reference/chatterlang-workbench.md)**
   A browser-based IDE for writing, testing, and running ChatterLang scripts: editor with autocomplete and live error checking, real-time execution, pipeline save/load, next-component suggestions, logging, and documentation lookup.
 
-<center><img src="docs/chatterlang_workbench_screenshot.png" width=700 alt="ChatterLang Workbench: pipeline editor with autocomplete, next-component suggestions, and pipeline output"></center>
+<video width="640" height="360" controls>
+  <source src="docs/workbench_demo.mp4" type="video/mp4">
+  Your browser does not support the video tag.
+</video>
+
+  ([workbench demo video](docs/workbench_demo.mp4) — direct link, for renderers that strip the embed above.)
 
 - **[chatterlang_script](docs/api-reference/chatterlang-script.md)**
   Runs ChatterLang scripts from files or directly from the command line, for batch processing and automation.
@@ -131,16 +138,21 @@ Entry points for different usage scenarios, from interactive development to prod
 - **[Container images](docs/guides/container-images.md)**
   Pull release images from GitHub Container Registry (multi-platform on each GitHub release).
 
-- **Applications built on TalkPipe**
-  Install them as standalone commands with [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/), each into its own environment:
-
-  | Application | Install | Run |
-  |---|---|---|
-  | [TalkPipe Vault](https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-vault) — chat with your own documents | `uv tool install talkpipe-vault` | `vault-server` |
-  | [TalkPipe Writing Assistant](https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant) — multi-user writing assistant | `uv tool install talkpipe-writing-assistant` | `writing-assistant` |
-  | ChatterLang Workbench and the other TalkPipe commands | `uv tool install "talkpipe[all]"` | `chatterlang_workbench` |
-
-  `uv tool upgrade <package>` upgrades one, `uv tool uninstall <package>` removes it, and `uv tool update-shell` puts the commands on your `PATH` if they are not found. For a pre-release, add `--prerelease allow` to the install; to go back to the latest release afterwards, reinstall with `--reinstall` (`uv tool install --upgrade` never moves a package backwards).
+- **[TalkPipe App Center](appcenter/README.md)**
+  The part of TalkPipe that installs applications: an app-store-like terminal screen that installs, upgrades, launches, and uninstalls them with [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/), each into its own environment, with desktop launchers. It ships with a catalog of the TalkPipe-based applications (the vault, the writing assistant, the workbench), and works just as well for any pip-installable Python application with a command of its own, listed in a catalog of your own. One file, nothing to install first but uv:
+
+  ```bash
+  uv run https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe/releases/latest/download/talkpipe_appcenter.py
+  ```
+
+  Each release attaches the version-stamped file, so the URL above needs a full
+  release that post-dates the App Center — against an older one, or where the
+  only such release so far is a pre-release, it returns "Not Found" and uv
+  reports that as a `SyntaxError`. Pre-releases are served by the experimental
+  channel instead (`releases/download/experimental/talkpipe_appcenter.py`; see
+  [Channels](appcenter/README.md#channels-stable-and-experimental)). From a
+  checkout of this branch, run the file directly:
+  `uv run appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py`.
 
 ## Quick Start
 

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/README.md

@@ -44,7 +44,12 @@ Entry points for different usage scenarios, from interactive development to prod
 - **[chatterlang_workbench](docs/api-reference/chatterlang-workbench.md)**
   A browser-based IDE for writing, testing, and running ChatterLang scripts: editor with autocomplete and live error checking, real-time execution, pipeline save/load, next-component suggestions, logging, and documentation lookup.
 
-<center><img src="docs/chatterlang_workbench_screenshot.png" width=700 alt="ChatterLang Workbench: pipeline editor with autocomplete, next-component suggestions, and pipeline output"></center>
+<video width="640" height="360" controls>
+  <source src="docs/workbench_demo.mp4" type="video/mp4">
+  Your browser does not support the video tag.
+</video>
+
+  ([workbench demo video](docs/workbench_demo.mp4) — direct link, for renderers that strip the embed above.)
 
 - **[chatterlang_script](docs/api-reference/chatterlang-script.md)**
   Runs ChatterLang scripts from files or directly from the command line, for batch processing and automation.
@@ -64,16 +69,21 @@ Entry points for different usage scenarios, from interactive development to prod
 - **[Container images](docs/guides/container-images.md)**
   Pull release images from GitHub Container Registry (multi-platform on each GitHub release).
 
-- **Applications built on TalkPipe**
-  Install them as standalone commands with [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/), each into its own environment:
-
-  | Application | Install | Run |
-  |---|---|---|
-  | [TalkPipe Vault](https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-vault) — chat with your own documents | `uv tool install talkpipe-vault` | `vault-server` |
-  | [TalkPipe Writing Assistant](https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant) — multi-user writing assistant | `uv tool install talkpipe-writing-assistant` | `writing-assistant` |
-  | ChatterLang Workbench and the other TalkPipe commands | `uv tool install "talkpipe[all]"` | `chatterlang_workbench` |
-
-  `uv tool upgrade <package>` upgrades one, `uv tool uninstall <package>` removes it, and `uv tool update-shell` puts the commands on your `PATH` if they are not found. For a pre-release, add `--prerelease allow` to the install; to go back to the latest release afterwards, reinstall with `--reinstall` (`uv tool install --upgrade` never moves a package backwards).
+- **[TalkPipe App Center](appcenter/README.md)**
+  The part of TalkPipe that installs applications: an app-store-like terminal screen that installs, upgrades, launches, and uninstalls them with [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/), each into its own environment, with desktop launchers. It ships with a catalog of the TalkPipe-based applications (the vault, the writing assistant, the workbench), and works just as well for any pip-installable Python application with a command of its own, listed in a catalog of your own. One file, nothing to install first but uv:
+
+  ```bash
+  uv run https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe/releases/latest/download/talkpipe_appcenter.py
+  ```
+
+  Each release attaches the version-stamped file, so the URL above needs a full
+  release that post-dates the App Center — against an older one, or where the
+  only such release so far is a pre-release, it returns "Not Found" and uv
+  reports that as a `SyntaxError`. Pre-releases are served by the experimental
+  channel instead (`releases/download/experimental/talkpipe_appcenter.py`; see
+  [Channels](appcenter/README.md#channels-stable-and-experimental)). From a
+  checkout of this branch, run the file directly:
+  `uv run appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py`.
 
 ## Quick Start
 

{talkpipe-1.0.2 → talkpipe-1.0.2b1}/RELEASING.md

@@ -48,10 +48,29 @@ history and only made version sorting harder. Semantic versioning rules
    sdist and wheel, `twine check`s them, and uploads to PyPI with the
    `PYPI_API_TOKEN` repository secret. Mark betas and release candidates as
    pre-releases. Watch the run finish; the package job and the container build
-   (GitHub only) run in the same workflow. `publish-package` ignores any tag
-   that does not start with `v`, so a stray publish cannot upload to PyPI.
+   (GitHub only) run in the same workflow, and so does `release-assets`
+   (GitHub only), which stamps the tag into `appcenter/talkpipe_appcenter.py` and
+   attaches it with `appcenter/install.sh` and `appcenter/install.ps1` to the
+   release. Those per-tag assets are what
+   `releases/download/vX.Y.Z/` serves, and for a full release they are what
+   `releases/latest/download/` serves too — but **`latest` skips pre-releases**,
+   so a beta is reachable only by its own tag or through the rolling
+   `experimental` release, which the same job refreshes on every release.
+   `experimental` is a fixed anchor tag managed only by CI: its assets move,
+   its commit does not, and it is never hand-published (the release jobs ignore
+   any tag that does not start with `v`, so a stray publish cannot upload to
+   PyPI).
 5. **Verify** with a fresh environment: `pip install talkpipe==X.Y.Z`,
-   `python -c "import talkpipe; print(talkpipe.__version__)"`.
+   `python -c "import talkpipe; print(talkpipe.__version__)"`, and
+   `uv run https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe/releases/download/vX.Y.Z/talkpipe_appcenter.py --version`,
+   which must print `talkpipe-appcenter X.Y.Z`. Check the same of the rolling
+   channel, which should now report this release either way:
+   `uv run https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe/releases/download/experimental/talkpipe_appcenter.py --version`.
+   For a pre-release, also confirm that `releases/latest/download/` still
+   serves the previous full release. Before a *final* release, also
+   try the App Center by hand (`appcenter/README.md`, "Development") on a Linux
+   desktop; its macOS and Windows launcher code paths are unit-tested only,
+   so try those there when a machine is at hand.
 
 Nothing is bumped afterwards; the next commit on `main` reports itself as
 `X.Y.(Z+1).devN` automatically.
@@ -59,6 +78,6 @@ Nothing is bumped afterwards; the next commit on `main` reports itself as
 ## Downstream
 
 The consumers in this suite pin a floor on talkpipe (`talkpipe_vault`,
-`talkpipe-agents`, `talkpipe-writing-assistant`, `local-m2v`).
+`talkpipe-agents`, `talkpipe-writing-assistant`, `privateer`, `local-m2v`).
 When a release adds API they rely on, or when the major version changes,
 raise their floors in a follow-up merge request in each repo.