Cortex Code Desktop v1.20.0 release notes

v1.20.0 focuses on a smoother, more reliable chat: your drafts are preserved, streaming feels snappier, MCP servers no longer block you, and a memory crash during long sessions is fixed.

What’s new

  • Refreshed update card: The “ready to install” screen now matches the onboarding card design and includes a “What’s new” link straight to the release notes.

  • Better prompt caching and token efficiency: Improved prompt caching and behind-the-scenes tuning make sessions quicker and more cost-efficient on tokens.

  • Draft messages are preserved: Unsent messages now stick around across model swaps, editor hides, and session switches, so you no longer lose what you were typing.

  • Snappier streaming: The character-by-character fade-in animation is gone, so chat text appears instantly as it streams in.

  • Smoother MCP: The agent responds immediately even while servers are still starting up, so you no longer wait on slow OAuth or handshakes. Servers start on their own, repeated “starting server” messages are deduplicated, and toggling a connector off now keeps it from starting.

Reliability and fixes

  • Chat memory crash fixed: Squashed a renderer leak that could exhaust memory (“system has run out of application memory”) during long editing sessions.
  • Plan cards: Plan cards no longer stack up in the transcript, and a crash in the chat list view when cards materialized late is fixed.
  • Manage Connections radio buttons: The connection radio buttons now render correctly in both light and dark themes.

In case you missed it: v1.19.1

v1.19.1 was an urgent platform release focused on faster, lighter updates, along with a few handy features:

  • Faster, smaller, more reliable updates: About 20% smaller to download, with updates that take seconds instead of minutes on both Mac and Windows.
  • Refreshed update experience: A clean, branded splash screen with a progress bar on both Mac and Windows.
  • Subagent model inherit: Subagents can follow your main chat’s selected model, and the bundled subagents now default to inherit.
  • Clone a repo from the start page: A “Clone repo” option when adding a project.
  • Better Windows and WSL support: Opening projects through WSL now works smoothly across file tools.
  • Smarter Stop: Stopping one query no longer cancels your other running queries.
  • Security and trust: Hardened protections against untrusted project files running code unexpectedly, and Restricted Mode fully respects “Don’t trust” when you add folders.