ChatKeeper Adventure Builds
Currently-licensed users can get early access to new and experimental ChatKeeper versions through Adventure Builds. These are sneak peeks at work in progress that let me share ChatKeeper more frequently and get faster feedback during development. Do you feel adventurous?
ChatKeeper 2026.02.027-adventure - February 8, 2026
Windows .msi (x86_64) macOS .pkg (arm64) macOS .pkg (x86_64) Linux .rpm (x86_64) Linux .deb (x86_64)
Hot on the heels of the first GUI preview, a whole bunch of updates. The Adventure Build approach has immediately proven to me that it’s a great way to get updates out for those willing to experiment. Behind the scenes I’ve been eliminating other points of friction to make these even easier for me to share.
Fixed and Added in This Release:
- On Windows, clicking the “Desktop” icon in a file or folder dialog appeared to do nothing, and generated some error output to the ChatKeeper log. Fixed 2026-01-31.
- On some systems with 4K displays, the application window might be very small. Solution: set the environment variable
JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONSto-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.0(or whatever the appropriate scaling factor is for your system). Solution determined 2026-02-01. - The application icon was inconsistent on some platforms. Rather than the intended light bulb, you may have seen a default black and white Java “Duke” icon, either in menus or while running. Fixed 2026-02-03.
- The “Sync Now” button is now disabled after a successful export in order to reduce confusion. Fixed 2026-02-03.
- If you were prompted by the GUI to install a license, and you then installed one that had already expired, there was no warning. Fixed 2026-02-04.
- Progress images were a little too small. Fixed 2026-02-06.
- Added a padlock indication to the Conversation Selection step when a license is required. Added 2026-02-06.
- Added automatic saving and loading of the GUI options between runs so you don’t have to enter them manually on each run. Added 2026-02-06.
- Added a “Reset” button to restore default options. This seemed necessary after adding the auto-saving of GUI options described above. Added 2026-02-07.
- Added a “Skip this warning until I try a different Adventure Build.” option on the Adventure Build startup dialog. The goal is to inform you, not annoy you 😁. Added 2026-02-07.
- Fixed alignment of icon within Mac installer dialogs (super-minor, I know… but it bugged me.) Fixed 2026-02-08.
Still In Progress
- Implement the “Check for Updates” web page that users can open in their browser from the “Help & More” section of the GUI.
Known Issues (working on them now)
- One report of the GUI saying that nothing needed to be synced because conversations have not been updated despite the “Resync All Conversations” checkbox being checked on the “Advanced” tab. Still trying to reproduce this issue.
If you are currently using the previous Adventure Build…
- Just download via the above links and install. No need to uninstall anything.
If you are currently using version 1.3.0 or earlier…
- Mac users: type
brew remove martian-software-inc/chatkeeper/chatkeeperin a terminal to remove the old version and avoid conflicts. - Everyone else: just delete the old chatkeeper executable.
ChatKeeper 2026.01.178-adventure - January 30, 2026
Windows .msi (x86_64) macOS .pkg (arm64) macOS .pkg (x86_64) Linux .rpm (x86_64) Linux .deb (x86_64)
If the terminal isn’t your preferred environment, you’re in luck: this is the first peek at a GUI version of ChatKeeper! The GUI can do everything that the Command Line Interface (CLI) version can do, and the CLI is still included and fully supported. For the GUI, just use the desktop or menu shortcut, or invoke chatkeeper with no arguments.
Changes since version 1.3.0
- Most obviously, the GUI! Installation will create both a desktop and menu shortcut on your workstation. (Tip: just drag and drop your ChatGPT export into the application.)
- New version numbering scheme. Version numbers are now partially date-based, starting with the year and month in which a release was built. The third number resets each month and increments for every build (including test builds). Adventure builds also get a
-adventuretag at the end. - New platform-specific installers. ChatKeeper now uses native installers instead of straight binary downloads. This is required for GUI support, desktop shortcuts, and…
- Automatic addition to your PATH. Now you can just type
chatkeeperin a terminal no matter where you are - Fixed a failure to convert some conversations. Multimodal text parts containing non-strings were causing errors.
- Added proper handling for “Your Year with ChatGPT” conversations.
Still In Progress
- Implement the “Check for Updates” web page that users can open in their browser from the “Help & More” section of the GUI.
Completed Since This Build
- On Windows, clicking the “Desktop” icon in a file or folder dialog appears to do nothing, and generates some error output to its log. Fixed 2026-01-31.
- On some systems with 4K displays, the application window might be very small. Solution: set the environment variable
JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONSto-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.0(or whatever the appropriate scaling factor is for your system). Solution determined 2026-02-01. - The application icon is inconsistent on some platforms. Rather than the intended light bulb, you may see a default black and white Java “Duke” icon, either in menus or while running. Fixed 2026-02-03.
- Keeping the “Sync Now” button enabled after a successful run is confusing. Fixed 2026-02-03.
- If you are prompted by the GUI to install a license, and you install one that has already expired, there is no warning. Fixed 2026-02-04.
- Progress images are a little too small. Fixed 2026-02-06.
- Added a padlock indication to the Conversation Selection step when a license is required. Added 2026-02-06.
- Save and remember the GUI options between runs so you don’t have to enter them manually on each run. Added 2026-02-06.
- Added a “Reset” button to restore default options. This seems necessary since we’re auto-saving GUI options on each run now. Added 2026-02-07.
- Added a “Skip this warning until I try a different Adventure Build.” option on the Adventure Build startup dialog. The goal is to inform you, not annoy you 😁. Added 2026-02-07.
- Fixed alignment of icon within Mac installer dialogs (super-minor, I know… but it bugged me.) Fixed 2026-02-08.
Known Issues (working on them now)
- One report of the GUI saying that nothing needed to be synced because conversations have not been updated despite the “Resync All Conversations” checkbox being checked on the “Advanced” tab. Still trying to reproduce this issue.
If you are currently using version 1.3.0 or earlier…
- Mac users: type
brew remove martian-software-inc/chatkeeper/chatkeeperin a terminal to remove the old version and avoid conflicts. - Everyone else: just delete the old chatkeeper executable.
