Release notes

What’s new in Pixla Editor

Every version of Pixla Editor, newest first. The same notes appear in the app under Pixla Editor ▸ Check for Updates…. Back to Pixla Editor →

1.1.1 Latest September 10, 2026
· build

Fixed

  • Opening a file could crash the app on launch. In 1.1.0, opening a file (from Finder's Open With, for example) could quit Pixla Editor right away. The new current-line highlight was measuring its line while the editor was still being resized, which kicked off another resize, and so on until the app crashed. The highlight now waits until resizing has finished.
  • A recent project whose folder is gone no longer opens an empty window. Picking one from any recents list (the welcome window, File ▸ Open Recent, the Dock menu, or the project menu in the toolbar) used to open an editor window with a "Failed to open folder" error and nothing in it. Now you get a short "can't be found" message instead, and the entry is removed from the list.
1.1.0 September 9, 2026
· build

Added

  • The file tree loads one folder at a time. Opening a project used to walk every file beneath it — a node_modules or a build/ was read in full, before the window appeared, and held in memory. Folders are now read when you expand them, and a refresh after a create/rename/delete re-reads only what's open (and no longer collapses the tree, which it used to).
  • .git, .svn, .hg and .DS_Store are never listed, whatever the hidden-files setting says. They're bookkeeping rather than content, and .git alone would swamp the tree.
  • Show hidden files — a Display setting that lists dot-files like .env and .gitignore in the tree; off by default (.env was already a highlighted language with no way to open one from the sidebar). It takes effect immediately and is reachable four ways: ⇧⌘. (the Finder's own gesture), View ▸ Show Hidden Files, the eye menu at the top of the file tree, and its right-click menu. Blockquote moves off ⇧⌘. to ⇧⌘9, which completes the ⇧⌘7/⇧⌘8/⇧⌘9 run and follows Slack.
  • Keyboard shortcuts for formatting, and a Format menu that follows the file — the menu now mirrors whichever toolbar is active (HTML actions for an .html file, Markdown for a .md) instead of being Markdown-only and greyed out everywhere else. ⌘B / ⌘I / ⌘U / ⌘K are the macOS standards; ⌥⌘1⌥⌘6 headings follow Pages and Google Docs; ⌘E, ⇧⌘7, ⇧⌘8, ⇧⌘. and ⇧⌘L follow GitHub. Shared actions use the same key in both languages, and each toolbar button's tooltip names its key.
  • Faster toolbar tooltips — the HTML and Markdown formatting toolbars now show their own tooltip chip: it appears in a third of the system delay, and once one is up, moving along the row swaps it instantly. It uses the hover-doc popover's material and border, and still carries the accessibility label.
  • Current-line highlight — a soft band behind the line the caret is on, carried across the gutter with that line's number picked out in semibold. Wrapped lines highlight every visual row; the band steps aside while text is selected. On by default; turn it off in Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Display.

Fixed

  • The file tree follows the disk. Files added, renamed or deleted outside the app — in Finder, in a terminal, by a build or a branch switch — now appear without reopening the folder.
  • Launching by opening a file or folder — a Finder double-click, a drop on the Dock, a sibling app's hand-off — no longer leaves the welcome window sitting behind the thing you opened, and no longer restores your last project on top of it. Opening a document into a running app dismisses it too.
  • The welcome window and the help guide now describe Pixla Editor the way the About panel does — HTML, CSS & JavaScript *and* Swift/Vapor projects.
  • A window with no folder open now says so, and offers to open one, instead of "Open a file to start editing" — advice you can't act on when there's no folder to open a file from. A folder that's still loading shows a spinner rather than an empty state.
  • The sidebar's view picker stays at the top when there's nothing below it. Opening a recent project whose folder has been deleted left the picker floating in the middle of an empty sidebar.
  • The gutter now numbers the empty last line of a file (and the only line of an empty file), which it previously left blank.
  • The last line's number is no longer nudged down into the empty line below it.
  • A wrapped line's number now sits on its first visual row instead of floating to the middle of the wrapped block — matching VS Code, Xcode, Sublime, and Nova.
  • The Editor settings pane is tall enough to reach the bottom of its Display list.
1.0.0 July 31, 2026
· build

First release of Pixla Editor.

Added

  • Native macOS editor for web development — a fast, lightweight editor for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with first-class Swift/Vapor support. Open a folder as a workspace or a single file; changes are written straight to disk, with no project format.
  • Syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, Swift, Markdown, Leaf, YAML, and .env files.
  • Tabbed editing — unsaved dots, ⌘S to save, ⌘W to close, drag to reorder, and a right-click menu (Close, Close Others, Close All, Copy Path, Reveal in Finder).
  • File tree sidebar — create (⌘N), add folders (⇧⌘N), rename, delete, drag-to-move, reveal in Finder, with git status badges.
  • HTML live preview — render side by side with the source, updating as you type, with two-way scroll sync.
  • Emmet and tag tools — expand abbreviations with Tab, auto-close tags, and live tag-pair rename.
  • HTML formatting toolbar — one-click headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, blockquote, lists, links, and tables.
  • Autocomplete — tags, attributes, properties, and values, plus class/id names from your document and href/src/url() path completion.
  • Format Document (⇧⌘F) and Format on Save — prettier-style formatting for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSON.
  • Diagnostics and validation — inline squiggles and gutter markers with error/warning counts in the status bar.
  • Document outline, hover docs, and Jump to Definition (⌃⌘J) — with clickable MDN reference links.
  • CSS color swatches — inline, clickable chips that open a color picker, including inside <style> blocks.
  • Bundled language servers for HTML, CSS, JSON, and JavaScript, with native fallbacks so intelligence always works; Swift editing is backed by SourceKit-LSP.
  • Markdown preview (⌥⌘P), a Markdown formatting toolbar (⌘B/⌘I/⌘K), and Export as HTML.
  • Integrated Git — status badges, per-file and per-hunk staging, commit, push/pull, branch management, history with revert/restore/tag, and browser sign-in (tokens stored only in the Keychain).
  • AI commit messages — generate a message from your staged diff using your own Anthropic API key (optional; key stored in the Keychain).
  • Welcome window and recent projects — an Xcode-style start screen and Dock menu.
  • Pixla family integration — open Pixla Sites exports or Vaporware projects straight from the File menu.
  • Settings — appearance, editor preferences (font/tab size, soft tabs, wrap, line numbers, invisibles), and auto-save.
  • Searchable in-app help and automatic updates (signed and notarized).

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