SmartHopper 0.2.0-alpha: Your Grasshopper AI Assistant Is (Almost) Here!

[marc-romu]

We're excited to announce SmartHopper 0.2.0-alpha - a major update that makes AI integration in Grasshopper more powerful and easier to use than ever before!

🌟 Introducing the AI Chat Component

The star of this release is the brand new AI Chat component - bringing natural, chat-based interaction to Grasshopper!

• Chat naturally with your AI assistant using a familiar messaging interface
• Future-ready architecture for upcoming superpowers

🎯 Key Benefits

💬 More Natural AI Conversations

• Enjoy a modern chat interface that feels familiar and intuitive
• Format your prompts with Markdown for better clarity (headings, code blocks, lists)
• Message bubbles and proper text wrapping make long conversations easier to follow

⚡ Smarter Context Awareness

• AI now automatically understands your environment (Rhino version, OS)
• Built-in time awareness helps with time-sensitive interactions

🤖 New Modular AI Provider Manager

• Easily switch between MistralAI and OpenAI with our new provider system
• Future-proof architecture lets you add new AI services as they become available
• Simple default provider selection means less configuration time

🛠️ Technical Requirements

• Rhino 8.13
• Windows 10/11
• Valid API keys for MistralAI or OpenAI

⚠️ Important Notes

• This is an alpha release with some features still unstable or subject to change
• The "AI Grasshopper Generate Definitions" feature is coming in a future release
• API keys are required and usage costs apply based on your provider
• Documentation is currently under development

🤝 We Value Your Feedback!

Help shape SmartHopper's future by:

• Sharing your experiences with the new features
• Suggesting improvements at our GitHub repository
• Telling us what AI capabilities would help your workflow most

Thank you for being part of the SmartHopper journey as we continue to revolutionize parametric design with AI!

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Detailed Changes

AI Chat

• Added new AI Chat component (#53)
• Enabled component to run regardless of input changes (#55)
• Added chat-like interaction (#79)
• Prevented UI freezing and made chat window non-blocking (#98)
• Several usability improvements (#117)

Provider System

• Migrated providers to separate projects (#95)
• Added default provider selection (#57)

Context Management

• Enhanced to support multiple simultaneous providers (#107)
• Renamed AI Context to AI File Context (#100)

UI Improvements

• Enhanced SmartHopper tab and About dialog (#59)
• Settings menu using Eto.Forms (#88)
• Settings menu no longer hidden behind windows (#97)
• About menu text and visualization improvements (#115)

Workflows & CI

• Updated GitHub Actions versions (#63)
• Fixed version-badge updating (#80)
• Improved version badge workflow (#89)
• Fixed changelog commit issues (#104, #105)
• Fixed issue insertion logic (#110)

Full Changelog: 0.1.2-alpha...0.2.0-alpha

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