CowAgent

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📁 Artifacts

A new Artifacts page brings together the files created in your conversations, in both the Web console and the desktop client:

• Automatic collection: documents, web pages, images, and videos your Agents create show up in Artifacts automatically, on one timeline across all Agents.
• Preview and trace back: filter by type or Agent, search, preview in place, and jump back to the conversation that produced a file (Thanks @rudycelekli #3732).
• Pin and manage: pin, rename, or remove artifacts; a file card in a conversation takes you straight to it in Artifacts. The Artifacts page is hidden by default and can be turned on in the menu editor.

Related docs: Web Console - Artifacts

🧭 Custom Menu & Console Improvements

• Custom menu: customize the groups, order, names, icons, and visibility of menu entries in the Web console and desktop client, with one shared configuration; artifacts and web links can be added as menu entries. See Custom Menu.
• Token usage: each reply shows the tokens actually used in that turn, including cache hits. Thanks @Harbor404 (#3440)
• Mermaid diagrams: Mermaid code blocks can switch to a rendered diagram, with zoom and full screen. Thanks @akushonkamen (#3620)
• Faster long sessions: long sessions with many tool calls open faster.
• Fixes: new session titles are no longer lost, and session actions on the default Agent no longer fail (Thanks @6vision #3625, #3617); settings saved together now all take effect, and workspace files are saved under the Agent they belong to (Thanks @aniruddhaadak80 #3454, #3488).
• Collapsible sidebar: the Web console sidebar can collapse into an icon rail.

🔌 Open Agent Chat API

Agents are now available through a standard chat API, so you can connect third-party clients or call an Agent directly from your own systems:

• Switch and key: turn the API on and generate an API key in one click on the Config page; the key is kept when the API is turned off. It can also be enabled through the config file or environment variables (Thanks @AaronZ345 #3068, @Bdysj #3342).
• Agent and model selection: choose the Agent with agent_id and the model with model; without a model, the Agent's default model is used.
• Multi-turn conversations: by default the caller sends the full message history; with a conversation_id, the server keeps the history and only the latest message needs to be sent.
• Complete output: streaming and non-streaming responses, including reasoning, token usage, and the tool call trace (Thanks @AaronZ345 #3068, @c020627 #3545, #3588).

Related docs: Chat API

📐 Prompt Caching & Context Cost

• Claude prompt caching: the system prompt, tool definitions, and conversation prefix are cached, greatly improving cache hit rates and cutting token cost and latency. The cache lifetime is configurable via claude_cache_ttl.
• Headroom after trimming: trimming the context now leaves headroom, so the prefix stays unchanged for the next several turns and long sessions keep hitting the cache.
• Budget changes apply immediately: changes to the context budget and maximum steps apply to running Agents right away, without clearing the session.
• **Tool records kept i

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🧩 Capabilities Center

The former Skills menu is now Capabilities, a single place in the Web console and desktop client to manage built-in tools, MCP tools, and skills:

• Skill installation: install from Cow Skill Hub, GitHub, or ClawHub, or upload an archive, a SKILL.md, or a folder. Every skill is previewed first and only installed after you confirm.
• MCP configuration: add, edit, and remove MCP servers in the UI, covering the stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP transports. Both form and JSON editing are available, and you can paste one or more mcpServers entries directly. Saving checks the connection and lists the server's tools; changes take effect on the next message without a restart. Thanks @tsumon (#3155)
• Tool retrieval diagnostics: see how MCP tools were ranked and why retrieval fell back during a conversation, making it easier to find out why a tool was not picked. Thanks @zhongjunqi7657 (#3165)

Related docs: MCP Tools, Installing Skills

🤝 Multi-Agent Collaboration

• Task handoff as separate messages: when an Agent delegates a task to a team member, the member's reply streams as its own message under its own name and avatar, on both the Web console and the desktop client.
• Team session management: clearing context now clears it for every participant in a team session; a group chat shows its members in the session list before the first message is sent; the @ picker can select the Agent that owns the session.
• Data isolation: skills, uploaded file previews, and website directories are now scoped per Agent.
• Fixes:
  • Fixed an Agent answering on behalf of a team member, and an Agent's own tool calls disappearing after a refresh.
  • Fixed deleted Agents lingering in member lists, which left direct chats unable to use tools (Thanks @Frank-zhu0404 #3234).
  • Fixed the default Agent not being resolved when building team members and cleaning up channel teams (Thanks @c020627 #3205).
  • Fixed some endpoints failing to locate the Agent when the parameter was sent only in the request body (Thanks @c020627 #3177).

🖥 Console Upgrades

• Frontend and backend rebuild: the Web console's frontend pages and backend API controllers are split into feature modules, replacing the oversized single files that had become hard to maintain. Frontend assets load per module and are cached, so a refresh no longer downloads everything again. Each page has its own URL (such as /agents, /settings, /scheduler), browser back and forward work, a refresh stays on the current page, and the old /chat address redirects automatically. Thanks @zkjqd (#3167, #3172)
• Message navigator: jump quickly to earlier questions in a session. The Web console opens a question list from a button in the header, and the desktop client adds a navigation rail on the right.
• One-click update: the version menu in the sidebar checks for and applies source updates in one click. User data is backed up before updating, and a failed update does not affect the running service. Thanks @tsumon (#3154)
• Reply status: stopped, interrupted, and in-progress replies are labeled accordingly. A reply cut off by a service restart shows a clear notice, and after a refresh you can keep following a reply that is still being generated.

🧠 Memory & Knowledge Base

• Reranking: memory retrieval supports an optional rerank model that re-scores recalled results for better precisio

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This is a refinement release for the 2.1.8 multi-Agent version, building on it with a series of improvements and fixes across multi-Agent collaboration, model capabilities, and channel integration.

🤝 Multi-Agent Experience

Further polish around using multi-Agent teams:

• Multi-Agent session selection: the in-session multi-Agent selector adds a lead-Agent marker that clearly separates the lead Agent from members, while simplifying the view in single-Agent setups.
• Collaboration fix: fixed failures when delegating tasks from non-lead Agents in multi-Agent group chats, now correctly identifying member Agents.
• Member Agent image rendering: fixed images generated by non-default Agents failing to render on the Web console and desktop client.
• Group-chat entry: the desktop Team page adds a group-chat entry, so you can start a group session directly from an Agent team.

📡 Channel Integration Fixes

Fixed key issues along the console's channel start/stop path for more stable channel integration:

• Desktop channel integration fix: fixed channels failing to start in the desktop client.
• Channel stop fix: fixed a lost app_module lookup during the channel stop flow that caused disconnect errors (a regression introduced by #3141).
• QQ channel reconnection: fixed the QQ channel not reconnecting after a silent WebSocket disconnect; it now reconnects automatically.

🤖 Model Capabilities

• Model list configuration: model providers can now configure a model list, setting the model name, model type, context window, max output, and more. Thanks @alanyz106 (#3146)

• Multiple fallback models: when the primary model fails, CowAgent now tries an ordered fallback chain in turn, replacing the previous single fallback model. Thanks @alanyz106 (#3125)

• Fallback credential fix: fixed credential resolution during fallback, which now resolves credentials by the provider actually routed to rather than the global configuration. Thanks @alanyz106 (#3142)
• New image models: added gpt-image-2.5-flare and gpt-image-2.5-sunburst. Thanks @cowagent (#3140)

🛠 Improvements & Fixes

• Config file tolerance: tolerate a UTF-8 BOM in config.json, and stop the pre-login 401 polling to avoid invalid requests before sign-in.
• Image generation fixes:
  • fixed Baidu Ernie IMAGE_CREATE crashing when unsupported, now returning an error message instead (Thanks @c020627 #3144).
  • fixed Midjourney reply retries not recursing into the send logic correctly (Thanks @c020627 #3151).
• Voice fix: fixed silk voice transcoding by first decoding silk into a standalone wav and then re-encoding to mp3, avoiding overwriting the source file (Thanks @c020627 #3149).
• Media URL classification: determine media type from the resolved URL path, fixing misclassified media links (Thanks @c020627 #3150).
• Baidu Translate: fixed Baidu Translate not reporting the API error after all retries failed (Thanks @c020627 #3147).
• Background command detection: restrict run_in_background to long-running processes, preventing tasks from being marked complete too early.
• Tool output truncation: report the byte-based truncation reason correctly when kept lines are partially truncated (Thanks @c020627 #3137).
• Web mobile layout:

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🤝 Multi-Agent Teams

CowAgent is now a multi-Agent framework. You can create multiple Agents, each with its own role, to form a team and collaborate on complex tasks within a single session. Supported on the Web console, the desktop client, and channel integrations:

• Team management: create and maintain Agents, configure name, responsibilities, default model, skills, and knowledge, and copy the setup from an existing Agent.
• Resource isolation: each Agent has its own workspace, memory, and sessions; the knowledge base and skills can be shared or kept independent.

• Group collaboration: add multiple Agents to one session and use @ to direct a message to a specific member, with each Agent using its own configured model.
• Task delegation: a group chat has a lead Agent that can hand a task off to the member best suited for it based on their responsibilities, with support for multi-level delegation and configurable scope, depth, and timeout.

• Multiple channel instances: an IM channel of the same type can now run multiple instances, each bound to a single Agent or an Agent team. Supported on WeChat, WeCom smart bots, Feishu, DingTalk, QQ, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and more.

Thanks @AaronZ345 (#2975, #2973), @zkjqd (#3096), @cowagent (#3118)

Docs: Agent Teams

⏰ Scheduled Task Upgrades

Scheduled tasks can now be created and managed from the console, with channel recipients and execution records added:

• Manual task creation: create, edit, and run tasks directly on the tasks page, and select the channel instance and recipient.
• Channel recipient management: maintain trusted recipients per channel instance, so a task can be delivered to a designated recipient rather than only the channel where it was created. Thanks @dajiaohuang (#3043)
• Execution records: a new execution-records page lets you review the history list and the details of each run. Thanks @mengluo04 (#3107)
• Concurrent-update fix: fixed tasks being lost on concurrent updates (Thanks @Whxuan0701 #3062).

📊 Context-Usage Visualization

Context consumption is now visible and controllable, making token cost easier to manage:

• Context-usage view: a ring view replaces the previous clear-context button and shows a full breakdown of what makes up the context.
• Context actions: below the ring view you can trigger smart compaction, clear the context, or set the maximum context size.
• Context calculation: the usage breakdown is derived automatically from the model's reported usage, with agent_max_context_tokens available as a user-configurable cost cap.

Thanks @chimyves (#3087), @sufan721 (#3079)

🤖 Model Capabilities

• New models: added deepseek-flash (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash), gpt-6-astra, claude-fable-5-1, qwen3.8-flash, glm-5.3-flash, gemini-3.8-flash, and the vision model deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp (Thanks @a1094174619 #3094).
• Model fallback: configure a fallback model under Model Config > Primary Model, which ta