What's new

0.8.0 6 November 2026

• Done tasks in the Tasks tab have a group of their own for last week, between This week and Earlier. Point at a done task to see the day and time it was done.
• On Linux, pinching a touchpad zooms the map, as on a Mac, rather than the whole window.

0.7.0 30 October 2026

• A smaller vault. The history used to keep a record for every letter typed, which made up most of the vault: a vault of two and a half thousand nodes took 17 MB, nearly all of it history. Typing in a node is now one entry, and a while after the app starts, and daily, it joins the old entries and gives the space back, quietly in the background and without a pause you would notice. In a test on a copy of a real vault, 18 MB became 3.4 MB with nothing lost but the individual letters.
• History. The sidebar has a new History tab (⇧⌘Y) that lists what was changed, newest first, with the time and whether you or an agent did it: "Ticked “Buy seeds”", "Added 3 nodes". Revert puts a step back as it was, and ⌘Z undoes the revert; nodes that have changed since are left alone. Typing in one node counts as one step. The history is kept with the vault.
• Marks for your attention, in three levels. Mark any node orange (needs attention), red (critical) or green (OK, resolved or ready for a look): under Mark in the notes panel, or ⇧⌘A to go round them. A mark shows on the node, and a bell at the top right counts them: an orange badge for what asks something of you, red if any is critical, and a grey one for the green ones, so you can review them all. Open the bell to see the marked nodes, the critical first; a click goes to one. Agents can raise a mark with their reason in the notes, but only you can lower or clear it.
• Agents. AI agents such as Claude Code can read, and where you allow it edit, the maps you share with them. Turn on Settings › Agents, run the command shown there once, then choose Can read or Can edit under Agents in the notes panel of a map's centre. They can add nodes, change titles and notes, tick tasks, move nodes and mark nodes for you, but never delete; what they do is in History, and if Brock is closed when one asks, it opens.
• No more empty nodes. A node with no title and nothing else (no notes, no nodes under it, no icon, not a map) is deleted once you move on from it, however it came to be: pressing Enter or Tab on an empty one, clicking away from a new node, or clearing a title. Nodes left empty by earlier versions go the first time you open the app. It does not show in History or the trash. Tab no longer makes a node under one that has no title yet, as a second Tab pressed by accident did. Pasting onto a node with no title puts what you paste in its place.
• Boards. A map can be drawn in columns, its nodes as headings and what is under them as cards, for a weekly plan or a to-do board: choose Board under Style, or press ⌥⌘5. Drag a card to any column, or move it with ⌥← and ⌥→.
• Timelines. A map can also run along a straight line from its centre, its nodes by turns above and below it: choose Timeline under Style, or press ⌥⌘4. ⌥← and ⌥→ move a node along the line.
• Org charts. Any map can be drawn downwards from its centre, each level in a row, joined by straight lines: select its centre and choose Org chart under Style in the notes panel, or press ⌥⌘3. Each map keeps its own, and the arrow keys, ⌥ with the arrows and dragging follow the new shape.
• Due dates. Any node can have a date: set it under Due in the notes panel, and the × beside it takes it away. The date shows on the node itself and in the Tasks tab, in orange on the day and in red once it has passed, and within a priority the soonest due comes first.

0.6.1 29 October 2026

• Opening or closing the sidebar no longer shifts the map sideways; it stays where it is, and moves only if the sidebar would cover the selected node.
• Pasting text into a note no longer also adds it as a new node on the map.

0.6.0 24 October 2026

• On Windows the header is the title bar. Minimise, maximise and close are at its right, and the menus are under ☰ at its left: rest the pointer on File, Edit, Node, View or Help to open it, or press Alt or F10 to open the menu from the keyboard.
• Drag rows in the outline. Hold the ⠿ at the left of a row and drag it onto another row to put it under that one, or between two to put it there. Escape leaves it where it was.
• In the outline on a Mac, ⌥ and the arrows move rows, as they move nodes on the map. Inside a title they no longer jump by word; ⌃⌘ and the arrows still move rows too.
• The notes show they are being written with one quiet border, in place of two bright boxes one inside the other.

0.5.0 23 October 2026

• Notes are drawn as you write them. Headings, bold, lists, quotes, code and tables look the way they will read while you type, and the marks around them (**, #, > and the like) show only where the cursor is. Tick a task's box right in the notes. M↓ at the top of the notes, or ⌘E, shows the plain Markdown instead. ⌘B and ⌘I make text bold or italic, and Enter carries a list or a quote on to the next line.
• Link files and folders from notes. Drag them from Finder or Explorer onto the notes, or write a file:/// address. A click opens folders, documents, pictures, sound and video in their own apps; anything that might be a program is only shown in Finder or Explorer, so a link can never start one.
• Links in notes can open parts of Brock. [show the tasks](brock:tasks) shows the tasks, and likewise brock:maps, brock:search, brock:settings and brock:trash. The tour uses them to show the way around.
• When an update is offered, What's new opens this list on the website.

0.4.0 22 October 2026

• Brock updates itself. It looks for a newer version now and then and offers it in a corner of the window; nothing is downloaded until you click Install and restart, after everything is saved. Settings can turn the looking off, or look right away.
• Search finds more with less typing. The first letters of a title's words find it: "pp" finds "Product plan". Results are ranked by where they are in the vault, the open map first, and by the nodes you go to most.

0.3.1 22 October 2026

• Long notes no longer spill over the links below them.

0.3.0 22 October 2026

• Pictures of maps. The ⋯ menu exports the open map as a picture, SVG or PNG, or copies it as one to paste elsewhere.
• Tables in notes, written as Markdown tables.
• Side panels can be made wider or narrower by dragging their edge, and closed by dragging it all the way in.
• Long notes no longer push the status bar off the window.

0.2.0 21 October 2026

• A tour on the first start. A new vault opens on a map that shows the way around Brock, one node a feature. Help › Remove the Tour takes it away, and Help › Show the Tour brings it back.
• Tasks and priorities from the notes panel, by mouse, as well as with ⌘T and ⌘1 to ⌘5.
• Done tasks are grouped by when they were done in the Tasks tab, and each group can be cleared on its own.
• Dragging a node near the edge of the window moves the map along.
• The selected node is marked with a box.
• A new icon: the badger.

0.1.0 21 October 2026

The first release.

• Maps inside maps. Any node can become a map of its own, which opens and comes back out of, with breadcrumbs, back and forward.
• Made from the keyboard: Tab and Enter add nodes, typing names them, the arrows move around, and ⌥ with the arrows moves nodes.
• Notes in Markdown, with links to web addresses and to other nodes.
• Tasks, with checkboxes, priorities and a list of them across the vault.
• Search (⌘K), an outline view, colours and icons, links between nodes.
• Everything is saved as you go, with undo, a trash and a copy of the vault every day. Maps export to Markdown, OPML and JSON, and OPML and JSON import.