The personal website was re-launched with the latest updates and content refresh.

A COMMITTED GIT blog was launched as a dedicated space for development notes, updates, and posts.

Update: Unified Mentions, Collaborate with Agents, and Threaded Conversations

This update introduces collaboration with agents directly inside comments for the first time and makes working with teammates feel more consistent and responsive. We’ve unified @-mention autocomplete across agents and teammates so you can trigger agent responses directly from comments, polished agent visuals and behavior, introduced threaded conversations with popouts, and added per-user, per-agent rate limits to keep things reliable at scale.

Update: Private Are.na Channels Loading Fix

Fixed an issue where private Are.na channels you have access to would fail to load correctly inside projects and grids.

Update: Improved Are.na Authorization Flow and Navigation

We've improved the authorization flow to reduce blocking by redirecting users back to their original page after are.na authorization. Added helpful links to API key providers on settings pages and improved navigation with an agents page link in the command launcher. Also fixed missing tooltips on version and column settings tools.

Feature Release: Tools for Agents and Web Search

Agents can now be equipped with powerful tools to perform specific tasks including web searching, analysis, accessing domain-specific knowledge, and creating diagrams. We've integrated Exa and Firecrawl for web search capabilities, added a direct login button for faster access, and improved agent model configuration options.

Feature Release: Image Drag & Drop and Text Tool

Users can now drag and drop images directly into the grid to create blocks, making content creation faster and more intuitive. The new text tool on traces allows users to input, move, and rescale text elements. We've also improved the create block UI, decluttered the trace toolbar, and fixed several styling and hotkey issues.

Improvements: Shape Selection and Transformation

Added support for transforming multiple selected shapes together with move and resize options. Enhanced marquee selection to include shapes fully contained within the selection area, and added visual resize handles and bounding indicators for grouped selections. Updated the color of the last saved indicator for better visibility.

Improvements: Performance Settings and Chaos View Updates

Added a "Performance" section in project and channel management settings with a "Disable grid animations" toggle to improve performance. Settings automatically sync across browser tabs and windows. Chaos view now includes an auto-rotate toggle in settings that persists, defaults to enabled, and syncs across tabs and windows. Per-image rotate handles in Chaos view enable pointer-based manual rotation. Fixed accidental clicks triggering presentation mode immediately after rotating or dragging images.

Feature Release: Block Creation and Grid Refresh

Users can now create blocks directly from Proximity by setting a default channel and uploading images, URLs, text, and other content. Created blocks are automatically added to both Proximity and Are.na. Added grid refresh functionality with a refresh button and Shift+R shortcut that invalidates queries, fetches with bypassCache, and revalidates project pages. New keyboard shortcuts include refresh (Shift+R) and add block (a), with updates to the settings and hotkeys panel. Enhanced error feedback provides clearer information when channel loading encounters errors.

Feature Release: Comment Attachments

Users can now upload, preview, and remove images and files in trace and project comments, enabling richer collaboration and context sharing. This release also fixes local grid loading errors and private channel rendering issues.

Bug Fixes

This release fixes bugs related to content display, layout responsiveness, and grid configuration. Special characters in image titles now render correctly, layout dynamically adapts to panel height adjustments for improved responsiveness, and column configuration can be changed on preview grids without issues.

Feature Release: Channel Creation and UI Updates

Users can now create a new Are.na channel directly while creating a project, streamlining the workflow for setting up new projects. Added a top progress indicator during page navigation to provide visual feedback, and redesigned the settings page layout with improved profile card display and navigation for better usability.

Improvements: Are.na Integration Improvements

Added informational UI prompts that guide users to connect their Are.na account via Settings. Toast notifications now alert users when private channels aren't accessible, and the app now supports accessing private Are.na channels when users are signed in and connected. Improved fallback behavior and error handling for rate-limited Are.na API requests provide a more reliable experience when working with Are.na data.

Improvements: Collaborators and UI Improvements

Added collaborators management with a modal that includes search, add, and remove functionality. Collaborator avatars now display in the action panel for quick visibility. Sort controls have been reorganized with expanded custom ordering options, and various button sizing and spacing adjustments improve UI consistency across the interface. Projects now automatically generate URL-friendly slugs based on project names, and navigation uses these slugs with intelligent fallbacks. Project settings now separately handle privacy level changes for improved reliability.

Feature Release: Print Feature

Added print functionality to easily print out projects. Users can configure print settings including orientation (portrait or landscape), page layout (single-sided or double-sided), and control whether block titles and descriptions appear on the printout.

Feature Release: Channel Preview

Users can now preview linked channels directly in Proximity before adding them to a project. When a block contains a linked channel, users can open and preview the channel's contents within Proximity to evaluate whether it fits their project before committing to add it. Channel clicks now open preview routes, and autosave intelligently switches between local and remote modes based on the current context.

Feature Release: Column Settings and Sorting Improvements

Users now have full control over column layout with manual configuration from 1 to 50 columns or automatic sizing. These preferences persist across sessions, so layouts are automatically restored when returning to projects. Swap mode streamlines image reordering in custom sort view—press 'w' to quickly rearrange blocks.

Sorting has been enhanced with visual feedback, toast notifications, and new options to sort by "Channel" and "Connections". The image info UI now reveals all linked channels where a block appears, providing better context for cross-channel connections. Are.na channel inputs auto-save on blur, and project creation now uses separate quotas for public and private projects, giving users more flexibility in how they organize their work.

Feature Release: Traces and Channel Creation

Traces allows users to capture snapshots of their grid and annotate them with live tools. Users can draw freehand with the pen tool, add geometric shapes, overlay images, and attach comments directly on snapshots.

A new block selection tool enables creating projects from selected blocks. When creating a project, users can configure the name, slug, and privacy level (Public, Closed, or Private). Slugs are automatically generated from project names, and keyboard shortcuts streamline the workflow: press B to toggle selection mode and Enter to create a project. When saving projects created from blocks, corresponding Are.na channels are automatically created.

Launching IRLProximity (Beta)

IRLProximity is a spatial research surface that turns Are.na blocks into programmable, multiplayer grids.

It sustains complexity instead of flattening it. Unlike "second brains" or productivity apps, it is a living interface where ideas are arranged in space, worked with in real time, and cultivated together. IRLProximity transforms collecting into shared memory and living arguments.

IRL Proximity is now available for general beta.

Storybook Improvements: Drag-and-Drop Image Upload

Small improvement on the storybook feature with the addition of a drag-and-drop functionality for uploading your own images.

Onboarding Improvements: Streamlined Experience and Enhanced Guidance

Our latest update enhances the onboarding experience by reducing unnecessary elements and clarifying necessary steps. With these changes, new users can now enjoy a more focused and effective journey through our platform.

• Reduced Onboarding Slides: Surprise slides during onboarding have been minimized to one, accompanied by a helpful video.
• Clear Breakdown of Actions: A new popup guides users through key actions: setting up Routines, creating Themes and Lessons, and exploring Customization options.
• Onboarding Tutorial Reminder: Users are now prompted with a suggestion to access the optional onboarding tutorials for additional support.

PLAYground Enhancements: Streamlined Actions and Improved Stability

In this update, we've focused on enhancing the user experience in PLAYground, particularly around quick actions and fixing various bugs. Here’s what’s new:

• Improved quick action order for easier access to frequently used features.
• Resolved onboarding issues to ensure smoother navigation.
• Fixed bugs affecting logo updates in classrooms and resource creation.

Bug Fixes: Performance Enhancements for Quick Actions

This update addresses a bug that was causing the app to crash when users attempted to create flashcards and storybooks from the quick action modal.

Usage Tracking Enhancements: Improved Observability

In this update, we have made significant improvements to our action and token usage tracking, making it easier to understand how features are utilized. Additionally, we resolved a critical bug that was affecting document creation.

Document Management & Chat Enhancements: Streamlined and User-Friendly

With this update, organiser documents now support instant translation. You can translate any document into a secondary language with a single click, making it easier to work across multilingual contexts. We've also added new export options and improved the chat interface for smoother document management.

Major Features: Enhanced Accessibility with Floating Copilot

We've introduced a new dynamic Floating Nalae Copilot that replaces the previous toggle sidebar, making Nalae much more accessible when working across themes, lessons, the creative studio, and the organiser. Key updates:

• Always-on assistance to brainstorm ideas, plan lessons, or get creative prompts without interrupting your workflow.
• Improved Context-aware guidance that adapts based on your current task, providing relevant suggestions for activities, lesson organization, and theme management.
• A streamlined interface that keeps your workspace uncluttered while maintaining focus.

Major Feature: The Organiser for Effortless Document Creation

We’re excited to unveil the Organiser, a powerful new feature designed to simplify the document creation process for teachers. With this addition, you can now generate essential documents faster than ever by utilizing our collection of ready-made templates across six key categories. These include:

• Parent & Community Communication
• Assessment & Feedback
• Behaviour & Pastoral
• Trips, Clubs & Admin
• Reports & Official Documents
• Reviews

In addition to these templates, teachers have the flexibility to create fully custom documents from scratch using our advanced rich-text editor. The Organiser integrates seamlessly with Nalae Copilot, providing real-time AI assistance to help you refine, improve, and adapt your documents as needed. The editor now supports features like links, tables, images, with more enhancements on the way,

Once your documents are ready, you can easily export them as Word or PDF files, or copy them directly into beautifully formatted emails, making communication with parents and stakeholders effortless.

Curriculum Expansion: Broader Support for Learning

Nalae now features expanded curriculum support, now covering up to KS2 with over 50 new curricula from more than 30 countries.

Feature Update: Enhanced Events and Dashboard Experience

A new event type has been added to support scheduling events outside of lessons such as field trips, school plays, fairs etc. Improvements on the UI for the calendar have also been made to improve event editing.

Classroom Selector UI Update

Small update to the classroom selector to improve user experience and loading speed. Additional optimisations on the UI to improve load speed.

Mobile Support: Access Playground Anywhere

We’re excited to announce that Playground is now fully mobile-friendly! Users can access and interact with essential sections on their smartphones or tablets, ensuring you can manage your tasks and workflows seamlessly while on the go. You can now explore:

• Dashboard
• Settings
• Navigation
• Library
• Journal
• Calendar
• Creative Suite
• Themes
• Lessons
• Inbox
• Chats

Calendar Event Panel Improvements: Enhanced Usability

We’ve made updates to the calendar event panel, replacing the previously buggy onClick feature with a more reliable fixed side panel. These changes aim to improve user interaction and streamline operations within the calendar.

Creative Studio Beta: New Creation Tools for Teachers and Creators

We're excited to launch the Creative Studio Beta, bringing powerful new capabilities to help you create engaging flashcards and interactive storybooks.

Features: PDF Drag and Drop and Updated Table Formatting for Nalae

This release introduces 2 new features: drag and drop support for PDFs and table formatting/export for Nalae.

Drag‑and‑drop support for PDFs—such as worksheets, timetables, curricula, and lesson notes—has been added to Nalae chat, allowing uploaded documents to serve instantly as context. A worksheet from last term can now be dropped into the conversation and adapted for a new topic, or a timetable can be provided so lesson suggestions align with available periods. Currently available in selected regions, rollout to remaining regions is in progress.

The update also introduces structured table formatting in Nalae, enabling expanded or condensed views and one‑click export to CSV or PDF. The feature streamlines creation of marking rubrics and supports other common classroom tables, including reading lists, progress trackers, seating plans, and attendance records.

Features: Discover Age-Appropriate Books with Ease

Excited to announce a new Find Books feature, designed to help enrich themes with relevant and age-appropriate literature. Find and be recommended both fiction and non-fiction books tailored to the theme with 1 click.

Additional bug fixes to resolve issues with copilot chat selection and theme/lesson tools.

User Experience Improvements: Enhanced Stability and Functionality

In this latest update, we resolved minor bugs that have impacted user onboarding and classroom functionality. Hero images from theme and lesson templates now save automatically when scheduled into the calendar. An active classroom is automatically set after onboarding to resolve scheduling issues with routines.

Performance Improvements: Faster and More Responsive Experience

In this update, we made UX updates to significantly optimize page loading and deliver a smoother user experience.

Performance Enhancements: More Reliable and Efficient Experience

This update includes small bug fixes and performance improvements to ensure that your experience is seamless and enjoyable.

UI Improvements: Enhanced Design and Community Engagement

We've made several updates to enhance the user interface and community experience on IRL PLAYground. Here’s what’s new:

• Updated card designs for a modern look
• New expanded view option for community library items

These improvements aim to create a more engaging and visually appealing experience for users.

Onboarding Improvements: Smoother Start for New Users

We've refreshed the onboarding experience to make getting started with IRL PLAYground easier and more intuitive. The new guided setup walks you through each key step, so you can:

• Create your first theme
• Build your first lesson
• Set up your routines
• Connect and sync your calendar

This step-by-step flow helps you get up and running quickly, with clear instructions and easier access to help.

UI Update: Clearer Buttons, Cards & Animated Feedback

We've updated the interface to make buttons and cards stand out more, improving visibility and accessibility throughout the app. You'll also notice new feedback animations that make every interaction feel more responsive and intuitive.

Curriculum Library: Fully Restored & Reliable

We've fixed an issue that caused the community library to appear empty after a recent database migration. The curriculum layer is now fully reconnected, and all community templates are once again available and up-to-date. No data was lost, and we've added extra protections to keep your content safe in the future.

CoPilot: Direct Editing for Themes & Lessons

We've introduced CoPilot—a new way to edit your themes and lessons directly, right where you need them. With Theme CoPilot and Lesson CoPilot, you can make changes instantly and see updates reflected immediately, making your workflow faster and more intuitive.

Audio Input & Planning Tools: Smoother, Smarter Interactions

We've introduced a redesigned audio input interface for Nalae, making it easier to use your mic for natural voice interactions. Planning tools and chat UI have also been updated for a faster, more intuitive experience.

Nalae Brainstorming: Smarter, More Visual Theme Creation

We've introduced a brand new brainstorming interface for Nalae, making it easier and more collaborative to create lesson themes from scratch. Start with a single idea and watch as Nalae helps you expand it into something creative, seasonal, and unique.

Lesson Planner: Always Get a Theme

No more getting stuck if you skip a theme—Nalae will now always help you generate one, so your lesson planning flow never stalls.

IRL PLAYground is now live to the public!
We're excited to announce that anyone can now sign up and experience the new and improved IRL PLAYground platform.

Calendar Widget Improvements: Real-Time Data & Reliable Updates

We've enhanced the calendar widget to ensure it always displays the latest lessons and themes. No more manual refreshes—your updates appear instantly for a smoother, more reliable experience.

New Feature: Export Tools for PDF

We're excited to introduce brand new export tools to PLAYground! Now you can easily take your content offline or share it with others by generating PDFs of your themes and lessons.

Improved Transcription Accuracy

Voice-to-text is now more reliable and precise, thanks to major improvements in our transcription API. Your spoken notes and lessons are captured more accurately, so you can focus on teaching and learning.

Journal UI Improvements: Streamlined Workflow & Smart Tools

We've enhanced the Journal UI to make note-taking and review more organized and efficient. With dedicated pages for writing and reviewing, automatic note categorization, and new export options, managing your journal is easier than ever.

Markdown Table Formatting: Create Rubrics & Structured Content

We've introduced support for table formatting in markdown, making it easier than ever to create and share structured content like rubrics and schedules in PLAYground. This update helps you organize information clearly and export it effortlessly.

Community Library: UI & Workflow Fixes

We've made several improvements to the PLAYground community library to ensure a smoother and more reliable experience. These updates address key UI issues and improve how the library responds to your actions.

Update: PLAYground Issues

Quick Start Modal

• New Feature: Added a quick start modal that appears at the end of onboarding.
• Benefit: Helps new users get oriented and start using PLAYground more efficiently right after onboarding.

Nalae Web Search

• New Tool: Introduced a web search tool for Nalae.
• Benefit: Nalae can now search the web directly, expanding its ability to answer questions and provide up-to-date information.

Drag & Drop File Upload on Dashboard

We've made it easier to upload files for Nalae—just drag and drop your file directly onto the PLAYground dashboard. No more extra steps or menus, so you can get your materials into the system faster and with less hassle.

Lesson Generation: More Specific Titles & Content

Lesson generation has been improved to produce clearer, more targeted lesson titles and content. The system now uses concrete examples to guide the process, ensuring each lesson is relevant and actionable.

Lesson Generation: API Timeout Fix & Prompt Update

We've resolved an issue where generating a lesson in PLAYground could fail due to an API timeout. The lesson generation prompt has also been updated to ensure all new lessons consistently follow the established routine and match the format of existing lessons. These changes make lesson creation smoother and more reliable.

Lesson Deletion Now Removes the Correct Lesson

We've fixed an issue where deleting a lesson from within a theme would sometimes remove the wrong lesson. Previously, the system would always remove the last lesson in the list, regardless of which one you selected. Now, deleting a lesson from a theme works as expected—only the lesson you choose is removed.

Curated Sections in the Community Library

The community library now features curated sections, making it easier to discover recommended themes and lessons. These new sections help highlight high-quality content and provide more focused recommendations for everyone.

Scoped Community Library Viewing

To improve the browsing experience, the library now only displays themes and lessons that are either public or belong to members. For public viewing, custom pages may be used to showcase themes and lessons in the best possible way.

Library Modal Now Shows Associated Lessons

The library theme view modal has been updated to display all lessons linked to the selected theme. This makes it much easier to see and access related content right from the modal.

Improved Search Bar Placement

The search bar in the library has been moved further down for better visibility and usability. It's now easier to spot and use when browsing your library.

Library Refresh Fix After Deletion

Deleting a lesson or theme now refreshes the library view immediately. The update mutation properly invalidates the relevant query, so the UI always stays in sync with the backend.

Enhanced Library Tag Filters

We've added extra tag filters to both the personal and community libraries, making it easier to sort and find the content you want. Now you can quickly filter themes and lessons by more tags for a smoother browsing experience.

"See More" Button in Personal Grid

Browsing your personal library just got easier. A new "See More" button lets you load additional items in your personal grid, so you can explore more content without cluttering the initial view.

Montessori Themes & Lessons

The library now includes a set of Montessori curriculum themes and lesson templates. These provide a ready-made foundation for anyone interested in Montessori-based learning.

Calendar Pill Colours & Usage Tracking

We've made several improvements to the calendar and tracking features to enhance your experience and provide better insights.

Library Share, Usage Page & Lesson Sorting

You can now share items directly from your library with the new share button. A dedicated usage page in billing lets you track your token and action usage. Lesson sorting has also been improved, making it easier to organise your lessons within each theme.