Roadmap

Where Stow is, what's left to reach — and pass — ArcZip Pro's feature set, and what hasn't been
tested yet. Feature-by-feature status lives in PARITY.md; the design rules every item
must follow are in DESIGN.md.

Last updated 2026-11-02 (Pacific/Honolulu), after the 0.1.3 release, real WeChat acceptance, and the window/menu stability repairs in #266. Tracking: #39; native acceptance: #38.

Approved ArcZip follow-up — 2026-11-06

The user approved the ranked update assessment.
The current GitHub planning index is #39.
Functional implementation for the first wave is in this change, pending merge/release:

Approved P2 backlog: count-based splitting, hover media playback, staged password-library
improvements, multi-password archives, optional common batch-output folder, archive comments,
optional double-click extraction, and evidence-led compression/placement optimization.
P3: release-note discoverability and demand-driven Traditional Chinese localization.
Do not duplicate implemented multiwindow, draft, selected-path stripping or basic Keychain work.

Codex / Grok Bot owns functional behavior and tests. New functional controls remain subject to
Claude Code's visual/motion review. Dedicated VoiceOver acceptance remains deferred.

Where we are

Implemented today: real archives open, browse, preview and extract through a sandboxed 7-Zip
engine; real thumbnails, Space-bar Quick Look, hover previews, column view, back/forward, path bar,
path search with a background index, nested archives, legacy filename encodings; packing to ZIP, 7Z
and TAR variants with levels, encryption, split volumes and Windows-safe names; Finder Quick Look
for 34 archive types, Finder menu, Services, default-app settings, launch at login; disk images
without mounting; app/font/PKG installs with signature checks; Extract All options, conflict
handling and batch extraction; password prompt with retry and an optional Keychain vault. Editing,
Glance, Tray, Settings, onboarding and Simplified Chinese are also built; PARITY.md
distinguishes working features from those still awaiting macOS verification. Open Recent uses real
bookmark history, and Glance now has optional colourful window controls (off by default).

Released: notarized v0.1.3 (592) is the latest published release, from ec480387,
following v0.1.0–v0.1.2. The installed /Applications/Stow.app passed the full notarized-bundle
verification with zero problems; enabled Finder/Quick Look extensions point to that app.
This is current-machine evidence, not a clean-Mac acceptance pass. See
GitHub Releases and RELEASING.md.

Merged after that release: #266 (ec0a2e1) fixes direct document launch via an unnecessary
Welcome window, remembers the last selected Browser/Glance mode, and repairs two actual 0.1.3
crashes (recursive editing-window delegates and Finder menu callback actor isolation).
These repairs are not in v0.1.3. Their 655-test local suite, complete zh-Hans coverage
(1,202 strings), Universal 2 and snapshot CI passed; a new signed artifact and native acceptance
remain in #212/#38. #265 is closed as an implementation fix, not signed-release acceptance.

Current remaining work: signed repaired-build integration and the environment matrix
(#32/#38/#210/#212), Actions acceptance (#161), real system display/motion preference checks
(#104), and media/video delivery (#69). DMG AES (#84), Intel/Rosetta (#144) and dedicated
VoiceOver/#93 remain explicitly deferred. Homebrew own-tap publish is wired
(Beastry/homebrew-tap, brew install --cask Beastry/tap/stow); verify install on a clean Mac after the next published release. Actions extensions / a possible plugin ecosystem
are a demand-driven long-term candidate (#268), not a 1.0 gate.

Goal

Every ArcZip Pro capability, free and open source, with a design that is calmer and clearer:
contextual archive findings with details available on demand, clear packing outcomes and options,
and relevant Actions without overwhelming the file workspace. The full Browser keeps Details
visible; navigation and Actions float over the files. DESIGN.md is the current visual/motion
direction; historical mockups and permanent Checkup-promotion proposals are superseded.

Wave 2 — implemented features and remaining verification

These features are built. The lists describe their scope; pending desktop, layout and integration
checks remain recorded in PARITY.md and Tests not yet conducted below.

E. Editing archives

• Add, delete, replace and rename items in ZIP / 7Z / TAR; Save; undo/redo for every edit.
• Edits are staged; the original is replaced only by an atomic swap after a successful write, with
  rollback on failure.
• Detect the archive changing on disk while edits are pending → Reload or Save a Copy.
• Rename the archive itself (including SMB/NAS shares); keep the browsing position after saving.
• Read-only formats (RAR, DMG, ISO, packages) say so and offer "Extract and repack as ZIP/7Z".
• Verification: round-trip, cancel and fault-injection tests cover preserving the original;
  native ZIP editing/Save/Undo and external-change recovery passed; wider format and SMB/NAS checks remain pending.

F. Glance — the compact window (ArcZip "Mini")

• Opens near the pointer (clamped to the screen), browse and extract in a small window.
• Pin on top; switch Glance ↔ full window keeping folder, selection and history.
• Opening preference: Last Used Window, Full Browser or Glance (#266, merged after v0.1.3).
  Explicit legacy fixed-mode choices are preserved; new/default users remember their last switch.
• Liquid Glass material with a solid fallback for Reduce Transparency.
• Optional red / yellow / green Close, Pin and Open in Full Window controls (#86), in Settings ›
  Glance, off by default. Borderless Glance has its own functional Close/Pin/Expand controls.
• Verification: shared state, Columns selection and native Browser/Glance round trips have evidence.
  #266 adds restart/mode-memory checks; exact signed repaired-build and real display-preference
  acceptance remain open. English/Chinese light/dark snapshots are not that acceptance.

G. Tray in the menu bar (ArcZip "File Box")

• Menu-bar icon; files dropped on it go into the Tray, and held over it bring the Tray out (#180). The local 2026-11-04
  implementation replaces idle hiding with outside-click/application-switch dismissal
  when unpinned; Keep Tray Open prevents it. Related surfaces and active drags are protected.
  See the behavior, validation and ownership brief;
  Claude Code visual/motion review remains pending.
• Folder browsing, previews, multi-select, drag out.
• Actions: Pack, Extract, Collect into a Folder (then rename), Share, Reveal, Send to the main window.
• Border-colour setting.
• Verification: real-file actions are built; drag-in/out still needs a hand-test (see below).

H. Settings, onboarding, updates, translation

• A Settings window hosts Extraction, Installing, File Types and Integration plus General
  (appearance, default view, CPU cores),
  Packing defaults (audience, level, volume size), Hover previews on/off, Glance, Tray, Passwords
  (show by default, for Chinese/Japanese input methods), Advanced (temporary-file usage and
  clean-up, reset all preferences), open-source licence viewer.
• First-run onboarding: what Stow does, file associations, Finder extension, Tray — skippable,
  re-openable from Help.
• Updates with Sparkle (appcast on GitHub Releases); installs wait until running tasks finish.
  Done in #35: Sparkle 2.10 (sandboxed: installer + downloader XPC services, no network
  entitlement), Stow › Check for Updates…, General › Updates, relaunch held while busy, appcast
  signed by scripts/generate-appcast.sh in the Release workflow. Still to test: a real update
  between published releases, including busy-task/relaunch behavior (Tests #21).
• Simplified Chinese localization via String Catalogs; remaining layout checks are tracked below.
• Verification: #162 is closed after Settings presentation, persistence/reset contracts and
  native sidebar/reopening/deep-link checks. The user exercised File Types and observed macOS
  confirmation per type. Exact per-format outcomes/restore and full keyboard navigation remain
  in #38; screenshots cover both languages and themes.

Wave 3 — smaller gaps and going further

Design polish (applies across waves)

Release engineering

Unimplemented features (summary)

Remaining feature and delivery gaps:

• DMG AES password creation (#84), deferred because the sandbox blocks the MediaKit attach path.
• Automated Finder-menu repair: sandbox restrictions leave System Settings and relaunch guidance.
• Official homebrew/homebrew-cask submission (optional; token collision with GNU Stow).

Editing, Glance (including colourful controls), Tray, Settings, onboarding, Simplified Chinese,
Actions customisation, iCloud download handling, Open Recent, nested search, promised-file drops,
DMG creation and the app icon are implemented. Items marked 🧪 in PARITY.md still need
verification; they are not unimplemented features. Clean-Mac Gatekeeper, live Sparkle updates and
other manual checks remain below. Harbor sample files and Try the Sample wiring are on main (#70). Website shots and hover-demo thumbs use those assets. Website shots and walkthrough frames have been refreshed in stages with scripts/website-shots.sh (#69); the browsing shots come from the bundled sample ZIP, so they match Try the Sample. The latest #69 evidence records Browser/Details/Tray retakes in #247; Pack walkthrough refresh after #245 and the full video remain open. Signed builds now exist, so lack of any signed build is no longer the blocker.

Tests not yet conducted

Automated tests cover the engine, packing, extraction, editing, placement/conflicts, signatures,
hand-off tokens, associations logic, browsing, streaming listings, search, encodings, passwords,
recents and settings. CI requires at least 658 reported tests after the test-history isolation follow-up (#273). The following tracks remaining
verification toward 1.0 (including automated coverage whose manual or longer-running counterpart
is still open). Explicitly deferred work is not a merge or release blocker for the current milestone:

Long-term candidates — revisit on demand

Extensible Actions / Shortcuts / optional plugin ecosystem — #268.
The user confirmed this as long-term planning, not immediate implementation or a 1.0 gate.
Possible stages are useful built-in actions, user-configured actions / Shortcuts integration,
a bounded extension interface, and only then a shareable action library or marketplace if
usage warrants it. No runtime, SDK, distribution scheme, schedule or marketplace commitment
has been chosen. Revisit after concrete repeated workflows or developer demand establish a need.
Keep Actions contextual and compact; preserve Stow's archive-write, cancellation and cleanup
contracts. Codex owns functional/security contracts; Claude Code owns visual/motion treatment.