# v0.6.0 — Talk to your serial port & PDU: a built-in AI Assistant

## ✨ New features

**Built-in AI Assistant — drive serial & PDU in plain language**
* New **✨ AI Chat** button in the workspace toolbar opens an AI pane. Ask things like *"list the open serial sessions"*, *"attach to COM3, send `help` and show me the reply"*, or *"connect to the PDU and power-cycle outlet 3"* — the assistant calls the right tools for you.
* Whatever the AI sends to a serial port shows up in that terminal tagged `[AI]`, so you always see exactly what it did — no hidden actions.
* Runs entirely against your own machines: it talks to the serial session ETTerms already has open, and to the PDU over SNMP.

**Sits right next to your terminal — like Claude Code / Kiro**
* The AI Chat is a normal workspace pane, so you can use Layout (1×2, 2×2…) to put it side-by-side with a live Serial session — chat on one side, watch the device output on the other.
* Clean transcript layout that matches the terminal: your messages align right, the AI's replies read left, and tool activity stays as quiet gray notes. "Thinking" is folded into the Send button instead of spamming the log.

**Bring your own AI endpoint (nothing baked in)**
* Point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint — a local Ollama, a LiteLLM gateway, your company's gateway, or OpenAI. Set the Base URL and API key once in **Settings → AI Assistant**; leave it blank and the assistant simply stays off.
* Pick the model from a dropdown in the bottom-right of the chat pane — it lists whatever your endpoint offers and switches on the fly, no trip back to Settings. Your choice is remembered.
* Your API key is stored in Windows Credential Manager, never in a settings file — and **no endpoint ships inside the app**, so a copy you hand to a colleague has the assistant disabled by default.

**Safe by design**
* Turning a PDU outlet off or power-cycling always asks you to confirm first — the AI can't cut power on its own. Every tool call is written to the app log.
* This is separate from the existing Serial/PDU MCP servers (Settings → AI MCP), which keep working for external AI CLIs like Claude Code / Kiro.

## 📦 Downloads

| Build | Needs .NET Runtime? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **ETTerms_v0.6.0** (Standard) | ✅ Requires .NET 8 Desktop Runtime | Smaller download |
| **ETTerms_v0.6.0_portable** (Portable) | ❌ Runtime included | Unzip and run anywhere, no admin |

Run `ETTerms v0.6.0.exe`.

## 🔗 Links

* [Architecture](https://github.com/ETWen/ETTerms/blob/main/ARCHITECTURE.md) — see "Built-in AI Assistant (Phase 10)"
* [Serial MCP guide](https://github.com/ETWen/ETTerms/blob/main/docs/serial-mcp-guide.md)

**Full changelog:** [v0.5.0...v0.6.0](https://github.com/ETWen/ETTerms/compare/v0.5.0...v0.6.0)