Neo.mjs v11.16.0 Release Notes

Release Type: Feature Release
Stability: Production-ready (Neural Link: Experimental Preview)
Breaking Changes: None
Upgrade Path: Drop-in replacement for v11.15.0

Connecting the Minds: Neural Link & The Cyberpunk Aesthetic

This release marks a paradigm shift in how Neo.mjs applications interact with the outside world. With the introduction of Neural Link, the App Worker is no longer an isolated island—it can now establish direct, bidirectional communication channels with external AI agents.

To match this futuristic capability, we are also shipping Neo Cyberpunk, a high-contrast, neon-infused theme designed for the next generation of Agentic Interfaces.

✨ Highlights

🧠 Neural Link: The 4th MCP Server (Experimental Preview)

Stability Notice: Neural Link is an Early Proof of Concept. While the core connection architecture is established and verified with E2E tests, the toolset is minimal. Features like full VDOM/VNode tree access, config modification, and blueprint injection are currently in active development. Suitable for architectural exploration only.

We have expanded our AI ecosystem with a fourth Model Context Protocol (MCP) server: neo-neural-link.

Why we built this: While the standard chrome-devtools MCP server is powerful, it is blind to Neo.mjs's multi-threaded architecture. It cannot see inside our App Worker (Dedicated or Shared Workers), where the application logic and state actually live.

Neural Link bridges this gap. It acts as a dedicated WebSocket gateway (port 8081) into the App Worker, giving Agents direct access to the framework's internals—specifically the JSON-based VDOM (next state) and VNode (current live state) trees.

• Bidirectional Remote Method Access (RMA): Agents can now call methods inside the browser via JSON-RPC 2.0.
• The Vision: Self-Evolving Applications: This infrastructure lays the groundwork for a new paradigm where applications are mutable at runtime.
  • Imagine a non-technical user telling an Agent: "Swap the positions of the chart and the grid, and add a summary column to the table."
  • Using Neural Link, the Agent can inspect the component tree, modify reactive configurations, or inject new JSON blueprints to reshape the UI instantly—without a page reload and without touching source code.
• Zero-Config Integration: Enabled simply by setting useAiClient: true in your neo-config.json.
• Performance: The Neo.ai.Client is dynamically loaded only when enabled, ensuring zero overhead for standard applications.
• Standardized Architecture: Like our other servers, it derives its tool shapes directly from an OpenAPI specification, ensuring type safety and predictable behavior for LLMs.

🖥️ AgentOS: The "God View"

We continue to refine the AgentOS Dashboard, leveraging Neo's multi-window capabilities to create a true command center.

• Seamless Drag-to-Popup: You can now drag dashboard widgets (like the Swarm View) outside the main browser window. Crossing the window boundary instantly spawns a new popup window containing the widget, without interrupting the drag operation. This is powered by our enhanced SortZone and Shared Worker architecture.
• Intervention Panel: A dedicated interface for human-in-the-loop agent monitoring.
  • Buffered Grid: Replaced the static HTML template with a fully functional Neo.grid.Container.
  • Data Layer: Backed by a dedicated Intervention model and Interventions store, demonstrating proper architecture for real-time logs.
  • Custom Renderers: Features priority-based cell rendering and formatted timestamps.

🎨 Neo Cyberpunk Theme

A new visual identity designed for the AgentOS. This started as a Proof of Concept for custom app styling but has evolved into a full-fledged framework theme.

• From Hack to Architecture: We moved away from monolithic CSS overrides to a modular, inheritance-based theming architecture. The new theme correctly overrides component variables at the source level (e.g., resources/scss/theme-cyberpunk/grid/Container.scss).
• Aesthetic: Deep Space backgrounds (#0d1117) with Neon Cyan (#00d2ff) and Gold (#f1c40f) accents.
• Interactivity: Glowing borders, neon text effects, and wireframe grid layouts.
• AgentOS Integration: The theme includes specific mappings for AgentOS application views (Viewport.scss, InterventionPanel.scss), connecting application-level semantic variables (like --agent-accent-strategy) to the theme's core palette.
• Component Support: Includes custom styling for Grids (transparent cells, wireframe look), Buttons (Ghost and Secondary variants with neon borders), Panels, and Toolbars.
• Scope & Future: Currently, the theme covers the components used in AgentOS. We invite the community to request or contribute styles for other widgets as they adopt the theme.

🔮 What's Next

v11.17.0-v11.18.0: The Command Center

With Neural Link's foundation in place, we're completing the AgentOS Command Center—your spatial "God View" for managing AI agent swarms:

• Real-time Visualization: Live graph showing active agents and their current tasks
• Thought Stream Windows: Click any agent to open a multi-window view streaming its cognitive process from the Memory Core
• Plan Approval Workflows: Human-in-the-loop controls for strategic agent decisions

Looking Ahead: Runtime UI modification (Phase 4) remains in active research. The Neural Link API is currently in Proof of Concept (PoC) status. Interested in the architecture? Feel free to reach out on GitHub or Discord.

📦 Full Changelog

🎯 New Features

• Neural Link MCP Server: Bidirectional RMA for AI agents via WebSocket bridge (#8001, #8006, #8007)
• Drag-to-Popup Dashboard: Seamless multi-window widget migration (#8018)
• Neo Cyberpunk Theme: New high-contrast visual identity (#8026-#8036)
• Intervention Panel: Dedicated monitoring UI with Buffered Grid (#8024)

🔧 Improvements

• WebSocket: Enhanced connection handling with observable events (#8012)
• SortZone: Refactored for complex layouts and nested drag handles (#7207)
• AgentOS UI: Visual alignment fixes and 20px gutter consistency (#8035, #8036)
• Component.show(): Fixed depth calculation for complex re-renders (#8023)

🛠️ Infrastructure & Refactoring

• Neural Link: Aligned with Memory Core architecture and OpenAPI specs (#8010, #8037)
• Memory Core: Graceful startup without API keys for degraded mode (#7999, #8000)
• IssueSyncer: Fixed path resolution for Antigravity environment (#8017)
• Dependencies: Added useAiClient to DefaultConfig (#8011)

🧪 Testing

• Neural Link: End-to-end Playwright test suite (#8013)
• Testbed: Created dedicated app for Neural Link verification (#8008)

All changes delivered in 1 atomic commit: https://github.com/neomjs/neo/commit/1c51579b648fb4eed68d8df3e517c714fc0be42f