Patch notes

What changed on SecondPen.ai, newest first. The build number in the editor's footer links here.

1.3.5 (2026-09-24)

• The slash command reworks what is there when that is what you ask. "Fill in the details" typed under an outline now replaces the outline with the filled-in version, instead of adding a second, longer copy below it. With the cursor at the end of the document the whole document is reworked; inside it, the section around the cursor is. New text is still added at the cursor when you ask for something new, and Undo puts the original back.
• The Editor's and the Critic's cards stay with their document. Switch to another document and back, or come back tomorrow, and the cards you had not dealt with are still there, pointed at the same passages.
• Every document opens on the Co-author tab.

  There are some really important reasons to do this. We pilot it for a quarter and then decide.

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit.

  Co-authorEditorCritic1

  Re-reading what changed...Review now

  Line edits you can apply, kept current as you write.
• Your voice has its place on the home page, and its patch note above now plays a short demo.

1.3.4 (2026-09-24)

• Teach the AI your voice from your own writing. Your voice sits at the top of the left rail and in the account menu, apart from any one document. Paste something you wrote, bring it in from a link or a file, and submit it: the AI reads it once and updates your voice profile, and sentences quoted from it travel with every request. A link is read on our side and only its writing is kept, not the menus and footers around it; a Google Doc shared with anyone who has the link works too. Your voice is kept with your account, so it asks you to sign in.
  Your voicePaste something you wrote to startDocumentsProposal: a shared inboxNotes from Tuesday

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit. We would pilot it with the two largest accounts before opening it to everyone.

  Support cannot see which questions repeat.

• The patch notes show a short silent demo under a new feature that changes what you see, starting with this page's own back catalogue.

1.3.3 (2026-09-24)

• Sign in goes straight to Google. The sign-in page now appears only when there is something to say first: an invite code to enter, closed sign-ups, or a sign-in that did not complete.

1.3.2 (2026-09-24)

• The settings gear is gone from the top bar. Settings lives in the account menu, which now opens whether or not you are signed in, and the menu offers Sign in with Google when you are not.
  SecondPen.aiProposal: a shared inboxReport a bugD

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit. We would pilot it with the two largest accounts before opening it to everyone.

• Sign out is one click. No confirmation page in between.
• Try the AI before signing in. A signed-out visitor gets a few free edits a day on the included key, and the footer shows how many are left. When they run out, the editor says so and offers sign in. A visitor with their own Anthropic or OpenRouter key can use it without an account.

1.3.1 (2026-09-24)

• Fixed: "Replace document" and "Insert" from the Co-author could swap block styles when the document started with a heading, turning the reply's first paragraph into a heading. Headings, paragraphs and lists now land as written. Ctrl+Z, or the Undo button after a replace, puts the document back.
• Fixed: when you are not signed in, Send in the Co-author could do nothing. It now says to sign in, with a link, every time. The same goes for the selection box, the slash command and the continue offer.

1.3.0 (2026-09-23)

• One slash command instead of three. Type / on an empty line and say what you want: a request for prose is written at the cursor, a question or a summary is answered by the Co-author, and Enter on the bare slash continues from where you are. A slash mid-sentence, in a path or in a code block stays a slash.

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit. We would pilot it with the two largest accounts before opening it to everyone.

• A Report a bug button sits in the top bar, labelled and easy to find, in place of the small speech-bubble icon. The button that opens and closes the AI panel now shows a sparkles mark.
  SecondPen.aiProposal: a shared inboxReport a bugD

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit. We would pilot it with the two largest accounts before opening it to everyone.

• Fixed: quick edits, including Fix and short instructions typed in the selection box, could fail with "Something went wrong reaching the AI." The request asked the faster model for a setting it does not accept. If the faster model ever declines a request again, the edit now retries on the main model instead of failing.

1.2.2 (2026-09-23)

• The Critic now knows when to stop as well as the Editor does. Each question is weighed for how much answering it would change what a reader takes away, and whether an editor would insist on it; minor ones fold away, and two quiet passes in a row count as ready.

1.2.1 (2026-09-23)

• Fixed: "Download my data" included the version history of documents you had already deleted. That history is now removed with the document, any left over from earlier deletions is cleared before an export and nightly, and the download lists each document's history under the document rather than beside it.

1.2.0 (2026-09-23)

• Live style checks. With a house style set, sentences that break one of its rules get a small dotted underline as you write: passive voice where the active would name who acts, more than three nouns in a row, a gerund where a verb would do, an uncommon word, jargon, an action turned into a noun, a sentence over the style's length, or a breach of your own custom instruction. Click into an underlined sentence to see which rule. Turn it off under Writing style in Settings.
  Simplified Technical English

  Open the valve a quarter turn. Check the gauge before you continue.

  The gauge must be checked by the operator before the pump is started.

• When a newer version of SecondPen.ai is live, the editor offers a reload once you are idle and everything is saved. Reloading brings back the same document, scroll position and cursor.

1.1.0 (2026-09-23)

• The panel now has three tabs. Co-author is the conversation: ask, draft, summarise, suggest a title. Editor is a standing list of line edits you can apply. Critic is a standing list of the hard questions a sceptical reader would ask. Both lists stay current as you write: ten seconds after you pause, what changed is re-read and new cards arrive at the bottom marked new, while the ones already on screen keep their place. A question retires on its own once the document answers it, or mark it addressed. "Keep this updated as I write" on each list turns the refresh off for that document.

  There are some really important reasons to do this. We pilot it for a quarter and then decide.

  One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit.

  Co-authorEditorCritic1

  Re-reading what changed...Review now

  Line edits you can apply, kept current as you write.
• The critic now knows when to stop. Before a review runs, a separate judgement decides whether anything stands between the draft and its abstract that an editor would insist on. If nothing does, the panel says "Ready for its readers" and no edits are produced. "Review anyway" runs the full pass; in that pass, suggestions that are matters of taste fold away and only the ones an editor would insist on stay in view.
• Two passes in a row that turn up nothing beyond minor notes, with little changed since, count as ready without asking again.
• Fixed: deleting the document you had open could leave a blank Untitled document behind, sometimes two. A new blank document is now not saved until you write something in it, and deleting the open one takes you to your most recent other document.

1.0.0 (2026-09-23)

SecondPen.ai launches: a writing tool with an AI in the margin that works toward what you are trying to write, not toward its own idea of good prose.

• The abstract. Above every document, a few sentences on what the piece is for, who will read it, and what finished looks like. Write it or have the AI draft it. Every AI action works toward it.
• Edits where you point. Select any passage and choose Shorten, Expand, Formal, Casual, Fix or Simplify, or type your own instruction. The result replaces the selection in place and undoes in one step. Off-topic requests are declined before they cost anything; a question is sent to the Assistant instead.

  Support answers the same forty questions every week, and each answer lives in whichever inbox happened to receive it.

  The idea is pretty simple, basically. One shared inbox, with saved replies the whole team can edit.

  Pricing for the first year still needs an owner.

  Replaced. One undo puts it back.
• Writing at the cursor. Type / on an empty line for blocks, or for Ask AI to write. When you pause at the end of a paragraph that invites more, a quiet offer to continue appears.
• The margin. The few things most worth a look, three at most: a paragraph that does not serve the abstract, a figure that disagrees with the rest of the document, a claim without support, a hard-to-follow or wordy passage. Hover a mark for the reason, click it to review that paragraph, or step through them from the footer.
• A critic that converges. Line edits and hard questions, judged against the abstract, with a verdict such as "2 things between this and ready". Each review reads only what changed since the last one, and a note you dismiss does not come back. Cards are ranked by how much they matter; the trivial ones fold away.
• The Assistant. Ask about the document, get summaries, outlines and new sections, or have it suggest a title. Answers stay in the thread; edits come back ready to replace the text.
• Your voice. A short note on how you write, learned from what you keep, undo and dismiss, sent with every request so the AI writes like you. Edit it, update it, switch it off or clear it in Settings.
• House style. Simplified Technical English, plain English, or your own instruction, applied to every edit. Em dashes are off unless you allow them.
• Files. Import Word, Markdown and HTML; Word documents get their headings and lists recognised. Export Markdown, HTML, Word or PDF, with a warning when structure may not convert cleanly. Version history on every document.
• Your key or ours. A daily allowance of AI edits is included. Add your own Anthropic or OpenRouter key for unlimited use; keys stay in your browser, and can be set to disappear when it closes.