Open WebUI

What this means for you: Open WebUI v0.13.0 adds a Tabs button at the top of a chat. It opens a workspace beside the conversation for files, several terminal sessions, artifacts, previews, voice calls and comments. A browser tab lets you open a website or a local development server next to the chat. A Git panel shows changes when the terminal's folder is a Git repository.

Why it matters: The release notes say the aim is to keep the conversation and its working files together while coding, analyzing data or reviewing generated documents.

How to use it: Click the Tabs button at the top of a chat, then add tabs from the + menu. The Desktop and Browser tabs need an Open Terminal connection with desktop or browser support. Administrators turn on Comments in Admin Settings > General. Side chats (type /side or /btw) need the Allow Side Chat permission, which is off by default.

What this means for you: Open WebUI v0.12.5 gives administrators a Sessions tab in Admin Analytics. It lists each chat with its tokens, responses, errors and time span, and it can be searched and filtered. Notes can now hold several pages and subpages, and a note shows who else has it open.

Why it matters: This follows v0.12.4 on Oct 25, which added a 'Context compacted' line in chats. The Sessions tab adds another way for administrators to see what is happening in chats.

How to use it: Update your self-hosted Open WebUI to v0.12.5. Administrators find Sessions in Admin Analytics, and it needs the setting ENABLE_ADMIN_CHAT_ACCESS turned on. For notes, use the page tabs to add, rename, reorder, move, download and delete pages.

What this means for you: Open WebUI is a chat window you host yourself for AI models. Administrators can now keep skills (saved instructions for the AI) out of every message until the AI needs them. Chats also show a "Context compacted" line where older messages were summarized, and you can open it to read the summary.

How to use it: Administrators turn on "Load selected skills on demand" under Admin Settings > General, or set "ENABLE_SKILL_LAZY_LOADING". It is off by default and needs the built-in Skills tool. The "Context compacted" line appears in chats in v0.12.4.

What this means for you: Members of a direct message or private group channel can start a temporary encrypted chat. Messages are encrypted in the browser and passed through the server without being saved, and the chat clears when you leave or reload.

How to use it: An administrator turns it on under Admin Settings > General > Encrypted channels and grants the new Encrypted Channels permission, which is off by default. Production use needs HTTPS. A member then picks Encrypted Chat in the channel menu, and the others see a Join link.

What this means for you: You can build an agent, which is an AI helper that carries out tasks for you, inside Open WebUI. It can work with your files, run code, and hand back results, all on computers you control instead of someone else's servers.

How to use it: Open WebUI is an early access partner for NVIDIA RTX Spark. Details and setup are in the blog post at openwebui.com/blog/open-webui-and-nvidia-rtx-spark.

What this means for you: Administrators can connect outside apps to Open WebUI channels, the shared chat rooms. Members then type @ and the app's name to get an answer in the channel. Replies can be visible only to the person who asked, or show cards with a title and fields, buttons, links, or a Markdown file to download.

How to use it: An administrator opens Admin Settings > General and turns on Apps. Then they open the new Apps tab, enter the app's HTTPS address, review the permissions it asks for, and choose who may use it. Channel managers add the app with Add Members in the channel info.

What this means for you: When you compare an original text with a proposed revision, a new Keep both button puts both versions of a change into the revision, original first. You no longer have to pick one side. The update also fixes document reading for people running their own MinerU 4.x server, where every document used to fail with a 404 error.

How to use it: Update Open WebUI to v0.12.2. The Compare revision button is in the skill file editor, the prompt editor and the system prompt in the model editor. For MinerU 4.x servers, set a tier (flash, basic, standard or advanced) and enable_ocr in the MinerU parameters. 3.x servers work as before.