CURATOR Release History

Changelog

A complete end-user record of improvements, fixes, and known limitations in every public CURATOR release.

v1.0.0-beta.8

August 13, 2026

Added

Added the six managed Aaru libraries used for in-process CDI, NRG, and MDF/MDS decoding while preserving original source custody and continuing unsupported images through the normal review path.
Added exact content-authoritative Redump CUE resolution for configured optical platforms, including Atari Jaguar CD authority data.
Added exact AuthoritySetId collector-platform overlays, including Sega CD 32X presentation, without changing DAT platform authority.
Added the output-wide receipt manifest used to validate deterministic Stage 10 Append reuse by destination, size, SHA-256, record fingerprint, and complete manifest fingerprint.

Changed

Stage 1 now uses Core-owned bounded DAT leading-text reads and throttled progress rendering. Stage 2 reuses its fail-closed platform association. Stages 3 and 4 use indexed, batched, and single-pass construction paths that preserve their established output contracts.
Stage 5 captures Size, CRC32, and SHA-1 during extraction or copying, reuses complete persisted identity evidence, performs bounded CHD extraction, and retains Core-owned fallback reads when trustworthy evidence is unavailable.
Stage 6 trusts the completed Stage 5 handoff, reports checked and reused identities accurately, and reuses immutable matching evidence without weakening content-only authority.
Stage 7 validates immutable upstream identity through keyed authority lookups without rehashing. Stage 8 uses a per-set keyed lookup for exact shared-source evidence. Stage 9 uses keyed destination collections while preserving collision handling and exact Stage 10 instruction order.
Optical CUE correction is now last resort after ordinary prepared-hash, normalization, sibling, and exact/profile-compatible repository workflows. Complete optical sets with one safely derived structural CUE remain eligible for Official output only when every non-CUE membership is present and exact; the descriptor discrepancy remains explicit evidence.
Core API documentation now covers 149 interfaces. Current operator guides describe the Stage 9 execution contract, output-wide receipt, company manifests, structural-CUE eligibility, and current component identities.

Fixed

Fixed non-Redump structural CUE handling so a missing same-named Redump member falls through instead of aborting Matching; ambiguity and conflicting repository evidence still fail closed.
Fixed a concurrent Core.Progress queue race that could terminate otherwise valid stage work while preserving TaskBar ordering and caller contracts.
Fixed publication packages whose distinct authority entry names share exact physical content, while retaining strict non-publication and optical membership rules.
Fixed configured non-set files (.txt, .exe, .dll, and .bat) entering Needs Attention output and corrected authoritative Jaguar CD CUE handling.

Known limitations

Reporting can classify the root receipt manifest as unmanifested content; investigation remains deferred under DEFERRED-053.
Stage 3/5 progress-presentation tracing, the Stage 6 prebuilt DAR index and output-publication investigation, and the distinction between upstream content identity and final copied-artifact evidence remain deferred under DEFERRED-055, DEFERRED-045, DEFERRED-057, and DEFERRED-059.

v1.0.0-beta.7

August 8, 2026

Changed

Stage 3 reuses its already-computed incoming company summary after a conflict-free merge only when platform, DAT, membership, and merge-accounting checks prove that it exactly describes the complete published company DAR. Every non-equivalent or conflicting case retains the full fail-closed summary reconstruction path.
Stage 9 now publishes the complete ordered schema-1 physical-output execution contract, including stable identities, exact destinations, packaging, source relationships, cleanup ownership, and manifest authority.
Stage 10 now consumes the Stage 9 execution contract directly and no longer reconstructs naming, routing, grouping, ordering, collision, or manifest decisions from historical records.
Append now requires a valid output-wide receipt manifest and matching physical size/SHA-256 evidence before an existing target may be skipped.
Stage 10 publishes a deterministic output-wide receipt manifest.
DependencyIntegrity now validates the manifest-level redistribution policy and every entry's redistribution metadata.
Completed DEFERRED-038: confirmed the bundled Binmerge executable as the publisher's exact 1.0.3 Windows release asset and identified the eleven Redump cue/GDI metadata archives as public-domain metadata. The manifest preserves the retired historical-endpoint limitation for three GDI archives.
The Core API handbook now documents 146 current interfaces, including the Core.Primary dependency-path resolver used by DependencyIntegrity.

Fixed

Removed superseded Stage 10 planning and authority-reconstruction paths.
Completed a fresh live Stages 1-11 validation. Organizer produced 24,269 of 24,269 planned unique outputs with zero failures. Independent receipt checks found zero missing paths, size mismatches, or SHA-256 mismatches, and every output-wide and company-manifest fingerprint validated.
Completed DEFERRED-051: Reporting now excludes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows from every authoritative collection boundary, including reconciliation, audits, caches, ledgers, diagnostics, viewers, and publication.
Reconciled current operator guides, component build indexes, source module identity, and the release inventory with the validated August 7 workspace baseline.

Known limitations

Reporting classifies the administrative root receipt manifest 00_Manifest\CURATOR_Output_Manifest.json as unmanifested collection content. Collection paths, sizes, hashes, and fingerprints remain valid; the reporting-boundary investigation is tracked as DEFERRED-053.

v1.0.0-beta.6

August 4, 2026

Changed

Complete Atari Jaguar CD authority sets now publish as ZIP, while complete optical authority sets for every other platform publish as CHD. Source container type no longer determines final optical format.
CUE normalization now occurs universally after final DAR membership and authoritative naming are resolved. Organizer consumes that resolved contract without repairing or reinterpreting it.
Successful ZIP and CHD creation is accepted from the owning creation operation. Production stages no longer reopen successful output for verification.
Reporting remains focused on manifests, physical paths, sizes, and requested fingerprints; archive formats, CUE contracts, and CHD structure remain owned by producing stages.

Maintenance

Removed 14 proven-unreachable private functions and 566 stale implementation and comment lines.
Shortened 15 private functions and 31 private/local variables to CURATOR's established concise internal naming convention without changing public APIs, contracts, schemas, component builds, or runtime behavior.

Validation

Completed Stages 1 through 10 individually and completed Reporting through the visible execution path.
Organizer produced 7,334 of 7,334 outputs with zero failures.
Reporting matched all 4,775 authoritative manifest fingerprints, and an independent physical audit matched all 4,785 authoritative payload entries to exact DAR membership, case-sensitive names, sizes, CRC32, and SHA-1.

Known limitations

Reporting_DEV_53 still processes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows. Complete exclusion remains unresolved under DEFERRED-051.
Dependency provenance and redistribution-policy validation remain open under DEFERRED-038.

v1.0.0-beta.5

August 3, 2026

Changed

Reporting now keeps operator-facing output concise while recording detailed milestones in DEBUG logs.
Physical-audit reconciliation now uses bounded summary and individual-review panels with Approve All, Review Each, Make No Changes, and Cancel; only approved findings alter manifests.
The guides now distinguish the intended boundary from beta.5 behavior: official and unofficial physical output is authoritative truth, while needs_attention is intended to be a separate review queue.

Fixed

Preserved original and immediate Reporting publication provenance through repeated transitive reuse.
Preserved complete multi-member DAR sets across multiple source containers during Stage 9 planning.
Corrected Core API handbook metadata so the application version is not presented as the component build.

Known limitations

Reporting_DEV_49 in beta.5 still processes needs_attention filesystem content and NeedsAttention manifest rows through classification, counting, summaries, and presentation. Full exclusion remains unresolved under DEFERRED-051.

v1.0.0-beta.4

July 31, 2026

Added

Added END_USER_LICENSE_AND_LEGAL_NOTICE.md as a required release deliverable with CURATOR-specific safety and legal notices that preserve all GPL-granted rights.
Added schema-v2 company manifests with final-artifact SHA-256 evidence and immutable existing-record behavior during Append.
Added Gateway option V for an explicit full physical SHA-256 collection audit with operator-reviewed manifest reconciliation.

Fixed

Suppressed internal latest_status.json read messages so refreshed Gateway menus and confirmation screens start with a clean application header.
Corrected Stage 7 validation of contextual CHD/CUE authority matches so current AuthorityProvenance DAT evidence is accepted without weakening missing-evidence or authority-integrity checks.
Closed the selected-run pause correction after operator confirmation of the remaining acknowledgement-order paths.

v1.0.0-beta.3

July 30, 2026

Changed

Added a standalone LICENSE file containing the complete GNU General Public License version 3 text.
Stage 5 now reports exact, visible progress while classifying and verifying large source inventories.
Stage 6 now reports exact counts while hashing, preparing results, serializing records, and verifying output, with less unnecessary console rendering.
Stage 7 removes repeated validation scans and reports exact progress through validation and publication.
Stage 8 reuses validated authority membership data, removes repeated scans, and reports exact progress through assembly and publication.
Large Stage 8 assembly runs now complete substantially faster while preserving the same normalized result.
Stage 9 reports exact progress while avoiding redundant routing, receipt, and source-path preparation.
Stage 10 validates planned sources beneath authorized roots and leaves missing-source detection to the physical operation that consumes each source.
The End User Manual and Quick Start Guide now recommend current clrmame for complete MAME-native ROM-set management while noting that legacy clrmamepro remains available.

Fixed

Fixed long Stage 8 intervals that previously had no visible console reporting.
Fixed Stage 8 final JSON progress so it reflects selected membership and review records before output verification.
Added the missing blank line above the final stage resource-release message.
Adjusted selected pause-enabled Gateway options 4, 6, and 8 to suppress a redundant post-summary pause while retaining their summary and final Gateway acknowledgement.
Regenerated the Core API Developer Handbook so headings and emphasis render normally.
Corrected the End User Manual cover version and document-update date.
Removed Stage 10 planning-time source existence probes and the large source-tree preflight without changing output planning or destination safety checks.

Known limitations

Binmerge build provenance and redistribution evidence for eleven cue/GDI ZIP packages remain unresolved under DEFERRED-038.

v1.0.0-beta.2

July 28, 2026

This beta focuses on faster preparation of large collections, safer recovery, clearer progress reporting, and documentation that is easier to use and keep with the application.

Added

Added a changelog to the application folder so each release clearly explains what changed.
Added stronger release-package checks against the approved application inventory, excluding development, temporary, and operator-owned files.
Added CURATOR-owned Atari 8-Bit and Atari ST routing definitions for a ready-to-use installation. Operator-supplied platform and DAT files remain outside the package.

Changed

Large Stage 5 preparation jobs now copy ordinary files and process archives in controlled parallel groups for substantially faster, predictably ordered preparation.
Stage 5 recovery records are written more efficiently, reducing repeated bookkeeping for collections containing thousands of files.
Archive progress is smoother and less noisy, with one continuous display covering the complete workload.
Matching passes the exact verified game data forward when supported normalization was needed to establish the match.
The Admin Guide, End User Manual, Quick Start Guide, and Core API Developer Handbook are now supplied as PDF files.
The developer handbook now documents all 144 current Core programming interfaces.

Fixed

Fixed Stage 5 archive preparation when the selected Workspace folder is outside the CURATOR application folder.
Fixed interrupted archive recovery so unfinished results are removed before retrying while already committed files remain protected.
Fixed empty or unusable archives so they can be reported and skipped without ending the entire preparation stage.
Fixed Stage 5 error reporting so the original problem remains visible even after logging services close.
Fixed supported disc matching when cue-sheet and track evidence is required.
Fixed later stages receiving the original file instead of the normalized data that established an authoritative match.
Added a clear, safe cancellation path to both advanced Nuclear cleanup confirmations; only the exact phrase performs cleanup.
Fixed the completion screen shown after generating the Core API handbook.

Known limitations

In a pause-enabled multi-stage Gateway run, the final selected stage may not show its promised acknowledgement before the separate overall timing summary. Both results are still produced.
A very large interrupted Stage 5 recovery record can delay Gateway startup while CURATOR validates saved work before showing the main menu.

v1.0.0-beta.1

July 26, 2026

Added

Published the first public beta of CURATOR.
Added guided Prepare DAR, Organize, and Reporting workflows for LaunchBox-compatible collections.
Added platform and DAT discovery, authority preparation, source discovery, staging, matching, DAT validation, assembly, completeness analysis, physical organization, and reporting.
Added authority-based processing of loose files and supported archive and disc-image workflows.
Added recoverable staging and output transactions that can resume from valid committed progress.
Added Clear and Append destination choices.
Added visible progress, structured logs, validation evidence, and final collection reports.
Included an Admin Guide, End User Manual, Quick Start Guide, and Core API Developer Handbook.
Added path safeguards separating source, output, working, and application folders.

Known limitations

In pause-enabled Gateway sequences, the final selected stage may not show its promised acknowledgement before the separate Gateway timing summary. The timing summary is still produced.

Return to CURATOR Download releases Changelog on GitHub