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  v0.2.0-rc.35 Pre-release

  Cody Bryant released this 2026-08-19 22:50:25 -07:00 | -1 commits to main since this release

  The release where the robot stopped being read-only. Clean cycle and Reset are
  real buttons now, and whiskerless issues the certificates your broker needs
  instead of leaving that to you.

  Thanks to @CryingPecan, whose LitterHopper robot
  is behind much of the hopper work. Protocol detail lives in
  docs/devices/litter-robot-4/.

  Breaking changes

  • Broker usernames and passwords are gone — --username, --password and
    WHISKERLESS_PASSWORD. Everything authenticates by certificate now.
  • One broker per machine. --host and --ca moved off the everyday commands
    onto setup. A separate broker is a separate store: point WHISKERLESS_HOME at
    it.
  • --port and --insecure are gone. The robot's port is fixed in its firmware
    and it always checks the broker's name, so both could only point the CLI somewhere
    the robot cannot follow. A saved port is ignored, not an error.
  • whiskerless adopt is removed. Re-provision instead.
  • The store moved to ~/whiskerless. Your old ~/.whiskerless is moved there
    on first run, and settings 0.2.0 no longer reads are dropped from your robot
    profiles at the same time. That run tells you what changed.
  • Every robot gets a certificate of its own, with no way to opt out. A robot
    holding one still works on a broker that allows anonymous clients, so there was
    nothing to trade — and whiskerless robots marks any robot still presenting the
    certificate it shipped with.
  • whiskerless has to be able to sign now, unless you say otherwise. A store
    holding a CA certificate but not its key is no longer an unstated arrangement —
    it read like a finished setup while quietly refusing to issue anything. setup
    asks for the key, or offers a new authority; the second answer means
    re-provisioning every robot. See Upgrading from 0.1.3 in the README for what
    that costs at the robot and at the broker.
  • setup --auth records how your store authenticates, for a signing key that
    lives somewhere else on purpose. supplied takes a certificate per robot from
    provision --robot-cert/--robot-key and never wants the CA key; anonymous
    leaves robots the certificate they shipped with. The mode is stored, so later
    commands behave the same way with no flags, and a mode your files can no longer
    carry out is an error naming both rather than a silent downgrade.
  • Each robot's certificate is kept at robots/<serial>/client/, where this
    machine's has always been kept at client/. A robot re-provisioned stays the
    same client to your broker, so ACLs and log lines keyed to it still point at it;
    provision --reissue replaces one deliberately. provision now says to back up
    afterwards, because it leaves behind material an earlier backup does not have.
  • Certificates you supply are checked before anything is written: they have to
    chain to your CA, be valid now, not be a CA themselves, and carry the robot's
    serial as their common name — which is where a broker gets the robot's username.
    Nothing is filed until it passes, and a robot's is filed only once the robot has
    accepted it, so a rejected or aborted run leaves the one you were using intact.
  • binary_sensor.…_waste_drawer_removed → sensor.…_waste_drawer_last_moved.
    The robot never reports which way the drawer moved.
  • switch.…_panel_sleep_mode is now a binary sensor — the firmware refuses
    direct writes. Use the weekday schedule entities.
  • Clean cycle wait time is a number (3–30 minutes), not a select.
  • Library: Hazard.MOTOR, MotorCommandError, allow_motor,
    LitterRobot4Client and WhiskerlessAuthError are removed. Power still needs
    allow_dangerous.

  Added

  • Clean cycle and Reset buttons. Empty cycle, Power and WiFi ship disabled and
    marked (danger) — each costs a litter refill or takes the robot off the
    network. The CLI gains empty-cycle, power and wifi-toggle.
  • whiskerless runs a certificate authority for you. whiskerless setup makes
    the CA, your broker's certificate and this machine's identity, then prints the
    three files your broker needs. Bring your own with --ca and --ca-key.
  • Each robot gets its own certificate, written over BLE and named for its
    serial — so your broker can stop accepting anonymous clients.
  • whiskerless backup and whiskerless restore — the whole store in one
    optionally-encrypted file. The CA key is the one thing you cannot regenerate.
  • The CLI remembers your robots. provision saves them; robots, use and
    forget manage them. A second robot asks only for its serial and WiFi password.
  • Provisioning verifies the WiFi join, so a mistyped password fails loudly
    instead of leaving you a robot that never appears.
  • Litter level as a percentage — self-calibrating, or pinned with one press.
  • LitterHopper support: connected, fill gauge, and an out-of-litter alert the
    firmware never raises. A dispense arrives as three messages ~20 s apart, so the
    level survives a restart and one dispense cannot prove an empty hopper.
  • New entities: last cat visit, visit duration (disabled until your robot
    proves it reports one), waste drawer last moved, panel brightness for bright and
    dark rooms, and excess-weight detection.
  • whiskerless status, calibrate and panel-reset.
  • whiskerless diagnose — when the panel says "blinking blue" and nothing else,
    this asks the robot itself over Bluetooth. It reads and writes nothing. Reaching
    the robot needs pairing mode, which takes it off WiFi, so it warns, asks first, and
    costs a re-provision — and the answer is often just "the robot is trying to
    connect", which is the state the command itself caused. It says so rather than
    inventing a diagnosis. When the robot does volunteer a verdict — refused, network
    not found, or joined-without-an-address — that verdict is real and worth the trip.
  • New install channels: apt and dnf repositories, Homebrew with prebuilt
    bottles, .deb/.rpm, a signed macOS .pkg, and standalone Linux binaries —
    none of which need a system Python. Packages are GPG-signed
    (4BBACD5A6FF38564); setup is in the README.

  Fixed

  • Cat detection no longer mistakes weight on the scale for a cat, handling the
    robot is not a visit, and long visits are no longer dropped.
  • robotStatus 10 is the clean cycle. Unmapped, its readings were published as
    real litter levels. Readings are also suppressed while the globe is not level.
  • The globe motor fault sensor watches the activity stream, where the fault
    actually appears — the state document sat at 0 through a real fifty-minute fault.
  • Panel sleep and wake times can be set, and the weekday schedule arms every
    day rather than only Sunday.
  • whiskerless setup survives a long hostname, and reissues the broker's
    certificate when you move the broker — if it holds your CA's key. A certificate
    it did not issue is reported, never overwritten.
  • Provisioning works where the network list is not a multiple of four. The
    robot's WiFi scan is fetched in pages, and the last page asked for more than
    remained — which this firmware answers by dropping the Bluetooth link, halfway
    through provisioning. It looked like flaky Bluetooth.
  • Provisioning tells you to hold Connect until the light blinks yellow, and
    stops scanning the moment it finds your robot — it only advertises while you hold
    the button, and the scan was spending that window. The instruction used to say to
    hold "until it beeps"; the robot has no beep, so the one cue it offered was for
    something that never happens.
  • The waste drawer says when its number has not been measured. A Reset zeroes
    the gauge and the robot flags the result as unconfirmed until the next cycle's
    lasers take a real reading — whiskerless status was printing that placeholder as
    a measurement. In Home Assistant the sensor keeps publishing the value, so
    nothing keyed on it breaks, and carries a level_provisional attribute instead.
  • Provisioning warns that holding Connect wipes the robot's saved WiFi. The robot
    forgets its network the moment it enters pairing mode, does not come back on its
    own, and cannot be taken out of that mode by any button — only a completed
    provision restores it. This is the robot's behaviour, and it strands cloud users
    too; whiskerless just never said so.
  • The network list explains itself, with a legend for the password marker, the
    signal bars and the channel, and a clearer way to enter a hidden SSID than a bare
    -. The confirmation screen's identity row no longer sits a column out.
  • The robot's IP address is reported when the firmware gives a usable one. It
    answers "connected" before DHCP replies, so the address was read a moment too
    early; provisioning now waits for it. Some robots report an address that is not
    theirs, so only a plausible LAN lease is shown — and when none arrives the step
    simply says the WiFi is connected, which is what it verified either way.
  • Errors are sentences, not stack traces. --debug gives the traceback and
    the request log — with the WiFi password and the robot's key left out of it.
  • A short press of Connect toggles WiFi off, which the docs called harmless —
    the robot vanishes from your broker and looks dead. Hold it for pairing mode.
  • The declared Home Assistant minimum is correct (2025.3.0).

  Changed

  • The Refresh button is on by default, on existing installs too.
  • Manual calibration buttons ship disabled — the robot calibrates itself.

  Downloads

  • Source code (ZIP)
    0 downloads
  • Source code (TAR.GZ)
    2 downloads

  ---

  • SHA256SUMS
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