Open WebUI 0.11.1 release notes

Added

🚦 Human in the loop tool approval. Where an administrator has turned it on, you can switch a conversation from letting tools run freely to being asked first, so a model that wants to use a tool stops and waits for you to allow or deny it, one call at a time in a saved conversation, by button or by keyboard shortcut, with your choice remembered for this conversation and for future ones, switching back to running freely releasing anything already waiting, and automations, channel replies, and temporary chats unaffected. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🙋‍♂️ Models that can ask you a question. A new built-in tool lets a model pause and put up to three multiple-choice questions to you before continuing, with room to type your own answer instead, and the question survives a reload in a saved conversation, so you can come back and answer it later rather than losing the conversation. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🖇 Agents can now display terminal files directly. A model can now show a file it made in a terminal directly in its reply, with a preview and a download button, instead of describing a path that led nowhere when clicked, and a new interface setting chooses whether these open in the reply or in the files pane. Commit, Commit, Commit, #27650
📶 Streaming rebuilt from the ground up. A reply now streams as small pieces of new text instead of resending the whole message so far with every update, so the data sent over a reply grows with its length rather than with its length squared, which on a server with many people chatting at once means far less processor time spent encoding, passing, and decoding those updates, far less load and memory on the shared cache that carries them between instances, and far less work in your browser, which no longer takes in the whole reply again and redraws the parts of it that have not changed on every update, cutting the data sent and the server work spent appending to a message by up to 1000x on a very long reply, and a reply still in progress is now kept aside on the server, so reopening the conversation after a refresh picks it up where it is rather than showing a blank message, on deployments backed by Redis. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🪵 Much faster throughout. Hundreds of places across the application no longer assemble detailed log text that is switched off and thrown away unread, so sending messages, uploading and indexing files, running searches, signing in, and loading admin pages all get that time back, with the largest gains on busy servers, in long conversations, and on chats that draw from a large knowledge base. #27834, #27837
🚀 Faster model list lookups. Title generation, tag suggestions, autocomplete, and other background steps of a chat turn now fetch the model list in one go, which keeps other people's responses flowing on busy Redis-backed instances with many models. #27821
🛰️ Cheaper log export. Deployments that export their logs to a telemetry collector, with "ENABLE_OTEL" and "ENABLE_OTEL_LOGS" both set, now prepare each exported line once instead of twice, which matters more than it used to now that log text is only assembled when something will actually read it. #27840
📇 Faster permission checks on large instances. Working out which groups you belong to is now a direct lookup rather than a scan of every membership on the server, so chats and the admin user list stay quick as an organization grows. #27822
⚙️ Much faster JSON handling. Saving and opening chats, reading settings, returning results from built-in tools, streaming replies, signing in and signing up, working out your permissions, and reading stored chunk details during knowledge base searches on Valkey and Oracle vector storage are all handled much faster across the application when the "ENABLE_ORJSON" option is turned on. Commit, #28396, #27841, #27807, #27805, #27813
📤 Much faster outbound requests. Conversations and embedding batches sent to Ollama and Anthropic models are packaged for delivery much faster, which is most noticeable in long chats when the "ENABLE_ORJSON" option is turned on. #27811, #27810
🐍 Much faster code interpreter output. Printed output and generated images from code run in chat appear much faster when the "ENABLE_ORJSON" option is turned on. #27812
🪶 Lighter page loads. Several small requests the interface makes on every page load, along with a few administrative ones, no longer set up database access they never used, which took several times longer than the rest of the request put together. #28178
♻️ One less read per message. Sending a message no longer loads the whole conversation from the database twice over, which mattered most in long chats where that record is largest. #28809
🏁 Faster skills on large instances. Opening the skills list, or sending a message that uses one, no longer checks every skill on the instance one at a time, so both are far quicker where many skills exist and most of them are not yours. #28798
🩻 Faster tools on large instances. Listing or exporting tools no longer checks every tool on the instance one at a time, so the integrations menu and the tools workspace open faster where many exist. Commit
🧊 Faster file access checks. Checking whether you may reach a file no longer walks every workspace model you can see looking for it, so opening a folder of files, downloading one, or retrieving from one is much quicker on instances with many models. #28802
🧱 Faster folder listings. Listing your folders now works out your group memberships once for the whole listing rather than again for every item in every folder. #28810
🧼 Less work per update in a long chat. Each update saved while a reply streams no longer re-examines the entire conversation, only the part being added, so the cost of an update stops growing with the length of the chat. #28820
🗃 Cheaper attaching of sources and files to a reply. Adding a source, file, or embedded item to a reply now reads just that one field rather than rebuilding the whole conversation to find it, which on a two hundred message chat is around 3.1 ms per item down to 0.65 ms, and no longer grows with the length of the conversation. Commit, Commit
🚏 Faster workspace model lookups. Working out which workspace models you may edit no longer loads every model on the instance and discards most of them, which also speeds up exporting models and the file access checks that relied on it. #28795
📮 Faster handing off a streaming reply. Passing a reply in progress between instances now writes it once rather than converting it back and forth and scanning it for characters that only matter elsewhere, which on a large non-English conversation took most of the time spent on each write. #28833
🥵 Constant load on an idle instance. An instance sitting idle no longer works through every chat you have once a second looking for timers that are due, which on a large history kept about a quarter of a processor core busy doing nothing and could exhaust memory until the application was killed. #27663, #27622, #27745
📍 Sidebar folders fetched once. Refreshing the sidebar now asks for your folders once rather than three times, on page load and on every action that refreshes it. #28662, #28661
💤 Far fewer writes just from being signed in. Recording that someone is online now writes at most once a minute for each person rather than on every single request, where an open tab alone caused two write transactions a minute before anyone touched anything. #28177, #28165
🛰 Less overhead on every request. The layers each request passes through before it is handled are now one instead of five, which also removes a quarter of that cost from every piece of a streamed reply on instances that set security headers. Commit, #28171
🎏 Turning off compression of live updates. A new "UVICORN_WS_PER_MESSAGE_DEFLATE" setting stops the server compressing every live update it sends, which costs processor time on each one for almost no saving now that a reply streams as small pieces; compression stays on unless it is turned off. #28613
🌡 Faster chat list and unread counts. Opening the sidebar, and the unread markers on folders, no longer read through your whole chat history to produce a short list, which on an instance with 15000 chats took 2 to 4 seconds. #27663, #27622, #27745
🥁 Long replies no longer slow as they grow. A long reply is no longer re-examined from the beginning for reasoning and code blocks on every piece that arrives, so the work stops growing with the length of the reply, which on a long reply is around 190x less time spent on it. #28861
💽 Faster saving of long chats. A chat is now written to the database in one go rather than one message at a time, so saving a long conversation is much quicker and puts far less strain on the database, and saving one where nothing has changed writes nothing at all. #28806
📦 Faster loading of shared folders. Folders shared with you now load in a couple of queries rather than one for each folder and each owner, so the list appears sooner for anyone with many of them. #28804
⚡ Uninterrupted chat during knowledge search. Responses now keep streaming for everyone on the server while knowledge base searches run, instead of pausing until each search finishes. #27824
🔍 Smarter chat search. Searching your chats now finds conversations containing all of your words in any order rather than only the exact phrase you typed, with exact matches still listed first, and the preview snippet points at whichever word it found. Commit
⌨️ Model switching from the message box. Typing "/model" now tells you which model you are on, switching to another by name with "/model" followed by its id, or opening the model picker straight from the slash menu without reaching for the mouse. Commit, Commit
📎 Sending while attachments upload. Sending a message before its files have finished uploading now queues it and sends it automatically once they are ready, instead of refusing with an error, and each queued message shows the progress of its attachments. Commit, Commit, #28381, #28380
📖 Opening a document at the right page. A model showing you a PDF, Word document, or slide deck from a terminal can now open it at a particular page or slide, so a reply that cites something on page 76 can put that page in front of you. Commit, Commit, Commit
💼 Attachments that go straight to a terminal. A terminal connection can now be set to receive files attached in chat into its own working directory rather than into the conversation, which also means files can be attached while using a model that cannot read them itself. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🔦 Searching files in the terminal browser. The file browser now has a search box that finds files by name and by what is inside them, and opening a result takes you to the matching line. Commit
🌲 Browsing files as a tree. The terminal file browser now expands folders in place rather than only navigating into them, remembers what you had open, offers a right-click menu, can show hidden files, sorts by size, expands a folder you hover over while dragging something onto it, and moves a whole selection in one go when you drop it. Commit, Commit
🧰 Managing models on more servers. Administrators can now download, load, and unload models on llama.cpp and LM Studio connections from the manage models dialog, remove them on llama.cpp, and start a download straight from the model picker's search box, alongside the Ollama support that was already there. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, #28766
📢 Automations that post to a channel. An automation can now be pointed at a channel instead of a chat, so its scheduled run appears as a message there for everyone to see, chosen from a new destination picker that also covers folders. Commit
🙋 Mentioning people in a channel. Typing an at sign in a channel now lists that channel's own members first, before everyone else on the server, so the people you are likely to mean are at the top. Commit, Commit, #28883
🔗 Attaching any link. Pasting a link into a chat or a knowledge base now works out what is behind it, downloading a document or image as a real attachment rather than treating everything as a web page to be read as text. Commit
🔎 Searching tools and skills in chat. The integrations menu now has a search box for tools and for skills, so a long list can be narrowed by name instead of scrolled through. #26709, Commit, #28807, #28812
🧭 More from the message box. The slash menu now offers settings and, in a new chat, a toggle for temporary chat, alongside the commands that were already there. Commit
🚨 Being told when a file fails to process. A file that cannot be processed for a knowledge base now raises a notification naming the file and what went wrong, and keeps that reason on the file, instead of quietly being marked as failed. #27666, #6311, Commit
🔬 Zoom controls on previewed images. An image opened in the file browser now has zoom in, zoom out, and a reset button showing the current zoom, and pinching, scrolling, and holding a modifier key while scrolling now zoom and pan as they do elsewhere. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🗂️ Recognisable file icons. The terminal file browser now marks each file with an icon for its type, so code, images, archives, documents, and configuration files can be told apart at a glance instead of sharing one generic page icon. Commit, Commit, Commit
📽️ Truer PowerPoint previews. Slide previews now render tables, charts, connectors, gradients, theme colours, bullets, fonts, and text alignment far closer to the original, and the viewer lets you move between slides with the arrow keys or the scroll wheel while the thumbnail strip follows along. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
📄 Faithful Word document previews. Word documents now open as proper pages with headers, footers, footnotes, and embedded images intact, and can be zoomed, rather than being flattened into plain formatted text. Commit, Commit
🗝 Deleting your API key. An API key can now be revoked outright from your account settings, where the only way to retire one was to replace it with a new one. #28874, Commit
🎛️ Settings for the task model. Administrators can now set the generation parameters used for background work such as titles, tags, follow-ups, search queries, and conversation summaries, either from the admin panel or through "TASK_MODEL_PARAMS", instead of those requests always using a fixed token limit that could cut a summary short. #27604, Commit, Commit
🎚️ Default interface settings for everyone. Administrators can now set system-wide defaults for the interface options in Settings, either from the admin panel or through "DEFAULT_INTERFACE_SETTINGS", with each person's own choices still taking precedence and anything left untouched shown as inherited and kept in step with later changes to the defaults. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🔠 Interface scaling throughout. The UI Scale setting and your browser's own text size now resize the whole interface consistently, including the sidebar, menus, dialogs, and file browser, rather than leaving parts of it fixed. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🏷️ Named writing blocks. When a model wraps a draft such as an email in a writing block, the block is now titled with its subject and shows the recipient beside it, rather than every block reading simply as Writing. #28280, #28198
🤝 Files for delegated tasks. A task handed to a sub-agent can now carry the attachments it needs, so an image or document from your conversation reaches the sub-agent instead of arriving as a file reference it cannot open and may answer about anyway. Commit, #28213
📟 Terminal availability and scope. Administrators can now decide for each managed terminal whether it appears in chats and in automations at all, and whether everyone shares a single workspace or each chat or automation gets its own, with per chat terminals waiting until the conversation has been saved. Commit
🔒 Read-only files in the terminal browser. Files and folders you are not allowed to change are now labelled read-only, with uploading, editing, renaming, moving, and deleting turned off for them rather than failing at the moment you try. Commit
🔐 Terminals that use your own login. Managed terminals configured for session authentication now authenticate the terminal connection with your own token, where it previously sent no credentials at all. Commit
🎟 Setting up a tool server that uses OAuth. Adding one is now easier to get right: the connection dialog can authorize the account from the dialog itself, the check button tests the sign-in details rather than reporting a connection failure that was never going to succeed without them, and it is now labelled for what it does rather than suggesting it verifies the whole connection. Commit, #28552
🪤 Control over what embedded pages may do. Two new interface settings decide whether pages shown inside a chat, such as an artifact or an HTML preview, may run scripts and start downloads. Commit, #28924, Commit
🗄 Keeping files removed from a knowledge base. A new "ENABLE_KNOWLEDGE_FILE_RETENTION" setting keeps the stored file and its search data when a file is taken out of a knowledge base, rather than deleting them. Commit
🧾 CSV shape in retrieval. Turning on "ENABLE_RAG_CSV_SUMMARY" adds a short line naming the row count, data row count, column count, and column names of a CSV file to what the model sees, giving it the shape of the table alongside its contents. Commit
🔭 OpenSERP in the search settings. OpenSERP can now be picked as the web search engine in the admin panel, with a field for its address, rather than only being configurable through the environment. #27594, #27592
🪧 Profile changes from single sign-on. A name, email address, or picture updated from an identity provider at sign-in now raises an event naming what changed, and the rest of the session uses the updated record rather than a stale copy. Commit
📯 Group changes from single sign-on. Group memberships added or removed when someone signs in through an identity provider, and groups created automatically along the way, now raise the same events as the equivalent change made by an administrator or over directory sync. #27657
🔔 Sign-in and sign-out events for single sign-on. Signing in through an identity provider now raises the same login event that signing in with a password does, and signing out says which provider the session came from, so a function can set up or tidy up an account in another system when someone arrives or leaves. #27619, #27613
🪛 Naming background worker threads. A new "THREAD_POOL_THREAD_NAME_PREFIX" setting labels the threads that background work runs in, so they can be told apart when reading a profile or a thread dump. Commit
📙 OpenDocument files in a temporary chat. A text document, spreadsheet, or presentation from an office suite that uses the OpenDocument format now has its text read out in the browser when attached to a temporary chat, where the model was handed the raw archive and answered that it could not read the file. Commit, #28906
🌍 Pointing Tavily somewhere else. A new "TAVILY_API_BASE_URL" setting sends Tavily searches and page fetches to a different address, for instances that reach the internet only through a gateway of their own or that use a compatible service. Commit, #28701
🪟 Honest OAuth settings. When single sign-on settings come from the environment rather than being saved in the application, the admin panel now shows them as read-only with a note naming the setting that controls this, instead of accepting edits that were silently discarded on the next restart. #28276
📏 Widening the chat controls pane. The controls pane can now be dragged as wide as you like, where it stopped at a fixed limit regardless of screen size. Commit
📱 Smoother sidebar on mobile. The sidebar now follows your finger as you swipe it open or closed, responds to a quick flick, dims the page behind it as it moves, and gives every chat row a menu button you can reach without a hover you cannot perform on a touchscreen. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
🚪 Sidebar that stays put. Opening and closing the sidebar is now a smooth transition that keeps your chat list loaded, instead of rebuilding the list each time. Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit, Commit
👁️ Turning off chat previews. A new setting under Settings and Interface lets you switch off the preview card that appears when you hover a chat in the sidebar, useful for a quieter sidebar, for sharing your screen, or on a slow connection. #27632, #27639
☑️ Checkboxes beside their labels. In the model editor and the admin model defaults, each capability, feature, and tool checkbox now sits directly in front of its own label instead of at the far edge of its column, where it could look like it belonged to the next one, and the label itself can be clicked to toggle it. #27788, #27771, Commit, Commit
✍️ Typing cursor while responding. A blinking cursor now marks where the reply is being written, from the moment you send your message until generation finishes, in place of the previous loading placeholder. Commit
✒️

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