Pipeline Designer release (2026.0.0)

PipelineDesigner Version: 2026.0.0¶

(Note: There was no Pipeline Designer 2025.x release.)

Support for NeuroPype's new human-readable YAML-based pipeline format. Both YAML and legacy XML pipelines use the .pyp extension and the format is auto-detected on load (the .yaml.pyp extension is also recognized).
New pipelines are saved in the YAML format by default. The Save As menu offers explicit YAML, legacy (XML), and graph (.pyg) options; a plain Save preserves the file's existing format (it does not convert it).
When saving a pipeline that is currently in the legacy XML format, Pipeline Designer prompts whether to keep XML or switch to YAML. The prompt is dismissable and can be controlled from the Settings dialog.
A save-format setting was added to the Settings dialog.
Recent-files thumbnails are now generated for YAML pipelines as well.

A new fast-loading pathway makes opening pipelines substantially faster (10–20× in testing).

New docked panel for viewing and editing all of a pipeline's ParameterPorts in one place (toggle with Ctrl-Shift-P). Click a parameter name to center the canvas on the corresponding node.
Show/hide the ParameterPort nodes themselves with Alt-Shift-P; the current state is shown in the status bar and is reset to "shown" whenever a pipeline is loaded.
New GUI dialog to apply a JSON-formatted "parameter pack" to the currently loaded pipeline.

Hovering over a node now shows its properties in a tooltip — by default only properties that differ from their defaults, configurable to show all, non-expert, or primary properties. Property field names are shown in brackets so you can see the underlying property name.
The help box now shows the node's class name and version.
When replacing a node (Ctrl-S), ports are automatically mapped between the old and new node using a known old→new port-name mapping.
The Edit Links dialog gained an entry in the link context menu and no longer limits how many high-numbered ports/channels are shown.
Improved node-property error messages (the node name is shown, and the message is routed to the output window).

New appearance setting with light, dark, and auto options (replaces the old dark-mode toggle; auto follows the OS setting). OS dark-mode detection now degrades gracefully on Linux (via xdg).
Configurable canvas node size (including the node "body"/widget circle).
Numerous dark-mode styling fixes across dialogs (welcome screen, settings, message boxes, etc.).

The output window can now be docked to the right side as well as the bottom, with a dock/undock button in its title bar.
Consolidated "auto-show output" setting with values always, on-output, on-warning, on-error, and never.
Cleaner log rendering: internal Neuropype messages are stripped, warning messages are formatted more readably, and the log-level icons re-tint for light/dark mode.

Shows the current pipeline status and the connected engine version (flush right), plus the pipeline file's format version. Paused pipelines are now shown in a distinct color (yellow).

Major Settings-dialog cleanup: settings split into clearer groups/tabs (with Node Properties in its own tab), and redundant or unimplemented settings removed.
New Save/Load pipeline-settings feature.
Viewport/window-state settings moved out of settings.ini into a separate viewstate.ini.

Pipelines changed externally on disk are now auto-reloaded.
New Save a Copy action.
Pipeline Designer now checks that NeuroPype is reachable when you try to load a pipeline, and shows a dialog if it isn't.
Improved auto-reconnect handling (less load on the engine, no UI flicker).

The Keyboard Shortcuts window now opens with F10 (moved from F2, which conflicted with node renaming) and is shown in a native window for better cross-platform behavior.
Many shortcut additions and fixes, including view-history back/forward (Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right), heal-delete on Alt-Delete / Alt-Backspace, scroll-to-edge (Home / End, Ctrl+Home/End), page scrolling (Alt+PageUp / Alt+PageDown), and a Shift+arrow fast-scroll multiplier. Shift-F now fits the entire graph when nothing is selected.
Toolbox: a single click selects a node and a double-click places it; deprecated nodes are sorted to the bottom regardless of color theme.

Scrolling and canvas-redraw performance improvements (canvas, toolbox, and output view; including sluggish scrolling over X2Go remote connections).
Numerous macOS stability fixes (startup/teardown segfaults, menu and app-name handling, high-resolution Welcome screen icons) and fixed memory leaks.
Pipeline Designer is now built on PySide6 / Qt6.

New status bar along the bottom of the main canvas window, color coded to indicate pipeline state (green=running, blue=paused, grey=no connection, orange=loading pipeline)
Progress indicator in status bar when loading a pipeline.
Output View: buttons to pause autoscrolling of messages and to clear window (Ctrl-L).
PipelineDesigner will now automatically reconnect to Neuropype if Neuropype is terminated and restarted while PipelineDesigner is open. (Requires "auto reconnect" be set in the Settings panel.)
Run menu group with Run Pipeline and Reset Pipeline commands.
Tooldock can now be hidden entirely with Ctrl-Shift-D (or the View | Show/Hide ToolDock menu item).
Ctrl-Shift-O will show or hide the OutputView window.
Help | Engine Connection Info shows more information about which Neuropype or other processing engine Pipeline Designer is connected to.
Help | Keyboard Shortcuts (F2) shows a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for navigating and editing a pipeline.