Arkanum 1.12.0 is released
Content
About
I'm happy to present the latest Arkanum release version 1.12.0.
This is a substantial update - the bundled code-server jumps from v4.108.2 all the way to v4.117.0, pulling in nine VS Code releases worth of improvements. On top of that, Arkanum now ships with a focused, AI-free default configuration and a smarter Go installer.
Bundled VS Code: 1.108 -> 1.117
The code-server upgrades in this release span VS Code 1.108 (December 2025) through 1.117 (April 2026), covering a lot of ground. Here are the most notable editor improvements that landed during that window:
Weekly releases - Starting with VS Code 1.111, Microsoft switched from a monthly to a weekly stable release cadence. This means faster bug fixes and shorter iteration cycles reach Arkanum users sooner.
Integrated browser debugging (1.112) - Developers can now open web apps directly inside VS Code and start a full debugging session without leaving the editor. Setting breakpoints, stepping through code, and inspecting variables all work from the integrated browser panel.
MCP server sandboxing (1.112) - Locally configured MCP servers can now run in a sandboxed environment on macOS and Linux, with restricted file system and network access. A nice security improvement for anyone running local tooling.
Refreshed default themes (1.113) - Both the default light and dark themes received a visual update. If you have been running with the defaults, you will notice a cleaner, more modern look.
TypeScript 6.0.3 (1.117) - The latest TypeScript release is now bundled with VS Code. It includes recovery fixes for import regressions and ships together with the dependency update to TypeScript 6 in Arkanum's own toolchain (see Changes below).
💬 NOTE
Across these nine releases, a large share of VS Code's headline features revolved around Copilot and AI chat integrations. That is exactly why Arkanum 1.12.0 ships with all AI chat features disabled by default - see the next section.
Disable AI Chat Features
VS Code has been rapidly expanding its built-in AI and agent capabilities across the 1.109-1.117 range: GitHub Copilot is now built-in and no longer requires a separate extension, agent debug logs landed in 1.116, and BYOK (bring your own key) for Copilot Business and Enterprise arrived in 1.117 - just to name a few highlights.
Arkanum is designed as a focused, self-hosted coding environment, and all this AI surface area adds visual noise and unexpected background network activity out of the box. Starting with 1.12.0, all AI chat features are disabled by default via the settings configuration (#221).
The environment stays clean, predictable, and fully under your control - no matter what upstream ships. If you want to opt in to any of these features, you can always re-enable them by adjusting your settings.json.
Always Install Latest Go Version
The arkanum install golang command now automatically fetches and installs the latest stable Go release instead of relying on a hardcoded version (#220). This means your Go toolchain stays current without waiting for an Arkanum version bump.
See the Arkanum CLI docs for details on the install golang command.
Changes
This release includes the following changes:
v1.12.0 - 2026-04-30
- 🛠️ ENHANCEMENTS
- 🤖 DEPENDENCIES
- Chore(deps): update quay.io/linuxserver.io/code-server docker tag to v4.117.0 (#219)
- Chore(deps): update quay.io/linuxserver.io/code-server docker tag to v4.116.0 (#216)
- Chore(deps): update dependency typescript to v6 (#217)
- Chore(deps): update dependency rimraf to v6.1.3 (#214)
- Chore(deps): update quay.io/linuxserver.io/code-server docker tag to v4.109.2 (#215)
- Chore(deps): update quay.io/linuxserver.io/code-server docker tag to v4.108.2 (#210)