Release Notes

09 October 2025: Version 5.0-34

• Multi-line request editor

  When invoking ai without parameters, you can now enter requests interactively in a new multi-line editor. It supports inserting and deleting text, line operations, cursor navigation, and submitting at any time with Alt+Enter.

• Expanded Linux expertise (RAG and semantic search)

  Beyond the LLMs' general knowledge, we've added well-curated Linux expert content. Admin Companion now uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and semantic search to leaverage this corupus. When specific information is needed, it performs a semantic search across the curated documents (the internal knowledge base). Semantic search understands intent and meaning using vector embeddings and natural-language understanding, so it finds the most relevant documentation—even when the wording differs from the query. The best-matching passages are provided to the LLM as context for precise answers.
  When expert content is used, answers include citations to the sources.
  In the Admin Companion Web Console you can view details about the retrieved information.

• Enable/disable usage of expert knowledge

  New options -ek, and -dk let you enable and disable expert knowledge.
  

• Enable/disable knowledge citation

  New options -ec, and -dc let you enable and disable the expert knowledge citations in the conclusion output.
  

• Numbered dialogue history

  Using the -l option, dialogue history now displays numbered messages for easier reading in long conversations.

• Live reasoning progress

  For reasoning models such as GPT-5, the Admin Companion client now shows live reasoning progress during the “Thinking...” phase.

• Streaming system command generation

  System commands are now streamed as they are generated, so you can see commands or scripts in real time as they are produced, reducing wait time.

• Lower cost via reasoning token efficiency

  Backend communication now with reduced reasoning-token usage in many scenarios.

• Reasoning tokens logged

  The admin-companion.bill now lists reasoning token usage (a subset of completion tokens), alongside total completion token usage.

• Persistent background information

  New options -b, -sb, and -rb let you set, show, and remove persistent system context
  This helps Admin Companion better understand system details (e.g., installed services, non-standard log directories, etc.).
  The information is automatically included with every request, eliminating the need for repeated investigations.

• Updated command-line parameters

  Some parameters have been renamed to better reflect their purpose.
  Since the tool is always executed manually, this should not cause disruptions.
  Topic handling:
  • -t: Set new topic (unchanged)
  • -st: Show current topic (new)
  • -rt: Remove current topic (was -r)
  Sending OS release information:
  • -er: Enable (was -a for allow)
  • -dr: Disable (was -d)
Important note for upgrading existing installations

The dialogue histories between pre-5.0 and 5.0+ client versions are not compatible.
Your current dialogue history will be deleted with this upgrade.

This client requires Admin Companion dialogue backend service v5.00 and a new color code,
therefore the installation process will update /etc/admin-companion/admin-companion.cfg.
If you customized this file, the installer will prompt you to choose which version to keep.
Ensure you either apply the new version or manually merge the new file contents into yours after installation.

The delivered /etc/admin-companion/api-key file has also been updated to remove a deprecation comment about key location. If you entered your API key in that file from a previous installation, you can safely keep your existing file.

19/August/2025: Version 4.0-32

• Streaming output

  Client now supports streaming output, which allows to see the response as it is generated by the AI model.
  To do so, the client was updated to use v3.0 backend server interface, which supports streaming output.

• Optimization in edge case handling

  We optimized the handling in cases, when commands output binary data.
  

• Added Support for Debian 13 (Trixie) and Ubuntu 25.04

  With this version, we add support for Debian 13 (Trixie) and Ubuntu up to 25.04.
  

• End of support for Debian 10 (Buster) and Ubuntu up to 19.10

  Debian 10 (Buster) and Ubuntu before 20.4 are no longer supported by Admin Companion.
  

• New API key handling

  Due to security considerations, the API key is now removed from the system wide configuration file (/etc/admin-companion/admin-companion.cfg) and from the configuration database.
  There are three other options to store the API key now:
  • Using an environment variable ADMIN_COMPANION_KEY (user specific).
  • Using a local user file in $HOME/.admin-companion/api-key (user specific)
  • Using a dedicated, system wide credentials file /etc/admin-companion/api-key (system wide).
  
  See the documentation for more details about the API key handling.
  
  
  Important note for upgrading existing installations
  
  If you upgrade from an old Admin Companion version, the active API key will be automatically migrated from the configuration file
  /etc/admin-companion/admin-companion.cfg
  to the new, dedicated system wide API key file
  /etc/admin-companion/api-key
  The active API key will be removed from the configuration file then. If you have additional API keys commented out in your configuration file, we recommend to move the commented ones manually to the api-key file.
  If you have a fresh installation, please make sure to set the API key in one of the three ways mentioned above, otherwise the client will not work. See the documentation for more details.
  
  

• Request an API key on the API keys page from the Admin Companion web console (you need to log in to access the page).
• Create the file
  $HOME/.admin-companion/api-key (Do not forget the dot "." in the path name)
  with this content
  ADMIN_COMPANION_KEY="<Your API key>"
  
• Make sure, your system can reach https://api.admin-companion.ai:443

• Request an API key on the API keys page from the Admin Companion web console (you need to log in to access the page).
• Create the file
  $HOME/.admin-companion/api-key (Do not forget the dot "." in the path name)
  with this content
  ADMIN_COMPANION_KEY="<Your API key>"
  
• Make sure, your system can reach https://api.admin-companion.ai:443