Back home

Changelog

Every user-facing change in Vara. Source of truth is GitHub commits — this is the friendly summary.

Feature

New protocol reproduction guides

  • • Ten new guides (qPCR, Western blot, ELISA, RNA extraction, transfection, cell passaging, CRISPR knockout, organoids, IHC/IF, flow cytometry) cover what methods sections usually leave out, which parameters change together, how to troubleshoot, and a worked example tagged by source confidence.
  • • Find them at /how-to-reproduce. Every reference links to its source.
Fix

Paper parsing is faster and more reliable

  • • Parsing papers, quick import and AI optimization no longer let the model think at length first; it extracts in the required format directly. Long papers now parse in under a minute instead of more than ten, so they no longer fail on timeout.
  • • If the model occasionally returns an empty result, it is retried once automatically.
Fix

Clear notice when a long paper is parsed incompletely

  • • For very long papers, the AI output can occasionally hit its length limit, so reproduction risks, AI inferences or the last few steps may be missing. This used to look the same as a normal result. The review page now tells you the result may be incomplete and offers a way to parse again.
  • • The default parsing model can now write twice as much, so long papers get cut off much less often.
Improvement

Paper parsing reads more of the paper and flags missing details

  • • When you upload a paper to reproduce, parsing now reads most of the text (up to about 120,000 characters) instead of only the first 15,000. Papers whose methods appear later get more complete steps and parameters.
  • • Parsing checks the details most often left out, such as how replicates were done, whether error bars are SD or SEM, antibody and cell line sources, how sample size was chosen, and where data and code are available. Anything the paper does not state is listed as a reproduction risk for you to check.
  • • Items that do not apply are left out. A purely computational paper will not be asked for cell line authentication, for example.
Feature

The flow view now shows lanes

  • • The main line is the longest chain from start to finish. If any step on it is delayed, the whole experiment is delayed.
  • • Branches that can run at the same time each get their own row, and parallel steps with the same structure (such as several samples prepared separately) are merged into one row.
  • • Click a sub-experiment to see what it waits for and what it affects. You can also highlight the critical path, search by name or number, and jump around with the overview at the bottom.
  • • The list is grouped into the same lanes, with the same numbers as the flow view.
Feature

Sub-experiment order is now marked automatically on import

  • • When you import a paper or paste a method, the AI also marks which sub-experiments must wait for others and which can run at the same time. You can see and edit this on the review page.
  • • On the experiment page, click "After #N" in the list or "Set order" in the menu to change the order directly. Options that would create a loop cannot be selected.
  • • The order is kept when you create a new version of a sub-experiment or duplicate an experiment.
Improvement

Sub-experiments now show as a list by default

  • • Sub-experiments on the experiment page now show as an ordered list, grouped into stages when some can run in parallel, the same on phone and desktop.
  • • To see the connections, switch to "Flow" above the list. Your choice is remembered.
  • • The Flow view now automatically zooms to fit the whole graph when it opens, and no longer draws gray dashed lines when no dependencies are set.
FeatureFix

Focus on the current step while running an experiment

  • • After you start a run, the screen shows only the current step: what to do, what to watch out for, which materials it uses, and what changed since last time, with the next step previewed at the bottom. Open "All steps" to see overall progress.
  • • Sub-steps no longer have stopwatches. Durations such as a 60 min incubation are listed with the key points.
  • • Materials linked to the step show batch, passage and expiry date, and expired or used-up items are highlighted. Reagents written in the step but not linked yet come with a suggestion to link them or add them to your materials; nothing changes until you click.
  • • Changes from the previous version of the design, and the note you wrote for this step in the last run, are shown right on the card.
  • • While a run is in progress, opening a step's detail page shows a prompt to go back to the step card, which opens right at that step.
  • • Fixed: marking a step as done no longer clears the note you already wrote for it.
ImprovementDocs

Help center FAQ expanded

  • • The FAQ now answers the basics: what Vara is, how to manage experiment records, reproducing a paper, whether you can trust AI extraction, supported disciplines, and pricing.
  • • The "What is Vara" page now lists what Vara does at a glance.
FeaturePlatform

macOS v1.1.3 released

  • • In-app auto-update is here — upgrade with one click from now on.
  • • Vara can now optimize a sub-experiment: describe what you want in chat, review, and confirm to create a new version (the original is kept).
  • • Review pages show provenance badges per step, plus a change-review dialog before confirming.
  • • Referrals are live — share your code from Settings and you both earn Pro days.
  • • BYOK in-app — pick "My model" in chat, test the connection in Settings.
  • • Rate each parse after confirming — your scores feed our public accuracy stats.
FeaturePlatform

macOS app updates

  • • Updated AI model list — added MiniMax M3, Xiaomi MiMo 2.5 Pro, and Kimi K2.7 Code; GLM upgraded to 5.2.
  • • Bug reports now attach a snapshot of your recently viewed experiment so we can reproduce issues faster.
Fix

Fixed dialogs closing mid-typing on mobile

  • • On phones, a dialog you were typing into (a survey, or a form to add an experiment, step, or record) could close on its own mid-typing and lose what you had entered. It now stays open until you explicitly close, cancel, or submit it.
Improvement

Clearer research disciplines: Life Science vs Biology

  • • Biology-related fields are now split more precisely: 'Life Science' covers human / disease / clinical / drug work (including dentistry and other medicine), while 'Biology' covers basic research on plants, animals, microbes, model organisms, and ecology.
  • • Picking the right discipline lets the AI understand your experiments better and give sharper defaults and troubleshooting. Disciplines you picked before were moved to the matching new category automatically — nothing to change on your side.
Feature

Xiaomi MiMo split in two — MiMo 2.5 (vision) and MiMo 2.5 Pro (reasoning)

  • • Xiaomi MiMo now comes in two tiers in the chat box — MiMo 2.5 for image recognition / vision (1×), and MiMo 2.5 Pro for complex text reasoning (3×). Pick the right one to spend your quota wisely.
  • • Choose MiMo 2.5 (vision) when uploading images; choose MiMo 2.5 Pro for strong reasoning, long-form writing, or complex analysis.
  • • Your default model is unchanged — just tap the switcher at the bottom of the chat box.
FeatureImprovement

New chat models — MiniMax M3, GLM 5.2, and a Kimi code model

  • • Three new options in the Vara chat model menu — MiniMax M3 and GLM 5.2, two stronger next-gen general models. The earlier M2.7 / GLM 5.1 stay available so you can switch and compare anytime.
  • • New Kimi K2.7 Code — a code-specialized model from Moonshot, handy for writing code and data-processing scripts.
  • • Your default model is unchanged — just tap the switcher at the bottom of the chat box to try the new ones.
Feature

Invite friends, you both get Pro time

  • • Grab your personal referral code and link on the "Invite friends" page (also in the sidebar)
  • • When a friend signs up with your code, they get +14 days of Pro right away (about 21 days stacked with the signup trial)
  • • After your friend creates their first experiment, you get +14 days of Pro too. The more you invite, the longer your Pro
  • • Works through your shared link, a code on the signup page, or one-tap Google sign-up
Feature

Import protocols from protocols.io, turned into Chinese-ready templates

  • • In the Template Library, tap "Import from protocols.io" to search public protocols and save any one as your own experiment template, no protocols.io login needed
  • • Search in Chinese too: Chinese keywords are auto-translated to English for the search, and result titles show in Chinese
  • • Imported protocol steps are auto-translated to Chinese, with reagent names and catalog numbers kept in English for searchability, and the original DOI preserved
  • • Tap "Apply" on a template to generate a full experiment with section-grouped steps, ready to use
macOS v1.1.1
FeatureImprovement

Mac sidebar upgrade and sync fixes

  • • Pin items in the sidebar — right-click any experiment, material, or reference to pin it to a dedicated group at the top
  • • Sidebar auto-groups by time — Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Earlier — so it stays easy to scan
  • • Step dependencies, reproduction risks, and evaluation baselines now sync and display correctly
Improvement

A new Help Center, organized by task, open to everyone

  • • The single-page docs are now a multi-page Help Center, split into six areas: Getting Started, Guides, Vara AI Assistant, Reference, Account & Settings, and Help
  • • 18 fully bilingual pages, so you find help by what you want to do instead of scrolling through everything
  • • Open without signing in, so people who haven't registered yet can see how Vara works first
Improvement

The Vara side-panel chat now remembers each experiment

  • • The Vara chat in the side panel now keeps a separate conversation for each experiment, so switching experiments no longer carries over the previous one
  • • The empty chat state is now clickable suggestion bubbles, so it's easier to get started
Feature

Daily Plan is here — schedule your day on the dashboard, or let Vara plan it

  • • New "Today's plan" tab on the dashboard — one line per item: optional time + what to do, press Enter to add. Check done, edit the time, or delete, all inline.
  • • New dedicated "Plan" page — a full-month calendar on desktop, day-by-day on mobile. Tap any day (past / today / future) to plan it, and see at a glance what you did this week and what's coming.
  • • Let Vara plan for you — just say "plan my day: PCR at 9am, Western blot at 2pm" and confirm the card to schedule the whole day.
  • • Or snap a photo of a schedule table — show Vara a handwritten or printed agenda and it reads each row into plan items, even across several days.
  • • Planning stays separate from your experiment data — checking an item done won't touch your run logs. Web for now.
FeatureImprovement

The reproduction review page is now editable — and shows what changed before you commit

  • • After the AI parses a paper or protocol into an experiment, every field on the review page is now editable — experiment name, sub-experiments, each step, each parameter — no more creating it first and fixing things afterward.
  • • Before you confirm, a "Review your changes" dialog lists exactly what you changed versus the AI's parse (old → new, added, removed), so you verify before it lands in the database.
  • • Required fields and duplicate parameter names are caught and highlighted on the spot.
Improvement

A refreshed emerald look across the app

  • • Unified the brand accent to emerald and polished the landing page and AI/feature highlights for a cleaner, more consistent look.
Feature

Reference Library — paste a DOI to file it, then reproduce it in one click

  • • New "Reference Library" in the sidebar — paste DOIs (one per line, up to 50) to auto-fetch title / authors / journal / year; no DOI? Upload the PDF and Vara extracts the bibliographic details.
  • • Each reference is tagged by full-text availability — "Open Access" / "Institution access" / "Local PDF" at a glance.
  • • Link references to any experiment — attach them under "References" on the experiment page to track which paper an experiment reproduces.
  • • ⭐ Reproduce in one click — on a reference card, "⋯" menu → "Reproduce": open-access papers are fetched and parsed automatically; otherwise you're prompted to upload the PDF. After parsing you land in the review page, and the new experiment is auto-linked back to the reference (Pro).
Feature

Compare result images — line up your results side by side

  • • A new "Compare results" entry in the "Experiment attachments" area — line up result images (qPCR gels, cell photos, etc.) in columns side by side.
  • • Three comparison axes: across repeat runs of the same experiment, across versions, or even across different experiments via search.
  • • Give each result image a caption (e.g. "qPCR run 3") so you can tell them apart at a glance; click any image to view it full size.
Improvement

Materials can now be deleted

  • • Material list cards now show a ⋯ menu in the top-right — visible on hover on desktop, always visible on mobile. Confirm in the dialog and the material is hidden from the list.
  • • Material detail page header gets the same delete entry; after deletion you're redirected back to /materials.
  • • Soft delete (record kept in DB, recoverable on request — consistent with how experiments and steps are deleted).
FeatureImprovement

Mobile rebuilt to app-grade — no longer a shrunken website

  • • Brand-new bottom navigation bar — Home / Experiments / Materials / Me as four core destinations, plus a center Vara chat button, all within thumb reach. As you drill into experiments and steps, the top bar always shows the current title and a back button, so you never get lost.
  • • Experiment detail, steps, and the workflow canvas are all re-laid-out for phones — secondary content on long pages is collapsed by default and tool buttons move into a top "⋯" menu, so you scroll far less.
  • • Mobile Vara chat now has the same full capability as on desktop — it can directly create / look up / edit your experiment data, runs full-screen, and keeps a browsable history of past conversations.
  • • Dialogs now slide up from the bottom of the screen for a feel closer to a native mobile app; the Settings, API, Weekly Digest, Reproduction Review, Version Compare, and Material Detail pages are all adapted for mobile too.
  • • More mobile polish — larger touch targets, tapping an input no longer zooms the page, and bottom-anchored dialogs clear the iPhone home indicator.
Feature

Parsing models are now selectable

  • • /settings adds a [Parsing model preferences] section. Pro/Pro+ users can pick which AI model handles literature reproduction, smart review, and quick import.
  • • 9 models available: Doubao Lite/Pro/Code, DeepSeek V3.2, Kimi K2.6, GLM 5.1, MiniMax M2.7, MiMo V2.5.
  • • Dropdown shows live per-call cost estimates (¥0.008–0.20) so you see the tradeoff at a glance.
  • • Defaults pick the best price/performance balance (Doubao Lite for reproduction, Doubao Pro for review).
  • • Free tier is locked to defaults — upgrade to Pro to customize.
FeatureImprovement

UI 大升级 + 物料 / 样本系统 + 培养基配方计算器

  • • 全新 [材料 / 样本] 页 — 细胞株 / 培养基 / 试剂 / 抗体 都能记到一处, 跨实验复用, 不再每个实验各填一遍
  • • 培养基详情加配方组分编辑器 — 可加任意多种试剂 (mL / % / L 单位混合), 输入目标体积自动算每个组分应取量
  • • 物料 ↔ 子实验双向链接 — 在 step 里看用了哪些物料 + 在物料详情看被哪些 step 引用, 一键跳转
  • • 导出执行单加内容选择 — 可勾选导出操作概述 / 时长 / 步骤 / 备注, 支持 Word + PDF
  • • Vara 对话上下文选择加物料档 (跟实验组并列), 两段都能折叠, 选项多不眼花
  • • 类 ChatGPT 用户永久 memory — 跟 Vara 对话时提的偏好/约定自动记, 下次自动应用
  • • AI 解析英文 PDF 修复为正确按你设置的语言输出 (修 '英文进英文出' bug)
  • • 内测期付费暂未开放, 4 档定价方案改成 '初步参考' 展示, 预计 6 月中下旬正式开放
Feature

Vara 对话框接 10+ 大模型可选

  • • 对话框底部模型切换 — Doubao Seed 2.0 (4 个版本) / Kimi K2.6 / GLM 5.1 / DeepSeek V3.2 / MiniMax M2.7 / Xiaomi MiMo 都能选
  • • 倍率显示成本比 (0.25× ~ 4.5×) — 比单纯报价更直观, 选模型不踩雷
  • • 上传图片自动提示切到支持视觉的模型 (MiMo / Doubao / Kimi)
Feature

Vara 对话支持 @ 选上下文

  • • 对话框上方加 [@ 选上下文] 按钮 — 跟 Claude Code 一个心智
  • • 选了之后 Vara 直接拿这个实验/物料的完整数据回答, 不用每次重新查
  • • 在实验/子实验/物料详情页自动推断当前上下文, 不用手动选
Feature

文献分享 PPT 一键导出

  • • 解析完一篇论文,可以一键导出成 PPT 草稿,直接拿去 journal club / 文献汇报
  • • 两档可选:完整版(10-12 张,适合 30 分钟汇报)/ 精简版(6-8 张,适合 15 分钟 lightning talk)
  • • Vara 自动浓缩论文重点 + 自带学术模板,留好 figure 占位框,你填上图就能讲
  • • 不满意可以让 Vara 重新生成,内容跟着你的语言设置走(中 / 英)
Feature

实验照片与附件,跟实验绑在一起

  • • 实验详情页新增「实验照片与附件」区,可以上传现场照、仪器截图、结果图,跟原始论文 PDF / SOP 并列
  • • 手机大图自动压缩、iPhone 照片(HEIC)直接传也认
  • • 一个实验三处可上传:实验级照片 / 实验级文献 / 步骤运行日志的过程照
Feature

快速导入一次支持多张图

  • • 实验笔记一页拍不下 / 多页协议 / 多角度拍 — 现在最多一次传 3 张
  • • Vara 综合多张抽出完整步骤,不会重复抽
Feature

设置页加「危险区」— 一键注销账户

  • • 设置页底部「危险区」可以注销账户、永久删除所有数据(履行《个保法》第 47 条)
  • • 三重确认防误操作:输密码 → 打「删除我的账户」短语 → 点红色确认按钮
  • • 删除是真删,不是隐藏 — 走法务流程的就走这条
macOS v1.0.16
Platform

macOS v1.0.16 上线 — 13" / 4K 屏窗口都不挤了

  • • 多个对话框 / 设置面板从固定尺寸改成弹性,小屏不溢出 / 大屏不空荡
  • • Apple 公证 + 装钉,Gatekeeper 直接通过
Feature

AI 推断带原文引用,看完再决定接不接受

  • • 当 Vara 推断了原文未明说的参数,会附上「判断依据来自原文哪一段」
  • • 一键查看原段落,你能判断该不该接受 / 调整 / 跳过
  • • 同一字段还可一键查 Vara 用的「同类研究参考」,看其它论文是怎么用的
Feature

执行单除 Word 外现在也能导 PDF

  • • 实验进入执行阶段后,每个子实验执行单可以选 Word 或 PDF 导出
  • • PDF 适合直接打印贴在实验台旁,不会被 Word 排版差异影响

Want to know when new versions ship?

Download the app →