Changelog

Every released version, newest first: what changed, and the files it published. Follow by RSS

Latest version

1.0.1

October 10, 2026

#What's new

A fix release, written while moving a library of 564 packs and 141,609 files into 1.0.0. Nothing here is new; all of it is 1.0.0 failing at a size the first release had never been given.

#Browsing is no longer a freeze

Choosing a license or a kind while browsing packs locked the window, for seconds or longer. A pack records its own license, but the filter reached into every asset in the library to answer a question already written on the pack: a tenth of a second's work done as a seven second scan, and once for every heading in the filter list. It reads the pack now. Filtering by source or creator was never affected, which is what made it so hard to see.

#Scrolling is smooth

A grid of tens of thousands of things told the rest of the app about every row the scroll crossed, and the app redrew every tile each time. It now notices a new page rather than a new row.

#Reading what your files contain

Tessera works out the contents of every file so it can tell you what you already have. On a large library this took around an hour, and for all of it the window was slow and said nothing about why.

It is visible work now, with a count and progress, next to everything else.
Three quarters of a library sits inside zips, and a zip already records a checksum for each file it holds. That is taken rather than worked out again, so most files are never read at all, and full checksums are kept for the few that need telling apart.
It gives way between files, so the window stays answerable while it runs.

#Updating keeps what it already worked out

This is the important one. Opening a 1.0.0 library in a newer version threw away every checksum it had and spent the hour again, quietly, because the part that must survive an update was being recreated instead of carried forward. It is carried forward now.

#Smaller things

brew install --cask really does clear the download flag now. The notes claimed it already did; it did not, and Gatekeeper stopped the first launch exactly as for a hand-downloaded dmg.
A pack whose files could not be drawn kept being asked for, for ever, instead of being noted and left alone, which held a core at nothing.
A license recorded for part of a pack can be taken away again.
Agent tools say the things that are only obvious once you have got them wrong, chiefly that adding several packs answers in name order rather than the order you asked.

#Installing

With a package manager:

System	What to type
macOS	`brew tap ahmmedrejowan/tessera && brew install --cask tessera`
Windows	`winget install Rejowan.Tessera`
Windows, Scoop	`scoop bucket add tessera https://github.com/ahmmedrejowan/scoop-tessera && scoop install tessera`
Windows, Chocolatey	`choco install tessera`
Arch Linux	`yay -S tessera-bin`

Homebrew is worth preferring on a Mac: it clears the download flag as it installs, so none of the below applies.

Or take a file from the list above.

These builds are not notarised by Apple or signed with a Windows certificate, so each system asks once, the first time you open Tessera.

macOS says it cannot verify the app is free from malware. Press Done, then open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, and press Open Anyway beside Tessera. Confirm with Touch ID or your password, then press Open. On macOS 14 and earlier, right-click Tessera and choose Open instead.

Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux says nothing. chmod +x Tessera-*.AppImage, sudo dpkg -i Tessera-*.deb, or sudo rpm -i Tessera-*.rpm.

Take the file that matches your computer: arm64 for Apple Silicon, x64 for Intel. The SHA256SUMS files beside them are the checksums of everything built here, and each file carries a signed record of the commit and workflow that produced it:

gh attestation verify <file> -R ahmmedrejowan/tessera

15 files published232 downloads

File	For	Size
`Tessera-1.0.1-mac-arm64.dmg`	macOS, Apple Silicon	116 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-mac-arm64.zip`	macOS, Apple Silicon	115 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-mac-x64.dmg`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-mac-x64.zip`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-win-arm64.exe`	Windows, Arm	97.1 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-win-arm64.zip`	Windows, Arm	139 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-win-x64.exe`	Windows, x64	103 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-win.exe`	Windows, x64 and Arm together	200 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-win-x64.zip`	Windows, x64	141 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-linux-x86_64.AppImage`	Linux, Any distribution	123 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-linux-amd64.deb`	Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	98.0 MB
`Tessera-1.0.1-linux-x86_64.rpm`	Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL	87.8 MB
`SHA256SUMS-Linux.txt`	Linux	295 B
`SHA256SUMS-macOS.txt`	macOS	372 B
`SHA256SUMS-Windows.txt`	Windows	460 B

This release on GitHub

Old versions

1.0.0

September 29, 2026

#What's new

Tessera keeps every game asset you have collected in one place, with its license and its source on record, and puts it into your game with the credits written for you.

This is the first version I am willing to call finished. Two previews came before it; what changed between them and this is at the bottom. Everything here has been used, not only tested: the backups were made and restored onto a computer that had never seen the library, and every file came back byte for byte.

#Your library

A library is an ordinary folder of ordinary files. No database you cannot open, no format only Tessera can read: your packs are in there exactly as they arrived, and if Tessera vanished tomorrow you would still have everything. Keep as many libraries as you like, on internal drives, external ones or a network share, and switch between them from the top right. Each carries its own settings, backups and sync.

Packs too big or too many to copy can be read where they lie instead, indexed in place with nothing written to their folder, and taken into the library later if you change your mind.

#Getting things in

Drag packs onto the window, choose files or a folder, or paste a link and let Tessera fetch it. Asset pages from Kenney, Poly Haven, ambientCG, OpenGameArt, GitHub releases, Google Drive and Dropbox are followed to the file behind them. Downloads pause, resume and retry, a few at a time.

Your download is copied in as it arrived, archives included, and read inside for what it holds: models, textures, sprites, UI, audio, music, fonts and HDRIs. Nothing is unpacked, renamed or re-encoded. Add more files to a pack you already have, with a place inside it and terms of their own if they came from somewhere else.

#The license, and the proof

This is the part the rest is built around. Tessera reads the license and the source from the pack's own files where it can, and keeps a page snapshot and an archive.org copy as proof of what the terms were on the day you got it. A pack whose terms are unclear waits in Review rather than joining the library on a guess, and parts of a bundle can carry terms of their own.

Tell Tessera that a site's packs are CC0 and the next one from that site fills itself in.

#Finding it again

Search across packs, assets and tags, with filters for type, format, source, creator, license, genre, style and tags, and sorting that makes sense for each. Collections gather things by hand, or by a rule that keeps itself up to date. Star what you keep coming back to; archive what you want kept but out of the way.

Tested at 400 packs and 120,000 files: the first page of assets in 37 ms, a search in 62 ms.

#Looking at it

3D models, images, HDRIs, sprites, sounds and fonts, previewed in the window without unpacking anything, including files inside archives. Contents are read once and remembered, in the background and out of your way.

#Into your game

Link a Unity, Godot or Unreal project, or any folder. Assets arrive in the format that engine reads best, with the textures and materials they depend on, a license file for each pack beside them, and a CREDITS.md kept up to date as you add and remove things.

A game you have been making for years is handled too: Find assets already here matches what is in your project against your library by content rather than by name, and records them where they are, so your credits cover what you actually ship without a second copy of anything.

Nothing is ever written over without asking. Where your game already has a file under a name a copy wants, the two are compared byte for byte and only a genuinely different file stops to ask: keep yours, write over it, or keep both.

#Keeping it safe

Encrypted backups through Kopia, to a drive, a cloud drive, cloud storage or your own server, with a recovery kit that holds everything needed to restore on a computer that has never seen the library. Pause them for a while without letting go of anything, or disconnect and keep the backups you have. Sync a library between your own computers with Syncthing, with nothing in the middle.

Deleting means the library's own bin, which puts things back where they were.

#AI agents

While Tessera is open it answers agents on this computer alone, with 65 tools covering everything the window can do. You choose what they may reach, and the app's own settings and deleting for good start switched off. Every call is listed and every change is in Activity, so you can see what was done in your name.

#Where it runs

macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows 10 and 11, and Linux as an AppImage, a .deb or an .rpm. Install with Homebrew, winget, Scoop, Chocolatey or the AUR, or download it directly.

#What changed since the previews

A copy into a game compares contents with SHA-256 before it writes, and a name already taken is a question rather than a silent skip.
Taking a pack into the library brings its records with it: stars, collections, part-license rules and every game that had taken from it.
A game's page has the same head as a pack's, with tabs for what it has taken, its credits file shown as both markdown and the result, and its settings.
One queue for everything that writes to the library, so two operations can no longer land in each other's folders.
Backups can be paused without being disconnected, and both say what they will do before they do it and what happened afterwards.
Choosing a cloud folder for backups says what that means, and suggests a folder that can actually be written to.
The shape of the page arrives while it loads, rather than a spinner that says nothing.

#Said plainly

The builds are not signed. macOS says it cannot verify the app; the way past it is System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway. Windows shows a SmartScreen warning.
Linux is built and tested on every change, and the app is driven end to end there by the test suite, but no person has yet sat down and used it. Changes made outside Tessera are not noticed on Linux while it is open.
A library has one backup place. Setting up a second replaces the first.
Backing up into a folder your cloud app syncs means Tessera is finished when the files are written; your cloud app uploads them afterwards, on its own schedule. Signing in to the provider instead uploads from Tessera and can tell you when it is done.

#Installing

With a package manager:

System	What to type
macOS	`brew tap ahmmedrejowan/tessera && brew install --cask tessera`
Windows	`winget install Rejowan.Tessera`
Windows, Scoop	`scoop bucket add tessera https://github.com/ahmmedrejowan/scoop-tessera && scoop install tessera`
Windows, Chocolatey	`choco install tessera`
Arch Linux	`yay -S tessera-bin`

Homebrew is worth preferring on a Mac: it clears the download flag as it installs, so none of the below applies.

Or take a file from the list above.

These builds are not notarised by Apple or signed with a Windows certificate, so each system asks once, the first time you open Tessera.

Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux says nothing. chmod +x Tessera-*.AppImage, sudo dpkg -i Tessera-*.deb, or sudo rpm -i Tessera-*.rpm.

gh attestation verify <file> -R ahmmedrejowan/tessera

15 files published96 downloads

File	For	Size
`Tessera-1.0.0-mac-arm64.dmg`	macOS, Apple Silicon	116 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-mac-arm64.zip`	macOS, Apple Silicon	115 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-mac-x64.dmg`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-mac-x64.zip`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-win-arm64.exe`	Windows, Arm	97.1 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-win-arm64.zip`	Windows, Arm	139 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-win-x64.exe`	Windows, x64	103 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-win.exe`	Windows, x64 and Arm together	200 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-win-x64.zip`	Windows, x64	141 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage`	Linux, Any distribution	123 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-linux-amd64.deb`	Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	98.0 MB
`Tessera-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.rpm`	Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL	87.8 MB
`SHA256SUMS-Linux.txt`	Linux	295 B
`SHA256SUMS-macOS.txt`	macOS	372 B
`SHA256SUMS-Windows.txt`	Windows	460 B

This release on GitHub

0.2.0

September 29, 2026Pre-release

#What's new

Still a preview, and the last one before the finished version. Two things in it are worth knowing about before you rely on them: backups and sync have never been restored or paired by anybody but their tests. Keep a copy of anything you cannot lose.

A copy into a game never writes over your work. Where the game already has a file under a name a copy wants, the two are compared byte for byte with SHA-256. The same file is left alone and nothing is written. A different file stops and asks: keep what the game has, write over it, or keep both, with Tessera's copy coming in beside yours as "name (2)". Keeping yours is what is offered first, and it is what an agent gets unless it is told otherwise.
Taking a pack into the library brings its records with it. A pack read where it lies has its files renamed when it is copied in, and the star, the collections, the pack's own part-license rules and every game that had taken from it now follow the rename instead of pointing at a name that no longer exists.
A game's page has the same head as a pack's, and three tabs: what has been copied in, the credits file, and its settings. The credits are shown both ways at once, the markdown beside what it comes out as, so a missing credit line is visible before anybody else reads it.
One queue for everything that writes to the library. Importing, deleting, restoring, taking a pack in and adding files take turns in the order they were asked for, so two of them can no longer land in each other's folders.
What every file contains is worked out in the background and remembered, which is what finds duplicates, recognizes an asset a game already has, and answers "have I got this already".
American spelling throughout, with libraries written by the first preview still read as they are and moved over on their next save.
While something is on its way the window draws the shape of the page rather than a spinner, and says so if opening the library is taking long enough to suggest your computer is waiting for an answer about folder permission.
The version is beside the name at the top left, so a problem report can say which one.

#Installing

With a package manager:

System	What to type
macOS	`brew tap ahmmedrejowan/tessera && brew install --cask tessera`
Windows	`winget install Rejowan.Tessera`
Windows, Scoop	`scoop bucket add tessera https://github.com/ahmmedrejowan/scoop-tessera && scoop install tessera`
Windows, Chocolatey	`choco install tessera`
Arch Linux	`yay -S tessera-bin`

Homebrew is worth preferring on a Mac: it clears the download flag as it installs, so none of the below applies.

Or take a file from the list above.

These builds are not notarised by Apple or signed with a Windows certificate, so each system asks once, the first time you open Tessera.

Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux says nothing. chmod +x Tessera-*.AppImage, sudo dpkg -i Tessera-*.deb, or sudo rpm -i Tessera-*.rpm.

gh attestation verify <file> -R ahmmedrejowan/tessera

15 files published46 downloads

File	For	Size
`Tessera-0.2.0-mac-arm64.dmg`	macOS, Apple Silicon	116 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-mac-arm64.zip`	macOS, Apple Silicon	115 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-mac-x64.dmg`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-mac-x64.zip`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-win-arm64.exe`	Windows, Arm	97.1 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-win-arm64.zip`	Windows, Arm	139 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-win-x64.exe`	Windows, x64	103 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-win.exe`	Windows, x64 and Arm together	200 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-win-x64.zip`	Windows, x64	141 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage`	Linux, Any distribution	123 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-linux-amd64.deb`	Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	98.0 MB
`Tessera-0.2.0-linux-x86_64.rpm`	Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL	87.8 MB
`SHA256SUMS-Linux.txt`	Linux	295 B
`SHA256SUMS-macOS.txt`	macOS	372 B
`SHA256SUMS-Windows.txt`	Windows	460 B

This release on GitHub

0.1.0

September 25, 2026Pre-release

#What's new

The first working version, published as a preview: everything below is in the app today, and the parts that touch somebody's own files have been held to it. Treat it as a preview all the same, keep a copy of anything you cannot lose, and tell me what breaks.

Libraries, as many as you like, each its own folder of ordinary files and folders. The switcher at the top right moves between them; each keeps its own settings, backups and sync.
Packs kept whole: your download is copied in as it is, archives included, and read inside for what it holds: models, textures, sprites, UI, audio, music, fonts and HDRIs.
License and source on record: read from the pack's own files where possible, with a page snapshot and an archive.org copy kept as proof. Anything unclear waits in Review.
Adding: drag packs in, choose files or a folder, or paste links; a full page opens with everything Tessera could work out already filled in, and batches are filled in once for many.
Add to a pack you already have: more files into a pack in the library, from its page or by dropping them on it, with a place inside the pack and terms of their own if they came from somewhere else.
Starred, archived, in the bin: star anything worth coming back to; archive a pack you want kept but out of the way; deleting means the library's own bin, which puts things back where they were.
AI agents: while Tessera is open it answers agents on this computer alone, with 49 tools covering everything the window can do. You choose what they may reach; the app's own settings and deleting for good start switched off. Every call is listed, and every change is in Activity.
Update checks and error reports, both on your say-so and neither carrying anything about you.
Sites you've settled: tell Tessera a site's packs are CC0 and its next ones fill themselves.
Downloads: bring links, one or a list; asset pages from Kenney, Poly Haven, ambientCG, OpenGameArt, GitHub releases, Google Drive and Dropbox lead to the file behind them. Pause, carry on, retry, and a few at a time.
Finding: search across packs, assets and tags, with filters by type, format, source, creator, license, genre, style and tags. Collections, and saved searches that keep themselves up to date.
Game projects: Unity, Godot, Unreal or any folder: assets arrive with their textures, a license file per pack and a CREDITS.md kept up to date.
Backups and sync: encrypted backups with Kopia to a drive, a cloud drive, cloud storage or a server; sync between your own computers with Syncthing.
Previews: 3D models, images, HDRIs, sounds and fonts, shown in the app.
Where it runs: macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel, Windows 10 and 11, and Linux as an AppImage, a .deb or an .rpm.

#Installing

Take the file for your computer from the list below. arm64 is Apple Silicon and Arm Windows, x64 is Intel and AMD. On Windows, Tessera-0.1.0-win.exe holds both and is the one to take if you are unsure.

Installing through Homebrew, Scoop, winget, Chocolatey or the AUR is built and waiting on its accounts; none of them carries this preview yet, so the commands in the readme will not find it. A direct download is the way in for now.

These builds are not notarised by Apple or signed with a Windows certificate, so each system asks once, the first time you open Tessera.

Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Linux says nothing. chmod +x Tessera-*.AppImage, sudo dpkg -i Tessera-*.deb, or sudo rpm -i Tessera-*.rpm.

The SHA256SUMS files beside the downloads are the checksums of everything built here, and each file carries a signed record of the commit and workflow that produced it:

gh attestation verify <file> -R ahmmedrejowan/tessera

15 files published173 downloads

File	For	Size
`Tessera-0.1.0-mac-arm64.dmg`	macOS, Apple Silicon	116 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-mac-arm64.zip`	macOS, Apple Silicon	115 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-mac-x64.dmg`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-mac-x64.zip`	macOS, Intel	122 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-win-arm64.exe`	Windows, Arm	97.2 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-win-arm64.zip`	Windows, Arm	139 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-win-x64.exe`	Windows, x64	103 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-win.exe`	Windows, x64 and Arm together	200 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-win-x64.zip`	Windows, x64	141 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage`	Linux, Any distribution	123 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-linux-amd64.deb`	Linux, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint	98.0 MB
`Tessera-0.1.0-linux-x86_64.rpm`	Linux, Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL	87.8 MB
`SHA256SUMS-Linux.txt`	Linux	295 B
`SHA256SUMS-macOS.txt`	macOS	372 B
`SHA256SUMS-Windows.txt`	Windows	460 B

This release on GitHub