WIP: ai-assistant 0.4.0-alpha draft release notes

[illume]

Draft release notes

AI Assistant 0.4.0-alpha expands model provider auto discovery, and improves localization, the reliability of chat, diagnosis, and skills workflows.

Added

• Localize the AI Assistant UI in 18 languages while keeping translated prompt labels separate from model input. (ai-assistant: Add i18n support for 18 languages #941)
• Discover Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Services chat deployments across all enabled Azure subscriptions. Auto-detection keeps scoped resource identity, filters unusable deployments, verifies selected providers before saving, and reports actionable RBAC and network errors. (ai-assistant: Detect Azure models across subscriptions #998)
• On AKS, preconfigure the read-only aks-mcp server and AKS skills, bind discovered MCP tools to the chat model, and add the current AKS project and view to assistant context. User-customized MCP and skills settings remain untouched. (ai-assistant: AKS mcp configured by default for aks-desktop #1129)

Changed

• Update DeepSeek presets to deepseek-v4-pro and deepseek-v4-flash. (ai-assistant: Update DeepSeek model names to deepseek-v4-pro and deepseek-v4-flash. #934)
• Reuse downloaded skills until an explicit reload, queue table-triggered diagnosis until the assistant is ready, preserve explicit Chat mode selection, and improve sidebar scrolling. (ai-assistant: improve cached skills and sidebar workflows #919)
• Use the correct GitHub Copilot icon and hide Holmes-specific controls and health checks on AKS Desktop, where Holmes is not applicable. (ai-assistant: fix Copilot icon and hide Holmes on AKS Desktop #1242)
• Improve AI Assistant logo colors across different themes. (ai-assistant: Fix logo colors for light dark and aks #932)

Fixed

• Improve command-runner cancellation, provider verification feedback, legacy configuration re-detection, and authorization error explanations. (ai-assistant: Detect Azure models across subscriptions #998)
• Keep the model picker value in range and prevent repeated event requests from flooding unreachable Kubernetes clusters. (ai-assistant: Detect Azure models across subscriptions #998)
• Reject disabled queued diagnosis work and document stable skill cache behavior. (ai-assistant: improve cached skills and sidebar workflows #919)

Maintenance

• Update dependencies with audit fixes. (ai-assistant: Bump deps with npm audit fix #1158)
• Pin the Headlamp end-to-end test image by digest. (ai-assistant: Pin headlamp e2e image by digest #1000)

Included pull requests

• ai-assistant: improve cached skills and sidebar workflows #919
• ai-assistant: Fix logo colors for light dark and aks #932
• ai-assistant: Update DeepSeek model names to deepseek-v4-pro and deepseek-v4-flash. #934
• ai-assistant: Add i18n support for 18 languages #941
• ai-assistant: Detect Azure models across subscriptions #998
• ai-assistant: Pin headlamp e2e image by digest #1000
• ai-assistant: AKS mcp configured by default for aks-desktop #1129
• ai-assistant: Bump deps with npm audit fix #1158
• ai-assistant: fix Copilot icon and hide Holmes on AKS Desktop #1242

Full comparison: ai-assistant-0.3.0-alpha...main