What's New in Sidekick 26.2¶

This page covers what changed for users moving from Sidekick 26.1 to 26.2. For the previous release, see What's New in 26.1.

Note

The rest of this documentation describes 26.2. Pages such as the 26.1 release notes describe the older behavior as it shipped at the time.

One Sidekick tab per window¶

The Sidekick view type from 26.1 is gone. Each Binary Ninja window now has a single Sidekick tab that opens on a workspace ledger: one list of the workspaces in that window, with a side panel for the selected row. The Prefer Sidekick View setting has been removed along with the view type, and Plugins > Sidekick > Open Sidekick replaces the Open Sidekick View and Open Session Briefing menu items.

Open it with Plugins > Sidekick > Open Sidekick (Ctrl+K / ⌘K).
Browse the ledger by Activity, Effort, or Next step. Workspaces that are waiting on you, such as a tool call awaiting approval or an investigation blocked on your input, are flagged so you can find them quickly.
The side panel has five tabs: Chat, Memory (the session briefing, formerly the Briefing tab, with the workspace's findings below it), Tasks, Changes, and Artifacts.
Use Open Workspace to switch the window to the selected workspace.

See Working in the Sidekick Tab for the full guide.

Several workspaces per project¶

A Binary Ninja project can now hold several persistent workspaces, so you can run separate investigations over the same project files. Switch between them from the Workspace control in the status bar, create one with New Workspace…, and rename, export, or delete them from the Sidekick tab's row menu. A project's first workspace, which holds any existing project data, is named after the project, and a project with only one available workspace opens it when you open the project. See Working with Multiple Binaries in a Project.

Chat changes¶

Queue follow-ups while Sidekick is working. Pressing Return or the send button while Sidekick is busy queues your message; it runs after the current request, in the order you sent it. A queued message can be copied, removed, or sent to the current request right away with Steer now. Stop discards anything still queued.
Compaction happens in place. When a long conversation is compacted, it stays in the same chat. Earlier messages are summarized and archived behind an Earlier chat summarized divider. Skills loaded earlier in the chat stay in effect afterward.
Inspect Chat opens on Properties. Inspect Chat... now shows a readable Properties view first, with the raw JSON one tab over.

See Analyzing Binaries with Chat.

Edits apply directly and stay reviewable¶

Database edits are no longer held as pending transactions that you approve or reject. They are applied as the assistant makes them, and the Transaction Log is where you review and revert them. Tool permissions still apply: a tool that is not allowed still waits for you to Allow or Reject it.

Analysis Update details show changes as before-and-after tables, grouped by object. The transaction type, ID, and Revert action are under an expandable Details control.
Raw memory byte patches can now be reverted from the Transaction Log, and mapped views the assistant creates appear as their own transaction type.

Specialist agents¶

The Transform and Repair Analysis specialists are replaced by two new ones. Editing recovers types, class layouts, and function signatures, and repairs inaccurate local analysis. Annotating applies names and comments. The Suggest Types and Suggest Repairs commands now run through Editing, and Suggest Names and Suggest Comments through Annotating; the menu items are unchanged. See Editing Binaries with Suggestions.

Artifacts¶

Artifact cards no longer preview file contents. An expanded artifact shows its file details: name, type, size, line count for text files, and SHA-256. A button on the card opens the file, runs a Python script in a terminal after you confirm, or exports it, depending on its type.

Any stored workspace can now be exported to a .sidekick-workspace.json file without opening its binary or project first: in the Sidekick tab, right-click the workspace row and choose Export Workspace…. Importing still uses the BNDB workflow. See Sharing Analysis Data.

New analysis capabilities¶

Sidekick can now do more to understand and repair a binary:

Overlay named memory regions on an existing view and resume analysis that has stalled, which helps with files whose headers are damaged. A new skill recovers the layout of 32-bit PE files whose DOS header is damaged.
Compare a structure's members with how the code actually accesses them, and check types against their observed uses.
The research specialist can read a bounded chunk of a local text file or web page when it needs outside documentation.
Queries can be limited to some of a project's binaries, and results are grouped by binary.
Review earlier transactions, and read the full report of what a committed update changed.
New skills map function names and addresses in stripped Go binaries from pclntab data.
The Python the assistant runs is checked with Pyright first when Pyright is available; problems are reported but do not block the run. Python that reaches its time limit is now interrupted, and the result says so if it cannot be stopped.

Query and modeling languages¶

BNQL: type nodes have new @user_defined and @auto_defined attributes so you can separate types you defined from types created by the loader, platform, type libraries, or analysis. Type summaries now show the type's C declaration. See BNQL.
BNMF: enum members can be added, renamed, re-valued, and deleted, and a structure that only inherits from a base type keeps its layout. See BNMF.

Changes you may notice¶

Right-click a workspace in the Sidekick tab to export or delete it, one workspace at a time. Project workspaces also offer Rename… in that row menu. Export saves a copy and leaves the workspace in place.
Pending database edits no longer show an approval dialog with Approve and Reject buttons. Use the Transaction Log to revert an edit.