# Cicada- an agentic Python IDE Free to use ( comes with built in small model)

> Source: <https://github.com/godsonj64/Cicada/releases/tag/v0.4.0>
> Published: 2026-07-15 02:17:13+00:00

# Cicada 0.4.0

Frictionless first run and a self-healing pipeline. This release focuses on what happens when things go wrong — especially with a small local model — and makes recovery automatic or one click away.

## Zero-setup first launch

**The default model now downloads itself.** On first run, if no`.gguf`

is present, Cicada fetches Qwen2.5-Coder 3B Instruct (~1.9 GB) from Hugging Face with live progress in the status pill — on top of the existing llama.cpp auto-install. Fresh machine → working agentic IDE with no manual steps.- Interrupted downloads never leave a truncated model behind (atomic
`.part`

→ rename, with a sanity check against error pages).

## Self-healing resilience

**Transient model failures are retried.** Connection drops, 5xx and 429 responses in any pipeline stage, chat turn, fix loop, or inpaint heal are retried automatically, polling`llama-server`

's`/health`

between attempts so a reloading server gets a real chance. Bad requests (4xx) and user cancels are never retried.**A crashed**— up to 3 times in a rolling 10-minute window, narrated in the status pill ("Model crashed — restarting it…"). Persistent crashes surface a real, actionable error instead of a dead pill.`llama-server`

restarts itself**No-code answers are re-asked.** When a code-producing stage (Generate, Apply Changes, Edit Selection) returns prose with no usable fenced block — the most common small-model failure — the pipeline automatically asks once more with a firmer instruction before reporting an error. Token-budget truncation still gets the targeted "raise context size" message.

## Actionable errors, better feedback

- Failed agent runs now raise an
**error toast with one-click Retry**(create, refine, and edit-selection runs all remember their last request). - The
**status pill is clickable** when the model is stopped or errored: one click re-runs the full recovery path — find/download the binary, find/download the model, restart the server. Full error detail lives in the tooltip. - Starting a pipeline while the model is down now kicks recovery in the background and says so, instead of a bare "Model is not ready yet."
- Setup failures (binary or model download) show a Retry toast.

## Fixes & polish

- Windows path display fixes in the console header and Render captions (no more full
`C:\…`

paths). - Windows-safe relative paths in multi-file compile error output.
- Dock panes get a subtle fade/rise transition (disabled under reduced-motion).
- Guarded an unhandled-rejection path in background recovery.

## Verification

- All 15 model-free test suites pass (llm, inpaint, memory, env, datasets, repo, llama-installer, snapshots, experiments, github, doctor, stop, sysmon, insights, syntax check).
- New retry layer covered by an integration check against a mock failing server (503×2 → success).

**Downloads:** `Cicada-Setup-0.4.0-x64.exe`

(installer) · `Cicada-Portable-0.4.0-x64.exe`

(portable, no install)

Binaries are unsigned; SmartScreen may ask to "Run anyway" on first launch.