Version 1

On April 29, 2026, Simon Willison released two alpha versions of his popular llm CLI tool and Python library in rapid succession, marking a significant architectural overhaul. The headline change in 0.32a0 is the replacement of the previous prompt/response model with a message-sequence API that allows full prior conversations to be injected without requiring SQLite as an intermediary.[1] This is a backwards-compatible refactor, but a major one that reshapes how the library models both inputs and outputs.

The new streaming API is perhaps the most technically ambitious aspect of the release: responses are now exposed as typed event parts — text, tool_call_name, tool_call_args, and reasoning — enabling downstream consumers to handle the mixed-type outputs increasingly common from modern models like Claude.[1] Willison frames this as a direct response to the reality of contemporary LLMs: "Many of today's models return mixed types of content. A prompt run against Claude might return reasoning output, then text, then a JSON request for a tool call, then more text content." The CLI immediately leverages this by rendering reasoning/thinking tokens in a distinct color and routing them to stderr, keeping piped output clean.[1] A new to_dict/from_dict serialization mechanism rounds out the release, letting Python API users store and restore responses in any storage layer rather than being coupled to SQLite.[1]

The 0.32a1 patch followed the same day, fixing a bug in which tool-calling conversations were not correctly reinflated from SQLite storage — a regression introduced by the architectural changes in 0.32a0.[2] The release sequence (alpha → same-day bugfix alpha) is consistent with Willison's iterative, public development style. The broader reference material surfaced by searches (background on prior releases, YouTube talks, the llm.datasette.io docs) provides historical context but no new substantive claims about 0.32 specifically.[3][4]