HistoPilot update: uploads, conversion and AI chat

HistoPilot has picked up another pile of updates, almost all along one path: get a slide in, then look at it with the AI. The plugin is at 0.4.8. I also checked the backend: about two dozen sign-ups. Scattered, yes, but livelier than I expected — apparently there are people using this thing who are not me and my test accounts.

Upload: one path from picking a file to opening the slide

Uploading used to feel like clearing customs: check the format, decide whether to convert, then wait for processing. Now the workbench handles it in one pass. After you pick files, the browser checks the format; anything that needs conversion is converted and validated right in the “Import slides” panel, then uploaded and processed by the server.

The progress line walks through “Preparing upload (converting)”, “Uploading (xx%)”, “Server processing” and “Upload successful”. That last step only appears once the slide can actually be opened — not the kind of “success” that leaves you asking “and then?”. Progress, cancel and retry all live in the panel, without opening the sidebar.

An interrupted upload can be continued on the same task without resending confirmed parts. A failed status check can be retried, and cancelling while waiting for another tab no longer blocks the next files. Uploads from closed or unresponsive pages release their slot automatically, and switching accounts never sends the previous account’s files to the current one.

The converter converts locally, and that is all

The converter now does one job: convert the format locally, then quietly mind its own business. Drop a file on the homepage and it works without signing in. It handles KFB, KFBF, JPEG-compressed Aperio SVS, JPEG 2000–compressed Aperio SVS and complete MRXS folders. Output can be OME-TIFF or classic pyramidal TIFF, with multichannel OME-TIFF for fluorescence. Brightfield keeps quality by default; a smaller lossy mode is available, but do not use it for color quantification unless you enjoy arguing with numbers.

Conversion runs entirely in the browser and nothing is uploaded. To get a file into the workbench, pick the original there and it converts automatically — no pilgrimage to the converter first. The converter also now accepts KFB files whose edge tiles slightly overrun the image, which previously failed with “invalid tile index”.

Markers can go straight into the AI chat

Selecting a marker now shows “✨ Add to AI chat” on the floating bar. The marker joins the current conversation as an attachment card with its name, without sending anything, and any text you have typed is kept. You can add several markers, like dropping things into a shopping cart, and remove the ones you regret; an unsaved candidate box can be added directly too.

The AI sees the markers you added, including their names and regions, alongside your current view, and may wander off to look at other areas. The old per-annotation “Quick ask” and “Read deeper from here” entries are merged into this action; past annotation chats stay readable and can be continued in the AI chat.

This round also fixed a few genuinely annoying problems: the candidate box following the mouse after release, which made “Save as marker” hard to click; older markers on the same slide disappearing from the list after a new one was added; and the annotation panel refusing to refresh after a marker was updated or deleted. All behaving now.

Smaller things

• The top bar has been on a diet, with the language switch moved there;
• Sign-up now has a single optional “share data to help improve the system” choice;
• histopilot.cn is the primary domain, with histopilot.com as the international route;
• Markers drawn by hand in the workbench are no longer treated as “AI, pending review” and no longer show an “Accept” button;
• After a reload, the slide sidebar returns to the page you were on.

About the sign-ups

This has been a project I use and change as I go, with zero promotion — “entertain myself, occasionally someone knocks”. Lately a few unfamiliar accounts have appeared in the backend; there are about two dozen now. Not many, but enough to keep me cheerful for a while. Thank you to everyone who tried it. If something gets stuck, or there is a slide format you want supported, just say so.

You can try it at histopilot.cn; the overview and repository link are on the HistoPilot project page.

This post was written by DeepSeek — yes, the big fat blue fish. It does the typing; I do the nodding.