🎨 Darkwood v1.0.4 - Introducing Design V4

on March 16, 2026

Darkwood v1.0.4 is now live.

This release introduces Design V4, the fourth major visual iteration of Darkwood.

For new readers, there are two different versioning ideas here:

v1.0.4 is the software release
Design V4 is the fourth evolution of Darkwood’s interface

Over the years, Darkwood has gone through several design iterations:

V1 focused on the first visual identity
V2 explored new layout directions
V3 refined the brand and overall structure
V4 reworks navigation across the entire site

So this release is not “Darkwood version 4” in the product sense. It is release v1.0.4, which brings Darkwood Design V4.

And this matters, because this update is more than visual polish. It also modernizes the technical stack and opens Darkwood to AI-powered workflows.

Release notes: https://github.com/darkwood-com/darkwood-com/releases/tag/v1.0.4

What Is Darkwood?

Darkwood is an API-first tactical game.

It is built as both:

a playable game system
a technical playground
a Symfony application designed for long-term experimentation

The core idea is simple: gameplay should not depend entirely on the graphical interface.

The UI is important, but the game logic lives in the API first.

That approach was described previously here: https://blog.darkwood.com/article/darkwood-building-an-api-first-tactical-game

This release continues that direction.

Darkwood now combines:

a redesigned interface
an updated PHP stack
and MCP integration for AI agents

Why Design V4?

Over time, Darkwood accumulated layers.

Pages were added. Experiments were integrated. Navigation expanded.

The result was functional, but not always clear.

Design V4 focuses on one main objective:

make navigation feel natural again.

The biggest change from V3 to V4 is not the brand itself. It is the way users move through the site.

Previous iterations were mostly about layout and visual identity. This one is about navigation architecture.

The new design was first explored with Pencil, which helped accelerate interface studies and layout decisions before implementation.

It also benefits directly from lessons learned while building Uniflow.

In Uniflow, a lot of work went into making menus clearer across desktop and mobile. That experience helped shape Darkwood’s new navigation model.

A good way to summarize that mindset is:

Think macro, act micro.

At a macro level, the platform needs a clear structure. At a micro level, every interaction needs to stay simple.

That is the spirit behind Design V4.

What Changed in the Interface

A New Navigation Structure

The most visible change is the navigation.

Darkwood now uses a top-centered navigation instead of the previous side-oriented structure.

The site is organized around four main sections:

Play - access the tactical game
World - explore the universe and context around it
Journal - read technical articles and development notes
Projects - discover experiments and related work

This makes the platform easier to understand at first glance.

Instead of feeling fragmented, the experience is now organized around four clear entry points.

The same logic is used across desktop and mobile, so the navigation remains consistent regardless of device.

A Lighter Header

The header was redesigned to feel lighter and more deliberate.

It stays available during scroll, but with less visual weight.

The goal was not to make it more decorative. The goal was to make it more useful.

A Reworked Footer

The footer was also restructured.

It now groups content more clearly while staying secondary to the page itself.

The intention was to improve orientation without making the footer dominate the reading experience.

A More Cohesive Visual System

Design V4 also introduces a broader cleanup across the site:

improved spacing
cleaner button hierarchy
better mobile navigation
refined login experience
more consistent layout behavior

This is not a radical redesign. It is a coherence pass across the full experience.

Built with an Updated Stack

This release also updates Darkwood’s technical foundation.

Darkwood now runs with:

PHP 8.5
Symfony 8
FrankenPHP v1.12.1

It also includes:

migration of controllers from annotations to PHP attributes
updated Nix and CI configuration
upgraded recipes and framework configuration
deprecation fixes around the Darkwood IA Exception Bundle
production hardening on several points, including SEO, Castor, user serialization, reCAPTCHA, and optional Baserow integration

The objective here is simple:

keep the platform current, fast, and maintainable.

Not for fashion. For durability.

Darkwood should be able to grow without carrying avoidable technical friction.

MCP Integration for AI Workflows

This release also adds MCP tool integration through API Platform’s new AI capabilities.

Reference: https://les-tilleuls.coop/blog/sortie-dapi-platform-4-3-rencontre-avec-lia

This fits naturally with Darkwood’s API-first approach.

If the game logic already exists as an API, exposing it to AI agents becomes an extension of the same philosophy.

In other words, the tactical game was already programmable. Now it is also agent-ready.

DarkwoodGame MCP Tools

The DarkwoodGame API resource now exposes four MCP tools:

get_darkwood_state Returns the current game state
darkwood_action Executes a game action from input
list_darkwood_archives Lists archived puzzle snapshots for premium users
get_darkwood_archive Retrieves one archive by id for premium users

All of them use structured content output, which means the API response is directly returned as MCP tool output.

No new HTTP routes were introduced for this.

The MCP layer simply exposes existing API capabilities in a way AI agents can consume cleanly.

Article MCP Tools

Darkwood articles are also now exposed through MCP.

Two tools were added:

list_articles
get_article

This allows AI agents to retrieve structured article data while keeping the same security rules as the API resource itself.

Again, the goal is not to duplicate the application. It is to make the existing system accessible through a new interaction layer.

Free vs Premium

Darkwood currently runs as Beta Season 0.

The commercial proposal remains the same.

Two types of access keys are available.

🎟 Beta Access (Free)

Personal API key
Limited daily actions
Access to the current playable state
No archive access

💎 Founder Premium

Personal API key
Unlimited daily actions
Access to archived puzzle snapshots
Early supporter status

Archives are read-only snapshots of past playable states. They expose historical game states without affecting the live game.

Limited Founder Release

This release stays intentionally small.

Available now:

5 Beta Access keys
5 Founder Premium keys

That’s all.

This is not a mass-market launch. It is a controlled release meant to validate the model.

Access is handled through Bonzai:

Beta Access (Free) https://www.bonzai.pro/matyo91/shop/yDxv_7247/darkwood-api-beta-access-free

Founder Premium https://www.bonzai.pro/matyo91/shop/lQxn_7249/darkwood-api-founder-premium

Each key is personal, and can be rotated if needed.

What This Release Really Means

Darkwood v1.0.4 is a release with three goals:

make the interface easier to navigate
update the technical stack to modern standards
extend the API-first game model to AI agents through MCP

Design V4 is the visible part.

But behind it, the project is also becoming more solid and more open.

The same tactical game can now be approached through:

the website
the API
and AI-driven workflows

That continuity matters.

Darkwood is not being split into separate ideas. It is becoming more coherent.

Explore the Release

Darkwood v1.0.4 is live.

It brings Design V4, a modernized Symfony and PHP stack, and MCP integration for the API-first tactical game.

Explore the interface. Read the journal. Access the API. Or start playing.

Release: https://github.com/darkwood-com/darkwood-com/releases/tag/v1.0.4