Mantle

Mantle Chat Monthly Update: May 2026

By Mantle Chat Team
Jun 2, 2026
9 min read
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Mantle Chat Monthly Update: May 2026

May was a milestone month. We did three big things:

  1. We finished the web app features we'd planned all spring: Organizations, Direct Messages, Agent Templates, real-time credit enforcement, and a fully redesigned chat layout.
  2. We launched publicly on Product Hunt and Peerlist.
  3. We started building the first Mantle Desktop app. We're targeting an October–November launch.

We spent the rest of the month rebuilding how you sign in on an enterprise-grade foundation, rolling out self-serve Team plans, hardening reliability so the launch held up, collecting our first round of feedback, and beginning our first conversations with investors. We also took part in HappySupport's data study comparing five Product Hunt launches, sharing our real launch numbers and lessons, like why a clear first comment and ready-to-go self-serve docs mattered more than chasing upvotes.

Now, more on everything.

A First Look at Mantle Desktop

The work we're most excited about is just getting started: we've begun building a Mantle Desktop app for Mac. This month we laid the foundation, a Mac-first Electron shell around the existing Mantle experience. It's an internal alpha today, and we're targeting a public launch in October–November 2026.

Mantle Chat Alpha Dev in the macOS dock

What we've built so far (early alpha):

  • Mac app shell: An Electron app that runs the full Mantle experience in its own window, with its own app icon
  • Desktop notifications: A first pass at macOS notifications for direct messages, so you're reachable when Mantle isn't in focus
  • Unread badge: An early unread indicator right on the app
  • Native Mac install: It installs and launches like a real Mac app, so our internal testers can run it without any developer setup
  • Continuous iteration: We're rolling out fresh internal builds regularly, so the experience keeps improving week over week
  • Always in sync: Just like on the web, your chats, channels, and DMs stay in real-time sync across the app

Mantle Desktop app on macOS

Secure from the start: the app runs sandboxed, with no Node access in the web layer. Sign-in happens in your system browser through WorkOS with a one-time token, so your credentials are never handled inside the app window.

Heads up: This is an early internal alpha, not a public release. Signing, notarization, auto-update, and a Windows build are still ahead. We'll share builds more widely as we get closer to the fall release. Stay tuned.

We Launched 🚀

May is the month Mantle Chat went public. We came out of beta and launched on Product Hunt and Peerlist, finishing 4th on both. You'll now find our launch badges in the footer.

Mantle Chat's launch on Product Hunt

What we shipped to launch with confidence:

  • Launch stability: Hardened the stack so we could spot and resolve issues in real time
  • Billing for scheduled agent runs: Scheduled task and trigger AI runs are now billed to the right account, with model-access enforcement

Team Plans, Built In

With Organizations giving teams a real home in Mantle, the natural next step was letting them pay as a team. In May we rolled out self-serve Team plans alongside a cleaner, unified pricing page.

Mantle Chat's unified pricing page

What's new:

  • One clear lineup: Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise now sit side by side, so it's obvious which plan fits you
  • Self-serve Team billing: Organization owners can buy and manage seats for the whole team in a few clicks, no sales call required
  • Monthly or annual: Pro and Team are now available on a yearly cadence too, so you can save by paying annually
  • Individual and Team, kept separate: Your personal Pro plan and your organization's Team plan are billed independently and never step on each other
  • Invoice history: Both individual and organization billing now show your full invoice history right in settings

Team plans also tie into the new sign-in foundation below. Single sign-on is on the way for Team organizations.

Polishing the Web App

Before launch we wanted the web app to feel finished, not "almost there", so we spent the month polishing it and making it easier to use.

What we polished:

  • Workspace header & sidebar: Cleaner header actions, denser sidebar items (including DMs), and smoother transitions
  • Folder menu: Opens below its trigger and behaves consistently
  • Empty states & plan banner: Tidied alignment so first-run workspaces look intentional
  • Snappier tooltips: Shortened the hover delay

With Organizations, Direct Messages, Agent Templates, and real-time credit enforcement all live, the web app is now complete for launch.

A New Foundation for Sign-In

Behind the scenes, May included one of the largest pieces of work we've ever shipped: we rebuilt the foundation of how you sign in to Mantle on enterprise-grade authentication powered by WorkOS.

The best part: you didn't have to do anything. Every existing account carried over seamlessly, no password resets, no re-registration, no lost workspaces.

What this unlocks:

  • Enterprise-grade security: Sign-in now runs on a dedicated identity platform built for modern software companies
  • A clearer profile: Your settings page shows exactly how you sign in, whether Google, SSO, password, or magic link
  • Groundwork for Team SSO: This is the foundation for single sign-on, so Team organizations will be able to bring their own identity provider
  • Smoother logins everywhere: We ironed out sign-in edge cases across devices, from redirect loops to mobile login callbacks

Rebuilding something this central means getting the details right, so we hardened account handling across web and desktop:

  • Session resilience: Fixed sleep/resume recovery (no more 401 loops or stale tokens after a device wakes) and cleaner session refresh
  • Cookie hygiene: Clear legacy and expired sign-in cookies across web and desktop
  • Account deletion: Repaired account deletion end to end, with accurate status messaging

More Improvements

A month this big comes with a long tail of smaller fixes and quality-of-life touches:

  • Direct message email reminders: Unread DMs now trigger the same gentle email nudges as mentions, with deep links straight to the conversation
  • Cleaner code blocks in chat: Pasting a multi-line snippet into a code block keeps your formatting intact, and long lines no longer clip or overflow the message
  • Custom icons for orgs and agents: Upload your own image for an organization or agent, right alongside the built-in icons and emoji
  • Theme switch in quick settings: The light/dark toggle is now on by default in quick settings, so switching is always one click away
  • A refreshed demo and library: We tidied up the interactive demo and workspace library layouts for a more scannable, organized feel

A New Chapter: Stepping Into the Startup World

With a launched product and a feature-complete web app, May was also when we stepped into the wider startup world for the first time. We started:

  • Collecting real user feedback
  • Running surveys on what matters most in the industry right now
  • Our first conversations with investors
  • Building a deeper understanding of how the investment market works
  • Connecting with other founders and peers
  • Attending conferences, as both guests and speakers

Our thesis is simple: teams shouldn't juggle three or four disconnected tools for communication, AI access, and automation that were never designed to work together. Mantle brings all three into one workspace, with shared context and EU-native infrastructure from day one. We're early and building in the open, and if you're an investor, an operator, or a team that wants to go deep with us, we'd genuinely love to talk.

Thank You

May was the month the pieces came together: a finished web app, out of beta and in front of the world, the desktop app underway, and our first investor conversations started. None of it happens without the people who use Mantle every day and tell us what's working and what isn't. Thank you. Your feedback shapes every decision we make, and there's a lot more coming, with the desktop launch this fall at the top of the list.

Connect With Us

Have questions or feedback? We'd love to hear from you:

Let's build the future of AI collaboration together. 🚀

— The Mantle Chat Team