v0.6.0 — Zero-secret install with fastembed default

[norrietaylor]

v0.6.0 — Fastembed default

Distillery now installs in one command with no API keys. Embeddings run locally via bge-small-en-v1.5 (384-dim).

claude plugin install distillery@distillery-marketplace

That is the entire install. No prompt for a Jina key. No external dependency. First /recall or /distill triggers a one-time ~3.5s model download (cached thereafter); subsequent embeds are 1–2ms.

What changed

The plugin manifest now points uvx at distillery-mcp[fastembed]>=0.6.0 and sets DISTILLERY_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=fastembed by default. The [fastembed] runtime wiring landed in #538 (thanks @mackh) — this release exposes it as the install-time default.

Quality story

Distillery’s published LongMemEval HEADLINE numbers already use bge-small via fastembed:

Metric	Value
R@5	0.97
R@10	0.99
nDCG@10	0.885

The install-time UX now matches the documented benchmark.

What did NOT change

• Jina and OpenAI providers are still supported as overrides. Set DISTILLERY_EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=jina (with JINA_API_KEY) or use claude mcp add --scope user to point at any other embedding backend.
• Team OAuth setup — the github_client_id / github_client_secret userConfig fields are still declared; advanced users can wire them via env vars for hosted/team deployments.
• Hosted MCP at distillery-mcp.fly.dev — still relevant for users who prefer a managed stack; the plugin default just no longer requires it for a working install.

Cold-start budget (one-time, on first use)

Phase	Time
uvx --from distillery-mcp[fastembed] first run	~1.8s
Subsequent uvx warm runs	~89ms
import fastembed	~2.9s
Model download + ONNX load	~3.5s
First embed call	~2ms
Steady-state embed	~1ms

After the first ~5.5s setup, everything runs locally and offline. No rate limits.

Closed issues

• Closes Make fastembed the plugin install default (supersedes #466) #548 — make fastembed the plugin install default
• Closes Plugin installer: revisit userConfig wiring once upstream fixes land #466 — upstream userConfig blocker is now moot because no field needs to be required at install

Release

• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/distillery-mcp/0.6.0/
• GitHub release: https://github.com/norrietaylor/distillery/releases/tag/v0.6.0
• MCP Registry + Smithery: auto-published via pypi-publish.yml

Feedback welcome.