ANN: hledger-1.99.5 (2.0 preview 5)

[Simon Michael]

I'm pleased to announce hledger 1.99.5, the fifth preview of hledger 2.0!

hledger (https://hledger.org) is accounting software, for both beginners and experts, using human-readable, version-controllable, future-proof plain text files. It's dependable, free, fast, friendly, cross-platform, double-entry, multi-currency, multi-interface, GPL-licensed, and fun to use.

hledger 1.99.5 brings some big improvements:

- the fastest hledger yet (4x faster than 1.99.4)

- UI translations (--lang)

- find-anywhere query (::)

- compact transactions report

- lossless print --export

- CSV multi-record merge rule

- journals can include CSV & rules files

- simpler balancing and gains using cost basis

- lot tracking fixes, short positions

- hledger-ui auto-updates by default

- hledger-web balance reports, paging, dark mode.

There are a few breaking changes; see the release notes.

Release contributors:

Simon Michael,

Arthur Cinader,

Henning Thielemann,

Chunhui Ouyang,

AidenTHu,

Caleb Maclennan.

- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-10-01-hledger-1995

- https://github.com/hledgerorg/hledger/releases/tag/1.99.5

- https://hledger.org/install

And, a quick reminder of current status:

hledger 1 and 2:

Both hledger 1 and 2 (the 1.99.x preview releases) are suitable for daily use.

hledger 1 is receiving only essential fixes.

hledger 2 preview releases are strictly better, highly compatible,

and by using the latest you help make 2.0 better (later this year).

AI use:

Here is our current https://hledger.org/AI.html policy.

If you disagree with it, please be patient while we navigate this period..

In summary:

- The official hledger tools do not have any built in AI features or use any AI while running.

(Some third-party addons do.)

- hledger 1.52.1 and below had no AI use during development. Level 0. (https://www.visidata.org/blog/2026/ai/#self-assessed-ai-level-for-contributions)

- hledger 1.52.2+ have a few small uses of AI-generated code

(fully-understood security fixes copied from 2.x). Level 2-4.

- hledger 2 (1.99.1+) uses careful AI-assisted development. Level 5.

In 2026 Q2 and Q3 we used a 6-month OSS credit from Anthropic.

As a result, hledger is better tested, better documented,

more robust, more secure, and faster than ever.

Sponsorship

If hledger is providing value to you or your organisation, and your

finances allow it, you can help by becoming a https://hledger.org/sponsor.html.

Thanks for using and contributing to hledger!

-Simon