diff --git a/IdeSession/GHC/API.hs b/IdeSession/GHC/API.hs
--- a/IdeSession/GHC/API.hs
+++ b/IdeSession/GHC/API.hs
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
     -- * Paths
   , ideSessionSourceDir
   , ideSessionDataDir
-  , ideSessionDistDir
   , ideSessionObjDir
   ) where
 
@@ -32,7 +31,7 @@
 -- We use a Unix timestamp for this so that these API versions have some
 -- semantics (http://www.epochconverter.com/, GMT).
 ideBackendApiVersion :: Int
-ideBackendApiVersion = 1426765899
+ideBackendApiVersion = 1438736884
 
 {------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Configuration
@@ -75,15 +74,13 @@
 -- | The directory to use for managing source files.
 ideSessionSourceDir :: FilePath -> FilePath
 ideSessionSourceDir sessionDir = sessionDir </> "src"
+{-# WARNING ideSessionSourceDir "If configLocalWorkingDir is set, then this does not yield the proper source directory" #-}
 
 -- | The directory to use for data files that may be accessed by the
 -- running program. The running program will have this as its CWD.
 ideSessionDataDir :: FilePath -> FilePath
 ideSessionDataDir sessionDir = sessionDir </> "data"
-
--- | Cabal "dist" prefix.
-ideSessionDistDir :: FilePath -> FilePath
-ideSessionDistDir sessionDir = sessionDir </> "dist"
+{-# WARNING ideSessionDataDir "If configLocalWorkingDir is set, then this does not yield the proper source directory" #-}
 
 -- | Directory where we store compiled C files (objects)
 ideSessionObjDir :: FilePath -> FilePath
diff --git a/IdeSession/GHC/Requests.hs b/IdeSession/GHC/Requests.hs
--- a/IdeSession/GHC/Requests.hs
+++ b/IdeSession/GHC/Requests.hs
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
   , ghcInitUserPackageDB      :: Bool
   , ghcInitSpecificPackageDBs :: [String]
   , ghcInitSessionDir         :: FilePath
+  , ghcInitSourceDir          :: FilePath
+  , ghcInitDistDir            :: !FilePath
   }
   deriving (Typeable, Generic)
 
@@ -105,8 +107,12 @@
     put ghcInitUserPackageDB
     put ghcInitSpecificPackageDBs
     put ghcInitSessionDir
+    put ghcInitSourceDir
+    put ghcInitDistDir
 
   get = GhcInitRequest <$> get
+                       <*> get
+                       <*> get
                        <*> get
                        <*> get
                        <*> get
diff --git a/IdeSession/RPC/Stream.hs b/IdeSession/RPC/Stream.hs
--- a/IdeSession/RPC/Stream.hs
+++ b/IdeSession/RPC/Stream.hs
@@ -25,20 +25,23 @@
   return $ Stream h st
 
 nextInStream :: forall a. Stream a -> IO a
-nextInStream (Stream h st) = readIORef st >>= go
+nextInStream (Stream h st) = readIORef st >>= go False
   where
-    go :: Binary.Decoder a -> IO a
-    go decoder = case decoder of
+    go :: Bool -> Binary.Decoder a -> IO a
+    go atEnd decoder = case decoder of
       Binary.Fail _ _ err -> do
         writeIORef st decoder
-        Ex.throwIO (userError err)
+        Ex.throwIO $ userError $
+          if atEnd
+            then "IdeSession.RPC.Stream ended, causing " ++ err
+            else "IdeSession.RPC.Stream decode failure: " ++ err
       Binary.Partial k -> do
         mchunk <- Ex.try $ BSS.hGetSome h BSL.defaultChunkSize
         case mchunk of
           Left ex -> do writeIORef st decoder
                         Ex.throwIO (ex :: Ex.SomeException)
-          Right chunk | BSS.null chunk -> go . k $ Nothing
-                      | otherwise      -> go . k $ Just chunk
+          Right chunk | BSS.null chunk -> go True . k $ Nothing
+                      | otherwise      -> go False . k $ Just chunk
       Binary.Done unused _numConsumed a -> do
         writeIORef st $ contDecoder unused
         return a
diff --git a/IdeSession/Types/Progress.hs b/IdeSession/Types/Progress.hs
--- a/IdeSession/Types/Progress.hs
+++ b/IdeSession/Types/Progress.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric, RecordWildCards #-}
+{-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric, RecordWildCards, TemplateHaskell #-}
 module IdeSession.Types.Progress (
     Progress(..)
   ) where
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import GHC.Generics (Generic)
 import qualified Data.Text as Text
 import Text.Show.Pretty (PrettyVal)
+import Data.Aeson.TH (deriveJSON, defaultOptions)
 
 import IdeSession.Util () -- instance Binary Text
 
@@ -59,3 +60,5 @@
     where
       pad :: Maybe Text -> Maybe String
       pad = fmap $ \t -> " " ++ Text.unpack t
+
+$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''Progress)
diff --git a/IdeSession/Types/Public.hs b/IdeSession/Types/Public.hs
--- a/IdeSession/Types/Public.hs
+++ b/IdeSession/Types/Public.hs
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
   , Value
   , VariableEnv
   , Targets(..)
+  , UpdateStatus(..)
     -- * Util
   , idInfoQN
 --, idInfoAtLocation
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@
 
 import IdeSession.Util () -- Binary instance for Text
 import IdeSession.Util.PrettyVal
+import IdeSession.Types.Progress
 
 {------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Types
@@ -251,6 +253,16 @@
 data Targets = TargetsInclude [FilePath] | TargetsExclude [FilePath]
   deriving (Typeable, Generic, Eq, Show)
 
+-- | This type represents the status of the compilation from an IDE update.
+data UpdateStatus =
+    UpdateStatusFailed Text
+  | UpdateStatusRequiredRestart
+  | UpdateStatusCrashRestart Text
+  | UpdateStatusServerDied Text
+  | UpdateStatusProgress Progress
+  | UpdateStatusDone
+  deriving (Typeable, Generic, Eq, Show)
+
 {------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Show instances
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------}
@@ -482,22 +494,25 @@
   internally.
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------}
 
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''IdNameSpace)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''SourceErrorKind)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''ImportEntities)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''Import)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''SourceError)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''IdProp)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''IdScope)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''SourceSpan)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''EitherSpan)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''ModuleId)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''PackageId)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''IdInfo)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''SpanInfo)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''BreakInfo)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''RunResult)
-$(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''RunBufferMode)
+$(concat <$> mapM (deriveJSON defaultOptions)
+  [ ''BreakInfo
+  , ''EitherSpan
+  , ''IdInfo
+  , ''IdNameSpace
+  , ''IdProp
+  , ''IdScope
+  , ''Import
+  , ''ImportEntities
+  , ''ModuleId
+  , ''PackageId
+  , ''RunBufferMode
+  , ''RunResult
+  , ''SourceError
+  , ''SourceErrorKind
+  , ''SourceSpan
+  , ''SpanInfo
+  , ''UpdateStatus
+  ])
 
 {------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   PrettyVal instances (these rely on Generics)
@@ -520,6 +535,7 @@
 instance PrettyVal RunResult
 instance PrettyVal BreakInfo
 instance PrettyVal Targets
+instance PrettyVal UpdateStatus
 
 {------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Util
diff --git a/IdeSession/Util/Logger.hs b/IdeSession/Util/Logger.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/IdeSession/Util/Logger.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-}
+
+module IdeSession.Util.Logger
+  ( LogFunc
+  , logDebug
+  , logInfo
+  , logWarn
+  , logError
+  , logOther
+  ) where
+
+import qualified Control.Monad.Logger as L
+import           Data.Text (Text)
+import           Language.Haskell.TH
+
+type LogFunc = L.Loc -> L.LogSource -> L.LogLevel -> L.LogStr -> IO ()
+
+logDebug :: Q Exp
+logDebug = [| \msg -> L.runLoggingT ($(L.logDebug) msg) $(varE (mkName "logFunc")) |]
+
+logInfo :: Q Exp
+logInfo = [| \msg -> L.runLoggingT ($(L.logInfo) msg) $(varE (mkName "logFunc")) |]
+
+logWarn :: Q Exp
+logWarn = [| \msg -> L.runLoggingT ($(L.logWarn) msg) $(varE (mkName "logFunc")) |]
+
+logError :: Q Exp
+logError = [| \msg -> L.runLoggingT ($(L.logError) msg) $(varE (mkName "logFunc")) |]
+
+logOther :: Text -> Q Exp
+logOther level = [| \msg -> L.runLoggingT ($(L.logOther level) msg) $(varE (mkName "logFunc")) |]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 ## ide-backend-common
 
 Common shared library for ide-backend ide-backend-server
+
+It can be compiled using [GHCJS](https://github.com/ghcjs/ghcjs).
+This comes in handy because it's also used by
+[stack-ide's API](https://github.com/commercialhaskell/stack-ide/tree/master/stack-ide-api).
+This allows us to easily talk to stack-ide from GHCJS!
diff --git a/ide-backend-common.cabal b/ide-backend-common.cabal
--- a/ide-backend-common.cabal
+++ b/ide-backend-common.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                 ide-backend-common
-version:              0.9.1.3
+version:              0.10.0
 synopsis:             Shared library used be ide-backend and ide-backend-server
 description:          Should not be used by end users
 license:              MIT
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 library
   exposed-modules:    IdeSession.Util
                       IdeSession.Util.BlockingOps
+                      IdeSession.Util.Logger
                       IdeSession.Util.PrettyVal
                       IdeSession.GHC.API
                       IdeSession.GHC.Requests
@@ -59,7 +60,8 @@
                       transformers         >= 0.3     && < 0.5,
                       attoparsec           >= 0.10    && < 0.14,
                       template-haskell,
-                      pretty-show          >= 1.3     && < 1.7
+                      pretty-show          >= 1.3     && < 1.7,
+                      monad-logger
 
   -- GHC.Generics lived in `ghc-prim` for GHC 7.2 & GHC 7.4
   if impl(ghc < 7.6)