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velaclaw update

Safely update Velaclaw and switch between stable/beta/dev channels. If you installed via npm/pnpm/bun (global install, no git metadata), updates happen via the package-manager flow in Updating.

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Usage

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Options

  • --no-restart: skip restarting the Gateway service after a successful update.
  • --channel <stable|beta|dev>: set the update channel (git + npm; persisted in config).
  • --tag <dist-tag|version|spec>: override the package target for this update only. For package installs, main maps to github:Zavianx/velaclaw#main.
  • --dry-run: preview planned update actions (channel/tag/target/restart flow) without writing config, installing, syncing plugins, or restarting.
  • --json: print machine-readable UpdateRunResult JSON.
  • --timeout <seconds>: per-step timeout (default is 1200s).
  • --yes: skip confirmation prompts (for example downgrade confirmation)
Note: downgrades require confirmation because older versions can break configuration.

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update status

Show the active update channel + git tag/branch/SHA (for source checkouts), plus update availability.
Options:
  • --json: print machine-readable status JSON.
  • --timeout <seconds>: timeout for checks (default is 3s).

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update wizard

Interactive flow to pick an update channel and confirm whether to restart the Gateway after updating (default is to restart). If you select dev without a git checkout, it offers to create one. Options:
  • --timeout <seconds>: timeout for each update step (default 1200)

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What it does

When you switch channels explicitly (--channel ...), Velaclaw also keeps the install method aligned:
  • dev → ensures a git checkout (default: ~/velaclaw, override with VELACLAW_GIT_DIR), updates it, and installs the global CLI from that checkout.
  • stable → installs from npm using latest.
  • beta → prefers npm dist-tag beta, but falls back to latest when beta is missing or older than the current stable release.
The Gateway core auto-updater (when enabled via config) reuses this same update path.

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Git checkout flow

Channels:
  • stable: checkout the latest non-beta tag, then build + doctor.
  • beta: prefer the latest -beta tag, but fall back to the latest stable tag when beta is missing or older.
  • dev: checkout main, then fetch + rebase.
High-level:
  1. Requires a clean worktree (no uncommitted changes).
  2. Switches to the selected channel (tag or branch).
  3. Fetches upstream (dev only).
  4. Dev only: preflight lint + TypeScript build in a temp worktree; if the tip fails, walks back up to 10 commits to find the newest clean build.
  5. Rebases onto the selected commit (dev only).
  6. Installs deps with the repo package manager. For pnpm checkouts, the updater bootstraps pnpm on demand (via corepack first, then a temporary npm install pnpm@10 fallback) instead of running npm run build inside a pnpm workspace.
  7. Builds + builds the Control UI.
  8. Runs velaclaw doctor as the final “safe update” check.
  9. Syncs plugins to the active channel (dev uses bundled extensions; stable/beta uses npm) and updates npm-installed plugins.
If pnpm bootstrap still fails, the updater now stops early with a package-manager-specific error instead of trying npm run build inside the checkout.

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Source checkout requirements

Git/source updates require a checkout with a configured upstream branch. If the source tree came from a GitHub zip/tarball or was copied by hand, velaclaw update cannot infer where to fetch new commits from. When a checkout has origin/main but no branch upstream, the updater uses origin/main as a fallback. Repair an older checkout with:

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--update shorthand

velaclaw --update rewrites to velaclaw update (useful for shells and launcher scripts).

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See also