`bot update`

Safely update Bot and switch between stable/beta/dev channels.

If you installed via npm/pnpm (global install, no git metadata), updates happen via the package manager flow in Updating.

Usage

bot update
bot update status
bot update wizard
bot update --channel beta
bot update --channel dev
bot update --tag beta
bot update --no-restart
bot update --json
bot --update

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>: override the npm dist-tag or version for this update only.
--json: print machine-readable UpdateRunResult JSON.
--timeout <seconds>: per-step timeout (default is 1200s).

Note: downgrades require confirmation because older versions can break configuration.

`update status`

Show the active update channel + git tag/branch/SHA (for source checkouts), plus update availability.

bot update status
bot update status --json
bot update status --timeout 10

Options:

--json: print machine-readable status JSON.
--timeout <seconds>: timeout for checks (default is 3s).

`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.

What it does

When you switch channels explicitly (--channel ...), Bot also keeps the install method aligned:

dev → ensures a git checkout (default: ~/bot, override with BOT_GIT_DIR), updates it, and installs the global CLI from that checkout.
stable/beta → installs from npm using the matching dist-tag.

Git checkout flow

Channels:

stable: checkout the latest non-beta tag, then build + doctor.
beta: checkout the latest -beta tag, then build + doctor.
dev: checkout main, then fetch + rebase.

High-level:

Requires a clean worktree (no uncommitted changes).
Switches to the selected channel (tag or branch).
Fetches upstream (dev only).
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.
Rebases onto the selected commit (dev only).
Installs deps (pnpm preferred; npm fallback).
Builds + builds the Control UI.
Runs bot doctor as the final “safe update” check.
Syncs plugins to the active channel (dev uses bundled extensions; stable/beta uses npm) and updates npm-installed plugins.

`--update` shorthand

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