Installation

Updating

Updating Bot safely (global install or source), plus rollback strategy

Updating

Bot is moving fast (pre “1.0”). Treat updates like shipping infra: update → run checks → restart (or use bot update, which restarts) → verify.

Recommended: re-run the website installer (upgrade in place)

The preferred update path is to re-run the installer from the website. It detects existing installs, upgrades in place, and runs bot doctor when needed.

curl -fsSL https://hanzo.bot/install.sh | bash

Notes:

  • Add --no-onboard if you don’t want the onboarding wizard to run again.
  • For source installs, use: 
    curl -fsSL https://hanzo.bot/install.sh | bash -s -- --install-method git --no-onboard
    The installer will git pull --rebase only if the repo is clean.
  • For global installs, the script uses npm install -g bot@latest under the hood.

Before you update

  • Know how you installed: global (npm/pnpm) vs from source (git clone).
  • Know how your Gateway is running: foreground terminal vs supervised service (launchd/systemd).
  • Snapshot your tailoring:
    • Config: ~/.bot/bot.json
    • Credentials: ~/.bot/credentials/
    • Workspace: ~/bot

Update (global install)

Global install (pick one):

npm i -g bot@latest
pnpm add -g bot@latest

We do not recommend Bun for the Gateway runtime (WhatsApp/Telegram bugs).

To switch update channels (git + npm installs):

bot update --channel beta
bot update --channel dev
bot update --channel stable

Use --tag <dist-tag|version> for a one-off install tag/version.

See Development channels for channel semantics and release notes.

Note: on npm installs, the gateway logs an update hint on startup (checks the current channel tag). Disable via update.checkOnStart: false.

Then:

bot doctor
bot gateway restart
bot health

Notes:

  • If your Gateway runs as a service, bot gateway restart is preferred over killing PIDs.
  • If you’re pinned to a specific version, see “Rollback / pinning” below.

Update (bot update)

For source installs (git checkout), prefer:

bot update

It runs a safe-ish update flow:

  • Requires a clean worktree.
  • Switches to the selected channel (tag or branch).
  • Fetches + rebases against the configured upstream (dev channel).
  • Installs deps, builds, builds the Control UI, and runs bot doctor.
  • Restarts the gateway by default (use --no-restart to skip).

If you installed via npm/pnpm (no git metadata), bot update will try to update via your package manager. If it can’t detect the install, use “Update (global install)” instead.

Update (Control UI / RPC)

The Control UI has Update & Restart (RPC: update.run). It:

  1. Runs the same source-update flow as bot update (git checkout only).
  2. Writes a restart sentinel with a structured report (stdout/stderr tail).
  3. Restarts the gateway and pings the last active session with the report.

If the rebase fails, the gateway aborts and restarts without applying the update.

Update (from source)

From the repo checkout:

Preferred:

bot update

Manual (equivalent-ish):

git pull
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm ui:build # auto-installs UI deps on first run
bot doctor
bot health

Notes:

  • pnpm build matters when you run the packaged bot binary (dist/entry.js) or use Node to run dist/.
  • If you run from a repo checkout without a global install, use pnpm bot ... for CLI commands.
  • If you run directly from TypeScript (pnpm bot ...), a rebuild is usually unnecessary, but config migrations still apply → run doctor.
  • Switching between global and git installs is easy: install the other flavor, then run bot doctor so the gateway service entrypoint is rewritten to the current install.

Always run: bot doctor

Doctor is the “safe update” command. It’s intentionally boring: repair + migrate + warn.

Note: if you’re on a source install (git checkout), bot doctor will offer to run bot update first.

Typical things it does:

  • Migrate deprecated config keys / legacy config file locations.
  • Audit DM policies and warn on risky “open” settings.
  • Check Gateway health and can offer to restart.
  • Detect and migrate older gateway services (launchd/systemd; legacy schtasks) to current Bot services.
  • On Linux, ensure systemd user lingering (so the Gateway survives logout).

Details: Doctor

Start / stop / restart the Gateway

CLI (works regardless of OS):

bot gateway status
bot gateway stop
bot gateway restart
bot gateway --port 18789
bot logs --follow

If you’re supervised:

  • macOS launchd (app-bundled LaunchAgent): launchctl kickstart -k gui/$UID/com.bot.gateway (use com.bot.<profile> if set)
  • Linux systemd user service: systemctl --user restart bot-gateway[-<profile>].service
  • Windows (WSL2): systemctl --user restart bot-gateway[-<profile>].service
    • launchctl/systemctl only work if the service is installed; otherwise run bot gateway install.

Runbook + exact service labels: Gateway runbook

Rollback / pinning (when something breaks)

Pin (global install)

Install a known-good version (replace <version> with the last working one):

npm i -g bot@<version>
pnpm add -g bot@<version>

Tip: to see the current published version, run npm view bot version.

Then restart + re-run doctor:

bot doctor
bot gateway restart

Pin (source) by date

Pick a commit from a date (example: “state of main as of 2026-01-01”):

git fetch origin
git checkout "$(git rev-list -n 1 --before=\"2026-01-01\" origin/main)"

Then reinstall deps + restart:

pnpm install
pnpm build
bot gateway restart

If you want to go back to latest later:

git checkout main
git pull

If you’re stuck

Bun (experimental)
Bun workflow (experimental): installs and gotchas vs pnpm
Development channels
Stable, beta, and dev channels: semantics, switching, and tagging