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RemoteClaw

update

remoteclaw update

Safely update RemoteClaw 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

Terminal window
remoteclaw update
remoteclaw update status
remoteclaw update wizard
remoteclaw update --channel beta
remoteclaw update --channel dev
remoteclaw update --tag beta
remoteclaw update --dry-run
remoteclaw update --no-restart
remoteclaw update --json
remoteclaw --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.
  • --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).

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.

Terminal window
remoteclaw update status
remoteclaw update status --json
remoteclaw 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 ...), RemoteClaw also keeps the install method aligned:

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

The Gateway core auto-updater (when enabled via config) reuses this same update path.

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:

  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 (pnpm preferred; npm fallback).
  7. Builds + builds the Control UI.
  8. Runs remoteclaw 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.

--update shorthand

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

See also