Auto Update

Installed apps update themselves with electron-updater , from the GitHub releases created by the release workflow.

How it works

• electron-builder writes the update feed (latest.yml, latest-mac.yml, latest-linux.yml) and uploads it with the installers. The packaged app knows where to find it from publish in electron-builder.ts.
• On startup, then every 4 hours, the app checks for a new version and downloads it in the background (src/main/updater.ts).
• With licensing enabled, updates are only checked while the license is active, and a version is only downloaded if the license includes it. Otherwise the latest version the license includes is downloaded instead, if it is newer than the running one.
• When the download is done, a banner offers to restart now. Otherwise the update is installed when the app quits.
• Check for Updates… in the app menu (macOS) or the File menu (Windows, Linux) checks right away and tells the user if the app is up to date.

The status is pushed to the renderer with the updater.onStatus subscription:

type UpdateStatus =
  | { state: 'idle' }
  | { state: 'checking' }
  | { state: 'not-available' }
  | { state: 'available'; version: string }
  | { state: 'downloading'; percent: number }
  | { state: 'downloaded'; version: string }
  | { state: 'error'; message: string }
  // With licensing enabled:
  | { state: 'license-required' }
  | { state: 'not-allowed'; version: string; latestAllowedVersion: string | null }

src/renderer/src/components/update-banner.tsx shows how to use it.

Requirements

• Updates are disabled in development (npm run dev).
• An app built with npm run dist:dir has no update feed and logs an error when it checks for updates: use npm run dist to test updates locally.
• Releases must be published (not drafts) to be found by the updater. The release workflow publishes them once every platform is built.
• Linux: only the AppImage updates itself. Users of the deb package update through their package manager.

Private repositories

electron-updater reads public GitHub releases. For a private repository, publish the builds to a public repository or another provider (S3, a generic server… ), and update publish in electron-builder.ts.