Skip to content
Instar

AutoUpdater

A built-in update engine that runs inside the server process — no Claude session needed.

How It Works

Section titled “How It Works”
  1. Checks npm for new versions every 30 minutes
  2. Downloads the update to a shadow install directory (.instar/shadow-install/)
  3. Notifies you via Telegram with a changelog summary
  4. Self-restarts with the new version

Since v0.17.3, updates use a shadow install pattern rather than global npm install. The new version is installed into a local shadow directory, and the server restarts using the shadow binary. This avoids permission issues, keeps updates isolated, and works whether Instar was installed globally or via npx.

Status

Section titled “Status”
Terminal window
curl localhost:4040/updates/auto

Returns last check time, current version, available version, and next check time.

Manual Check

Section titled “Manual Check”
Terminal window
curl localhost:4040/updates
curl localhost:4040/updates/last

No Session Required

Section titled “No Session Required”

Previous versions used a update-check prompt job that spawned a Claude session to check for updates. The AutoUpdater replaces this with a lightweight server-side check — no Claude session needed, no quota consumed.