Keep a board current on its own: check for releases, install, restart - #11
Merged
Conversation
Every self-hosted board has to be updated by hand — git fetch, checkout the tag, pnpm install, restart — and a board nobody types that for drifts a version further behind with each release. Now the board does it itself. A minute after boot and every five minutes after that, the server asks GitHub for the newest release. When one is newer than the running version and the board runs from a git checkout, it fetches the tag, checks it out, runs the install, and restarts itself. It is on by default; an administrator turns it off under Board settings → Updates, and the overview page always shows what is running, what is out, a Check now button, and an Update now button when there is something to install. What it refuses, deliberately: - A checkout with local changes. That is somebody's work, and an update that discarded it would be the worst thing this code could do. - A container. The image is built from a tree with no .git, so there is nothing to fetch into; the panel shows the new version and says to redeploy. Both house boards run this way, so they are unaffected. - Anything that is not a release tag of the form vX.Y.Z. An install that fails puts the previous checkout back, and every check and apply records its outcome in settings, so a failure shows on the overview where the button was rather than only in a log. The restart spawns a fresh copy of the process with the same command line and environment and then exits, so `pnpm start` in a terminal, nohup or tmux carries on with the new code. Under a supervisor that restarts on exit, TSBB_RESTART=exit skips the spawn. TSBB_UPDATES=off stops the check as well as the apply. `tsbb update [--check]` does the same from a shell. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PY5Y9gpnQ9kevUFwXJakyn
Merged
ralyodio
added a commit
that referenced
this pull request
Sep 3, 2026
Boards now keep themselves current from GitHub releases (#11). Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PY5Y9gpnQ9kevUFwXJakyn Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ralyodio
added a commit
that referenced
this pull request
Sep 3, 2026
… volume (#13) * Release 0.4.0 Boards now keep themselves current from GitHub releases (#11). Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PY5Y9gpnQ9kevUFwXJakyn * Let a container keep itself current by running from a checkout on its volume The self-updater shipped in 0.4.0 can move a git checkout but not an image, so a board on Railway — including bbs.hqtui.com — only ever saw the "new version available" notice. This gives the image a way to be updated from the inside. With TSBB_CHECKOUT_DIR pointing into a volume, the container clones the repository there on first boot, at the image's own commit, and installs its dependencies from the image's pnpm store, so the first start takes about three seconds and needs no download. It then runs the server from that checkout in a loop: the updater fetches each release into the volume and exits, and the loop starts the new code. A container restart comes back on the release it had rather than the image it was built from, because the checkout is on the volume. Without TSBB_CHECKOUT_DIR the entrypoint runs the image's own code exactly as before, so tsbb.dev is unchanged. Copying the image's node_modules into the checkout instead of installing does not work — pnpm sees a tree made for another path and stops to ask whether it may rebuild it, and there is no TTY to say yes. Linking from the store is what the install already does, and it is as fast. Tried for real in Docker: a container seeded at the commit before the 0.4.0 bump found v0.4.0 a minute after boot, fetched, checked out, installed in one second, restarted, and answered the healthcheck on the new commit. A restart of that container came back on 0.4.0. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01PY5Y9gpnQ9kevUFwXJakyn --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
1 participant
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
What
A board keeps itself current. A minute after boot and every five minutes after that, it asks GitHub for the newest release; when one is newer and the board runs from a git checkout, it fetches the tag, installs, and restarts itself.
Check nowbutton, andUpdate to Xwhen there is something to install. Failed checks and failed installs are shown there, not just logged.tsbb update [--check]does the same from a shell, for a stopped board or an operator who wants to watch..git, so the panel shows the notice and says to redeploy. tsbb.dev and bbs.hqtui.com both run from the image, so nothing changes for them beyond the card.Safety
vX.Y.Z; the tag is fetched by exact ref.pnpm installrestores the previous checkout.TSBB_UPDATES=offstops the check as well as the apply, for anyone who does not want the board phoning GitHub.Restart
The process spawns a fresh copy of itself with the same command line and environment, then exits, so
pnpm startin a terminal, nohup or tmux carries on with the new code. Under systemd, pm2 or anything that restarts on exit, setTSBB_RESTART=exitandRestart=always. Smoke-tested by hand: generation one announced the restart, generation two came up on the same port and answered/healthzwith 200.Tests
test/updates.test.ts: version ordering, tag validation, the check recording state for the panel (newer, equal, none, failed), the refusals, the exact command sequence of an apply with git and pnpm injected, the rollback on install failure, and the admin card and setting through the real app. 183 pass, 0 fail.🤖 Generated with Claude Code
https://claude.ai/code/session_01PY5Y9gpnQ9kevUFwXJakyn