---
title: Release poll + version check
modified: 2026-06-04
tags:
  - how-to
requires: []
---

# Release poll + version check

The piece that answers "is a newer release available?" — independent of any
daemon wiring, so it can be unit-tested in isolation.

## Deliverables

- Fetch the latest release from the forge:
  `GET https://forge.ops.eblu.me/api/v1/repos/eblume/hephaestus/releases/latest`,
  read `tag_name` (e.g. `v1.0.4`). hephd already depends on `ureq` and
  `reqwest` (`crates/hephd/Cargo.toml`) — reuse one (the poll loop is async, so
  `reqwest` fits; `ureq` would need `spawn_blocking`).
- Parse the running version: `heph_core::VERSION` is `"1.0.3 (sha)"` — take the
  `X.Y.Z` head. Add `semver = "1"` to `crates/hephd/Cargo.toml` (already in the
  lockfile transitively) and compare `tag_name` (strip leading `v`) against it.
- A pure `is_newer(current, tag) -> bool` helper with tests covering equal /
  older / newer / malformed tags.

## Done when

Given a fixed current version and a sample releases-API JSON body, the helper
correctly reports whether an update exists. No daemon loop yet — that's
[[self-update-poll-loop]]. Part of [[hephd-self-update]].