hephaestus/docs/how-to/self-update.md

title	modified	tags
hephd self-update	2026-06-04	how-to

hephd self-update

hephd can keep itself current: it polls the forge for a newer release and, when one appears, rebuilds and restarts onto it — unattended. It is opt-in and off by default.

Enable it

On the managed service:

heph daemon start --self-update

That generates a launchd/systemd service that runs hephd --self-update and gives it a PATH that can find cargo. heph daemon restart preserves the setting (pass --self-update again to turn it on later). To run the daemon directly instead:

hephd --self-update                              # default: poll every 6h
hephd --self-update --self-update-interval-secs 3600

How it works

1. Each interval, hephd GETs the forge's releases/latest and compares the tag against its own version (the one heph --version reports).
2. On a newer release it runs cargo install --locked --git <public-https-url> --tag vX.Y.Z for heph/hephd/heph-tui/heph-quickadd. hephaestus is a public repo, so this is an anonymous clone — no credentials.
3. On a successful install it exits cleanly; the service manager (launchd KeepAlive / systemd Restart=always) brings the new binary up.

A failed poll or build is logged and the daemon keeps running on its current version — self-update never takes the daemon down.

Requirements & notes

• The Rust toolchain (cargo) must be installed for the service user; the update builds from source.
• Off by default — nothing happens unless --self-update is passed.
• The first real cross-version upgrade is observable on the first release cut after enabling it.

Related

• run-the-daemon — running hephd as an OS service
• install-heph — installing the binaries