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Updating & Uninstalling

Updating​

Git installs​

Update to the latest version with a single command:

crewlabs update

This pulls the latest code from main, updates dependencies, and prompts you to configure any new options that were added since your last update.

pip installs​

PyPI releases track tagged versions (major and minor releases), not every commit on main. Check for updates and upgrade with:

crewlabs update --check    # see if a newer release is on PyPI
crewlabs update            # runs pip install --upgrade crewlabs-agent

Or manually:

pip install --upgrade crewlabs-agent    # or: uv pip install --upgrade crewlabs-agent
tip

crewlabs update automatically detects new configuration options and prompts you to add them. If you skipped that prompt, you can manually run crewlabs config check to see missing options, then crewlabs config migrate to interactively add them.

What happens during an update (git installs)​

When you run crewlabs update, the following steps occur:

  1. Pairing-data snapshot — a lightweight pre-update state snapshot is saved (covers ~/.crewlabs/pairing/, Feishu comment rules, and other state files that get modified at runtime). Recoverable via the snapshot restore flow described under Snapshots and rollback, or by extracting the most recent quick-snapshot zip Crewlabs wrote next to your ~/.crewlabs/ directory.
  2. Git pull — pulls the latest code from the main branch and updates submodules
  3. Dependency install — runs uv pip install -e ".[all]" to pick up new or changed dependencies
  4. Config migration — detects new config options added since your version and prompts you to set them
  5. Gateway auto-restart — running gateways are refreshed after the update completes so the new code takes effect immediately. Service-managed gateways (systemd on Linux, launchd on macOS) are restarted through the service manager. Manual gateways are relaunched automatically when Crewlabs can map the running PID back to a profile.

Preview-only: crewlabs update --check​

Want to know if an update is available before pulling? Run crewlabs update --check — for git installs it fetches and compares commits against origin/main; for pip installs it queries PyPI for the latest release. No files are modified, no gateway is restarted. Useful in scripts and cron jobs that gate on "is there an update".

Full pre-update backup: --backup​

For high-value profiles (production gateways, shared team installs) you can opt into a full pre-pull backup of CREWLABS_HOME (config, auth, sessions, skills, pairing):

crewlabs update --backup

Or make it the default for every run:

# ~/.crewlabs/config.yaml
updates:
  pre_update_backup: true

--backup was the always-on behavior in earlier builds, but it was adding minutes to every update on large homes, so it's now opt-in. The lightweight pairing-data snapshot above still runs unconditionally.

Windows: another crewlabs.exe is running​

On Windows, crewlabs update will refuse to run if it detects another crewlabs.exe process holding the venv's entry-point executable open — most commonly the Crewlabs Desktop app's spawned backend, an open crewlabs REPL in another terminal, or a running gateway:

$ crewlabs update
✗ Another crewlabs.exe is running:
    PID 12345  crewlabs.exe

  Updating now would fail to overwrite ...\venv\Scripts\crewlabs.exe because
  Windows blocks REPLACE on a running executable.

  Close Crewlabs Desktop, exit any open `crewlabs` REPLs, and
  stop the gateway (`crewlabs gateway stop`) before retrying.
  Override with `crewlabs update --force` if you've already
  confirmed those processes will not write to the venv.

Close the listed processes and re-run. If you're sure the concurrent process won't interfere (rare — usually only useful when an antivirus shim is mis-attributed), pass --force to skip the check. In that case the updater will still retry the .exe rename with exponential backoff and, on stubborn locks, schedule the replacement for next reboot via MoveFileEx(MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT) so the update can complete.

Expected output looks like:

$ crewlabs update
Updating Crewlabs Agent...
📥 Pulling latest code...
Already up to date.  (or: Updating abc1234..def5678)
📦 Updating dependencies...
✅ Dependencies updated
🔍 Checking for new config options...
✅ Config is up to date  (or: Found 2 new options — running migration...)
🔄 Restarting gateways...
✅ Gateway restarted
✅ Crewlabs Agent updated successfully!

Recommended Post-Update Validation​

crewlabs update handles the main update path, but a quick validation confirms everything landed cleanly:

  1. git status --short — if the tree is unexpectedly dirty, inspect before continuing
  2. crewlabs doctor — checks config, dependencies, and service health
  3. crewlabs --version — confirm the version bumped as expected
  4. If you use the gateway: crewlabs gateway status
  5. If doctor reports npm audit issues: run npm audit fix in the flagged directory
Dirty working tree after update

If git status --short shows unexpected changes after crewlabs update, stop and inspect them before continuing. This usually means local modifications were reapplied on top of the updated code, or a dependency step refreshed lockfiles.

If your terminal disconnects mid-update​

crewlabs update protects itself against accidental terminal loss:

  • The update ignores SIGHUP, so closing your SSH session or terminal window no longer kills it mid-install. pip and git child processes inherit this protection, so the Python environment cannot be left half-installed by a dropped connection.
  • All output is mirrored to ~/.crewlabs/logs/update.log while the update runs. If your terminal disappears, reconnect and inspect the log to see whether the update finished and whether the gateway restart succeeded:
tail -f ~/.crewlabs/logs/update.log
  • Ctrl-C (SIGINT) and system shutdown (SIGTERM) are still honored — those are deliberate cancellations, not accidents.

You no longer need to wrap crewlabs update in screen or tmux to survive a terminal drop.

Checking your current version​

crewlabs version

Compare against the latest release at the GitHub releases page.

Updating from Messaging Platforms​

You can also update directly from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, or Teams by sending:

/update

This pulls the latest code, updates dependencies, and restarts running gateways. The bot will briefly go offline during the restart (typically 5–15 seconds) and then resume.

Manual Update​

If you installed manually (not via the quick installer):

cd /path/to/crewlabs-agent
export VIRTUAL_ENV="$(pwd)/venv"

# Pull latest code
git pull origin main

# Reinstall (picks up new dependencies)
uv pip install -e ".[all]"

# Check for new config options
crewlabs config check
crewlabs config migrate   # Interactively add any missing options

Rollback instructions​

If an update introduces a problem, you can roll back to a previous version:

cd /path/to/crewlabs-agent

# List recent versions
git log --oneline -10

# Roll back to a specific commit
git checkout <commit-hash>
git submodule update --init --recursive
uv pip install -e ".[all]"

# Restart the gateway if running
crewlabs gateway restart

To roll back to a specific release tag:

git checkout v0.6.0
git submodule update --init --recursive
uv pip install -e ".[all]"
warning

Rolling back may cause config incompatibilities if new options were added. Run crewlabs config check after rolling back and remove any unrecognized options from config.yaml if you encounter errors.

Note for Nix users​

If you installed via Nix flake, updates are managed through the Nix package manager:

# Update the flake input
nix flake update crewlabs-agent

# Or rebuild with the latest
nix profile upgrade crewlabs-agent

Nix installations are immutable — rollback is handled by Nix's generation system:

nix profile rollback

See Nix Setup for more details.

Uninstalling​

Git installs​

crewlabs uninstall

The uninstaller gives you the option to keep your configuration files (~/.crewlabs/) for a future reinstall.

pip installs​

pip uninstall crewlabs-agent
rm -rf ~/.crewlabs            # Optional — keep if you plan to reinstall

Manual Uninstall​

rm -f ~/.local/bin/crewlabs
rm -rf /path/to/crewlabs-agent
rm -rf ~/.crewlabs            # Optional — keep if you plan to reinstall
info

If you installed the gateway as a system service, stop and disable it first:

crewlabs gateway stop
# Linux: systemctl --user disable crewlabs-gateway
# macOS: launchctl remove ai.crewlabs.gateway