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Docs/Getting Started/Updating Flowly
Getting Started

Updating Flowly

Keep the CLI current with `flowly update`. It detects how Flowly was installed, runs the right upgrade, and bounces the gateway — and does nothing inside Flowly Desktop, which manages its own binary.

The short version

flowly update            # check, upgrade in place, restart the gateway
flowly update --check    # just tell me if a newer version exists

Flowly installs as a git checkout (that's what the install script sets up), so update fetches the branch from git, measures how many commits it's behind, then pulls (git pull --ff-only, autostashing any local changes), reinstalls, and restarts the gateway so the new code takes effect. There's no confirmation prompt: running the command is the confirmation (use --check for a dry look). Nothing has to overwrite a running executable — the launcher runs python -m flowly, so a pull under a live gateway is safe.

Two places update deliberately does nothing:

  • Inside Flowly Desktop — the app owns its embedded copy of the agent and updates it itself (see below).

  • A legacy packaged install (the old PyPI flowly-ai package via uv tool / pipx / pip) — those no longer receive releases. Re-run the install script and it migrates the install in place, keeping your ~/.flowly data and your background service:

    curl -fsSL https://useflowlyapp.com/install.sh | bash

Flowly Desktop is separate

Flowly Desktop ships its own compiled copy of the agent. Running inside the desktop app, flowly update detects that it's the managed binary and no-ops with a pointer to update the app instead. The desktop app updates itself (and the bundled agent) through its own updater — a CLI update and a desktop update never touch each other, because they're physically separate installs.

So you can safely run

flowly update on a machine that also has Flowly Desktop installed: it only ever upgrades the CLI on your PATH.

Flags

FlagEffect
--checkOnly report whether a newer version exists; don't install.
--yes, -yNo-op, kept for back-compat — update no longer prompts, so there's nothing to confirm.
--forceReinstall the latest even if you're already up to date.
--no-restartUpgrade but don't bounce the gateway — run flowly restart yourself later.

What happens on a successful update

  1. The checkout is pulled (git pull --ff-only, autostashing any local changes) and reinstalled editable.
  2. Stale bytecode (__pycache__) is cleared so a restart doesn't import a half-old/half-new mix.
  3. The gateway is restarted via the smart flowly restart — it bounces the launchd / systemd / Task Scheduler service if one is installed, or prints a hint if the gateway is running in the foreground.

Pitfalls

  • Foreground gateway. A gateway started with flowly gateway in a terminal can't be restarted from outside that terminal — update tells you, and you restart it where it's running.
  • Git checkout on a detached HEAD or non-fast-forward. update only fast-forwards: if the checkout isn't on a branch, or local commits have diverged from the remote, it stops and points you at the repo to sort it out by hand. Local uncommitted changes are autostashed and restored around the pull.
  • Hot pull under a running gateway. If the checkout is updated while the gateway is still running, a provider/model hot-reload is refused with a "restart the gateway" message rather than risking a stale-module import — run flowly restart to load the new code.