Claudette’s updates

An installed Claudette checks for a newer version, downloads it, installs it and restarts into it, with every tab as it was. What’s new in each version is in the changelog.

How it checks

At launch and every 6 hours, Claudette asks GitHub for Claudette’s releases. It doesn’t sign in, and the request carries nothing about you. It offers the newest release above the version you’re running, once that release is published.

  • Pre-releases count only with Include pre-releases on.
  • A copy installed from the Microsoft Store doesn’t check either: the Store keeps it up to date, and Settings → General says so.
  • A source build doesn’t check for releases. It checks the branch its checkout tracks for new commits, pulls and builds them, and restarts into each new build: see Running from source.

The badge

A badge at the foot of the sidebar says Claudette 1.3.0 is available. It changes as things happen: Downloading Claudette 1.3.0… 40%, Restart to update to 1.3.0 once the package is downloaded, and Updating when idle… while it waits. Choose it to open a card with the release’s notes, when it was released, and these buttons:

  • Download and restart downloads the package and restarts into the new version. It becomes Restart to update once the package is downloaded.
  • Update when idle, while a tab is working: Claudette waits until no tab is starting, working or waiting on you, and then updates. Don’t update cancels the wait.
  • Download fetches the package now, to install later. Cancel download stops it.
  • Skip this version hides the badge until a newer release comes out. It’s remembered on this machine.
  • Release notes on GitHub opens the release’s page.
  • Open the installer (Windows) or Open the disk image (macOS) appears when Claudette can’t install the package itself: see When an update fails.

Settings → General has the same actions under Updates and status.

What an update does

  1. Claudette saves a snapshot of every tab, each unsent message, the selected tab and the window’s size and place.
  2. It stops its tabs as closing does, and installs the new version.
  3. The new version opens, takes the tabs from the snapshot and carries on.

A tab that was working is carried on: Claude Code re-runs the turn by itself, once, and the conversation says Carrying on with the turn the restart cut off. Processes the tabs started are stopped, as when Claudette closes. The card warns you when a tab is working, and Update when idle is the way to avoid interrupting it.

  • On Windows, Windows closes Claudette, installs the MSIX and starts the new version.
  • On macOS, a small helper swaps Claudette.app once Claudette has quit. It renames the old app to Claudette.app.previous first, so it can put it back if the new version doesn’t start.

Which package it uses

Claudette picks the package made for this install: the MSIX for an MSIX install on Windows, and the .dmg for Claudette.app on macOS, for your processor. A copy that can’t replace itself, such as Linux or a Windows copy that isn’t the package, still hears about the release, with a link to its page and the message This copy of Claudette can’t update itself. Download the new version from its release page.

Before it installs anything, Claudette checks the download against its size and the SHA-256 digest GitHub publishes for it, and deletes one that doesn’t match. A package GitHub publishes no digest for isn’t downloaded at all: the card says GitHub published no checksum for this release’s package, and links to the release page. It then checks the package itself, for the right identity, version and processor, and on macOS a valid signature. If anything fails, nothing else happens and your tabs stay as they are.

Downloaded packages are kept in the updates folder in Claudette’s data folder, and a package that’s already downloaded isn’t fetched again. Packages of the running version and older are deleted at launch.

Upgrading from 0.1.0

0.1.0 came from before Claudette’s repository moved. It announces later versions, with a link to their page, but can’t install them. Install the new version by hand from the Downloads page. On Windows the new MSIX installs beside 0.1.0’s.

Settings

All in Settings → General, under Updates and status:

  • Check for Claudette updates automatically: on by default.
  • Include pre-releases: off by default.
  • Check now, which also shows the version and when Claudette last checked.

The version is also at the foot of the Settings sidebar.

See also

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Claudette is made by dotBunny under the MIT license. Privacy policy

Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC. Godot and the Godot logo are trademarks of the Godot Foundation; the logo is by Andrea Calabró, under CC BY 4.0. Unity is a trademark or registered trademark of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Unreal®, Unreal Engine®, and the Unreal Engine® logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Other brands or product names are the trademarks of their respective owners. The logo is used with Epic's permission. Perforce, P4V and the Perforce logo are trademarks of Perforce Software, Inc. or one of its affiliates; the logo is used with Perforce's permission. Claudette isn't sponsored by, affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Other names are trademarks of their owners.

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