Updates

Kitewell keeps itself current. It downloads a new version in the background, checks that Kitewell signed it, and installs it at a moment when you are not using it. Running workflows keep going across the restart. The workflow engine underneath, Dagu, ships inside each Kitewell release and changes only when Kitewell does.

How an update arrives

Update Kitewell automatically is on from the start, under This device → Device settings → Updates. With it on, Kitewell:

1. Looks for a new version a minute after it opens, and then every six hours.
2. Downloads it in the background and checks its signature. Nothing is shown.
3. Installs it at the next safe moment: the next time you quit Kitewell, sign in, or restart the computer, or a quiet moment while no Kitewell window is open or you have been away from it for half an hour. The icon in the menu bar or the tray disappears for a few seconds and comes back, and a window that was open opens again on the same page.

Afterwards, one notification says Kitewell updated to x.y.z; clicking it opens the release notes on kitewell.com.

A new version reaches devices over two days, so not every computer sees it on the same day. Check for Updates… in the Kitewell menu, the menu bar menu on a Mac or the tray icon’s menu on Windows, looks right away and gets the release at once; otherwise it says Kitewell is up to date.

What an update waits for

An update never interrupts work. It waits while:

• the assistant is thinking;
• a running workflow still has a desktop step ahead of it;
• an MCP client used Kitewell within the last two minutes;
• a Kitewell window holds unsaved edits.

Workflows never hold an update. They keep running on the engine they started with, and the restarted Kitewell finds them again.

While an update waits, the Kitewell menu shows Restart to Update to Kitewell x.y.z, which installs it now. It asks about unsaved edits and names anything the restart would interrupt, with Restart Now and When Idle. If an update has waited seven days, one notification says Restart Kitewell to finish updating; if unsaved edits alone have held it for a day, one notification asks you to save or discard them. Edits are never discarded for an update.

With automatic updates off

Kitewell still checks. When a new version is out, you get one notification, and the menu reads Update to Kitewell x.y.z…. Choose it to download the version, with progress shown in the menu; Kitewell then offers Restart to Update or Later. Nothing installs until you choose it.

When Dagu Cloud needs a newer Kitewell

Dagu Cloud can stop serving a version it no longer supports. Workflows, schedules, and the local MCP server keep running; syncing, remote MCP, webhooks, and run status stop until this computer updates. A banner in the window says so and offers Update Now, which fetches the release at once, whatever the settings, and installs it at the next safe moment or asks you to restart after an hour.

On a Mac that needs a password

Kitewell replaces itself without a password only when your macOS user owns the app and can write to Applications. On a standard (non-administrator) account, or when Kitewell was installed by another user or by device management, nothing downloads in the background. The menu shows Update to Kitewell x.y.z… with one notification; choosing it downloads the update and shows macOS’s administrator prompt. Kitewell never shows that prompt unasked.

If something goes wrong

• A download or its check fails. Kitewell tries again at the next check, quietly. The menu says why if you open it.
• An install fails. The installed version stays in place and Kitewell starts it again; the next safe moment retries. After three failed installs of one version, Kitewell stops trying it and shows Kitewell couldn’t update. Download the installer with a link to the download page.
• The check fails. Check your network and the release status. Until the first public release for your system, there is no update feed to read, and a check that cannot reach one says so rather than claiming you are up to date.
• You need to go back a version. Older installers stay on the GitHub releases page. Installing an older app does not bring back older data; restore a backup for that.

When you report a problem, include the Kitewell version, the engine version, and your operating system version. The sidebar shows the Kitewell version at the bottom left. The pill in the top bar shows the Kitewell version and the engine version together. On a Mac, About Kitewell in the application menu shows the Kitewell version; on Windows, the top of the tray menu shows the app and service versions.

Details

• Public builds read their update feed from /updates/macos/latest.json on a Mac and /updates/windows/latest.json on Windows, at kitewell.com or, in builds before the move to kitewell.com, at kitewell.app. Both serve the same files.
• Checking and downloading leave workflows running. Only installing restarts anything.
• A download waits for 2 GB of free disk space and for a connection that is not metered. A downloaded update that has not installed yet is dropped when the release is paused or replaced.
• The notification after an update comes once per version, and only where Kitewell’s notifications are allowed.
• On Windows, the update stops the background service for the few seconds of the swap, but not the runs under it: each run has a process group of its own. Only Quit Kitewell cancels runs.
• The engine Kitewell runs is the Dagu release built into that version of Kitewell, named in the release notes and on the third-party licenses page.