Pi Auto Update

Keep installed Pi packages and Pi itself current automatically at process startup.

What this is

Pi Auto Update is a TypeScript Pi package that runs Pi's own update commands once when a new Pi process starts. It updates installed package extensions first, then checks Pi itself, without replacing Pi's built-in updater.

Features

• Runs pi update --extensions before pi update.
• Waits for each update step to finish before starting the next one.
• Automatically runs once per Pi process, not again after /reload, /new, /resume, or /fork.
• Skips automatic updates when PI_OFFLINE=1 or PI_AUTO_UPDATE=0.
• On Windows, defers extension updates when an active Pi runtime may hold package files open.
• Provides /auto-update-now for an explicit update check.
• Reports failures in the Pi UI without aborting session startup.

Install

Install the published npm package with Pi:

pi install npm:pi-auto-update

Pin a specific version when you want reproducible installs:

pi install npm:pi-auto-update@0.1.4

Install into the current project instead of your user Pi settings:

pi install npm:pi-auto-update -l

Or install from GitHub:

pi install git:github.com/eiei114/pi-auto-update

Try it without permanently installing:

pi -e npm:pi-auto-update

Quick start

After installation, restart Pi. On process startup, Pi Auto Update runs:

pi update --extensions
pi update

Run both checks manually at any time:

/auto-update-now

On Windows, npm cannot replace an extension package while an active Pi runtime (including the pi-intercom broker) is using files inside that package. When that runtime is detected, the extension step is deferred and the Pi update still runs. If npm reports EBUSY (-4082 or 4294963214), close Pi runtimes and run pi update --extensions from a shell.

Try the local checkout without permanently installing it:

pi -e .

Package contents

Development

npm install
npm run ci
npm run smoke:pi
npm pack --dry-run
PI_AUTO_UPDATE=0 pi -e .

Run only the installed-package smoke when changing package metadata or startup loading behavior:

npm run test:installed-smoke

The installed-package smoke test packs the local package, installs the tarball into a temporary Pi agent directory, and checks package loading with PI_OFFLINE=1.

npm run smoke:pi separately launches the locally pinned Pi CLI in RPC mode, loads the packed extension, runs its manual update command, verifies handled failures and a second-process restart/cleanup, and exercises the native host shell. The actual Pi host and extension handler run in isolated Pi/npm directories; temporary updater shims record both commands and prevent real package or Pi updates. The error case removes the shims to verify handled failures. The smoke makes no model requests. CI runs it as part of npm run ci.

Release

This package is set up for npm Trusted Publishing, so no NPM_TOKEN is required.

npm version patch
git push

See docs/release.md for setup details.

Docs

• docs/release.md — Trusted Publishing and automated release details
• ROADMAP.md — current status and planned work

Security

Installing this package opts the machine into automatic code updates from Pi and every package source configured in Pi. Review and trust those sources before installing this extension.

Pi packages can execute code with your local permissions. For vulnerability reporting, see SECURITY.md.

Links

• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/pi-auto-update
• GitHub: https://github.com/eiei114/pi-auto-update
• Issues: https://github.com/eiei114/pi-auto-update/issues

License

MIT