Updates

The desktop app has two things it can update independently.

• The app shell — the Tauri binary that renders the window and manages the stack. This is Nora.app, Nora.exe, or the .AppImage you downloaded.
• The container images — the five services (nora-server, nora-llm-bridge, postgres, redis, qdrant) that actually run Nora.

Both paths open the same popup window, launched from the Nora → [Check for Updates…] or Nora → [Import Update…] menu.

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Online — Check for Updates

The Check for updates tab fetches the release manifest and shows both versions side by side.

• The Containers row compares NORA_IMAGE_TAG (from .env.onprem) against the latest tag in the manifest. When a newer tag is available, click [Update containers].
• The Desktop app row compares the running Tauri binary against the manifest. When a newer build is available, click [Get app update →] and Nora opens the download URL in your default browser. Replacing the binary is a manual step — the same drag-to-Applications or .msi flow as the first install.

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The update wizard

Clicking [Update containers] switches the popup to a step checklist and streams the log inline. There are four steps:

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Manifest location

The manifest lives at https://updates.nora.my/latest.json by default. Override it with the NORA_UPDATE_MANIFEST_URL environment variable when you mirror releases into a staging bucket or an enterprise artefact server.

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When the manifest is unreachable

If the corporate proxy blocks HTTPS, the network is down, or the URL is misconfigured, the popup still renders. It shows a hint next to the online section, but the Import from file tab keeps working — so you’re never stuck.

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Offline — Import from file

The Import from file tab is for air-gapped operators. You receive a nora-onprem-<version>.tar.gz bundle out-of-band (USB drive, internal artefact server), and the popup ingests it end-to-end.

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The import wizard

The scratch directory is deleted before the restart runs, so the 15 GB tarball isn’t holding memory-mapped pages during compose bring-up.

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Version pinning

Every successful update writes the new tag into ~/.nora/onprem/.env.onprem as NORA_IMAGE_TAG. The Containers row on the update popup always reflects the last tag you actually installed — there’s no drift between what the popup says and what’s running.

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Downgrade

Downgrading isn’t a first-class feature, but it works: install an older shell binary manually, or import a tarball for the older version. The compose stack tears down and comes back up on the pinned tag either way.

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