Production telemetry (7d, 2026-07-17) shows a persistent tail of live
installs on 6.0.0-rc.x and 6.0.3/6.0.4 while 6.0.5 has been stable since
2026-07-09. Root cause for the reachable stranding class: release
selection trusted GitHub's created_at ordering, and this repo interleaves
v5-line maintenance releases with v6 releases (v5.1.36 was created the
day before v6.0.5). Whenever a v5.1.x release is the most recently
created stable:
- stable channel (getLatestReleaseForChannel) returned the first
non-prerelease in list order -> "no update" for every v6 install
until the next v6 release ships
- the RSS rate-limit fallback returned the first feed entry matching the
channel, same failure, both channels
- the unattended updater trusted /releases/latest, which GitHub defines
as most-recently-created stable -> timer no-ops in the same window
All three now select the highest eligible version: the API path tracks
newest stable + newest prerelease in one pass (prerelease = GitHub flag
OR tag shape), the feed fallback picks the max matching the channel, and
pulse-auto-update.sh scans /releases pairing each tag with its own
draft/prerelease flags before the fail-closed shape filter, keeping
/releases/latest as fallback. helm-chart-* tags fail semver parsing and
are dropped everywhere.
Verified not broken (pinned by new tests): rc-channel installs are
offered the newer stable (6.0.0-rc.6 -> 6.0.5) and move onto the next rc
line when one opens (-> 6.1.0-rc.2); the auto-update prerelease filter
(fail-closed is_prerelease_tag, metadata-flag refusal) still refuses
prerelease targets on stable. Go tests fail on the pre-fix code
(returned 5.1.37 / "no update").
Contract: deployment-installability now pins version-max release
selection with proofs in manager_stranded_upgrade_test.go and
pulse_auto_update_test.go.
A Docker install of the Pro runtime had no sane update path: the binary
self-updater refuses to run in a container, the customer compose file pins
the previous image digest (so `docker compose pull` never updates), and the
in-app guidance showed community `docker pull rcourtman/pulse:<tag>` commands
that silently downgrade the container to the community build - the same
failure mode 93bccaff1 fixed for binary installs.
The update check on the Pro binary already fetches the license server
download broker manifest (GET /v1/downloads/pulse-pro), which carries the
digest-pinned image ref plus ready-to-run compose commands. Relay that block
on UpdateInfo.dockerUpdate for Docker deployments, behind the existing
stable/rc channel guard, failing closed unless both compose commands
reference the digest-pinned ref (never a mutable tag).
Settings -> Updates now renders those commands as copy blocks when an update
is available, and the idle Docker box, the update banner, and the docker
update plan suppress every community-image command whenever the compiled
runtime identity is pro.
Contracts: api-contracts (update transport dockerUpdate block),
deployment-installability (Pro Docker update path), frontend-primitives
(install guide Pro-runtime guidance), with transport and settings-shell
proofs extended accordingly.
The in-app updater validated download URL and channel but never compared
the target against the running version, so any valid older release asset
URL installed silently while the UI presented it as an update. ApplyUpdate
now rejects targets at or below the running version on both the community
and Pro broker paths before any history entry or download, with an explicit
allowDowngrade opt-in on POST /api/updates/apply for sanctioned cases.
The rollback half already existed but nothing reached it: createBackup
retains three backups, restoreBackup works, and history records BackupPath,
yet no endpoint or UI called restoreBackup. RollbackToBackup restores the
retained backup recorded on a history entry after re-validating the path
against the managed backup roots, shares the update-in-flight slot with
ApplyUpdate, records an Action rollback history entry linked to the source
update, marks that update rolled_back, streams a restoring stage through
the existing status/SSE machinery, and restarts via the exit-for-systemd
path. POST /api/updates/rollback carries it with the same RequireAdmin plus
settings:write gating as apply. Rollback is purely local, so the Pro
edition gate never applies to it.
Settings now has the update history surface that was missing entirely:
nothing called /api/updates/history before. The Updates panel lists recent
updates with a Roll back action on successful entries whose backup is still
retained, behind a confirmation dialog naming the restore version, and the
rollback rides updateStore's shared pending-apply marker for the
post-restart toast. restoreBackup also honors PULSE_INSTALL_DIR now instead
of hardcoding /opt/pulse, matching createBackup.
Contract deltas ride along: api-contracts picks up the rollback transport
and downgrade-conflict semantics, agent-lifecycle and storage-recovery pin
rollback as server self-update plumbing, ai-runtime and cloud-paid pin the
update watcher stage vocabulary as non-assistant non-paid shell chrome, and
frontend-primitives adds UpdateHistorySection as the history/rollback
presentation owner with matching architecture proofs.
The only production consumer of the UpdaterRegistry is the plan endpoint
(GET /api/updates/plan); every real apply runs through the in-Go pipeline
in manager.go ApplyUpdate, with concurrency held by updateMu/updateInFlight.
The InstallShAdapter Execute/Rollback path (install.sh piping, rollback
binary download, health wait) and the UpdateQueue were never called outside
tests, so fixes made there silently did nothing. Adapters are now plan
providers only: the Updater interface keeps SupportsApply, PrepareUpdate,
and GetDeploymentType, pinned by the new registry proof in
internal/api/updates_test.go.
The orphaned fetchAndVerifyReleaseSignature helper goes with it; its
fail-closed sidecar tests now exercise the manager's
downloadAndVerifyReleaseSignature directly. The deployment-installability
sshsig invariant now names the manager pipeline as the only surface that
fetches release artifacts, and api-contracts, storage-recovery, and
agent-lifecycle pin the same plan-provider-only shape at their update
transport boundaries. Stale adapter references in build-release.sh,
validate-release.sh, and the installtests comments are updated to match.
Checksum and SSHSIG verification prove the downloaded artifact matches
what was published, not that it can run on this host or is the version
the user approved. The apply pipeline previously swapped the binary and
exited, relying on systemd to restart into an unproven executable; a
wrong-arch fallback asset or unstamped build would take Pulse down with
the backup left unused.
ApplyUpdate now locates the extracted binary and probes it with
--version before the backup and swap stages, failing the update with
zero changes applied when the probe fails or reports a version other
than the apply target. Same pattern the agent updater already uses.
Pinned in the deployment-installability contract with
internal/updates/selftest_test.go as the owned proof surface.
The in-app updater and the unattended timer both target the public
rcourtman/Pulse community assets, so a Pro install that used them was
silently downgraded to community. Guard 2 (983a89326) blocked in-app
apply on the Pro edition, which stopped the downgrade but left Pro
installs with no update path except manual portal downloads. That
friction is a plausible driver of the runtime split: as of 2026-07-08
only 10 of 66 active paid licenses have any Pro-runtime install.
Root fix: the compiled Pro binary now checks and applies updates
through the license server download broker (GET /v1/downloads/pulse-pro
with the installation token and instance fingerprint). The check
compares against the broker's pinned private release instead of GitHub,
respecting the stable/rc channel guard. Apply re-resolves fresh signed
R2 URLs at apply time, verifies the archive against the same pinned
pulse-installer SSHSIG key plus the broker manifest sha256, and refuses
GitHub-shaped download URLs outright. An unactivated Pro binary still
refuses with the portal fallback. The community edition path is
unchanged.
The update banner restores in-app apply for auto-updatable Pro
deployments and keeps the portal instructions for deployments the
updater cannot drive (Docker). scripts/pulse-auto-update.sh now skips
when the installed binary reports Pulse Pro so the unattended timer can
never reinstall community over Pro.
Note: internal/updates/pro_update.go and manager_pro_update_test.go for
this change landed one commit early inside 313552deb via a parallel
session committing a shared staged index; this commit completes the
wiring they belong to.
The in-app updater and install.sh both fetch the public community build from
github.com/rcourtman/Pulse. On non-Docker Pro installs (systemd, proxmoxve,
source) the "Apply Update" button was live, so applying an update replaced the
separately compiled Pro binary with community and silently stripped Audit,
RBAC, Reporting, and SSO from a paying customer. Docker was already blocked;
nothing else was.
Add a dependency-free pkg/edition marker (defaults to community) that the Pro
binary flips via enterpriseruntime.Initialize, mirroring the existing
coreaudit.SetLogger / server.SetBusinessHooks registration seam. ApplyUpdate
now refuses when the edition is Pro, pointing at the Private Release Access
portal (https://pulserelay.pro/download.html) and the install.sh --archive
path. The gate keys off the compiled binary, not license state: a community
binary with an active license still self-updates as before.
The update banner hides the in-app apply affordance and shows portal
instructions for the Pro runtime, keyed off the existing runtime-identity
signal (runtime.build) rather than a new payload field, so nothing extra is
plumbed through the version API and the frontend reuses the canonical
"which binary am I" contract. The backend gate is the hard guarantee; the
banner is the UX layer.
Guard 2 of the Pro download/update experience spec.
The unattended timer (scripts/pulse-auto-update.sh) and the public bootstrap
(scripts/install.sh, /install.sh) all verify the .sshsig sidecar against the
pinned pulse-installer ed25519 key before trusting a release artifact. The
in-app updater verified SHA256 only — same artifact, same root execution
context, lower trust bar. Closing the asymmetry: the in-app tarball download
in ApplyUpdate, adapter_installsh.go's install.sh download (piped into bash
as root), and the rollback binary download now fetch and verify the .sshsig
sidecar against the same pinned key, fail-closed.
The signing infrastructure (release_asset_common.sh, validate-release.sh,
backfill-release-assets.sh) already produces and validates these signatures
for every release; this teaches the Go updater to honor what the shell paths
have always required. ssh-keygen is shelled out to so the in-app updater
shares the exact trust path used by the unattended path, with a package-level
function variable for test injection so unit tests don't require ssh-keygen
on the build host.
Extends the deployment-installability contract's release-trust-fail-closed
invariant to cover the in-app updater paths.
- Updated monitoring reload and metrics history to be tenant-aware
- Refactored update manager and checksum validation for multi-tenancy
- Enhanced test coverage for agent updates and metrics storage
Closes#1115 (discussion feedback)
Two API consistency issues reported by @FabienD74:
1. Version format mismatch in /api/version:
- currentVersion: "5.0.16" (no prefix)
- latestVersion: "v5.0.16" (with prefix)
Fixed: LatestVersion now strips the "v" prefix to match CurrentVersion format.
2. Guest ID separator inconsistency:
- Some code used colons: "instance:node:vmid"
- BuildGuestKey used dashes: "instance-node-vmid"
Fixed: BuildGuestKey now uses colon separator matching the canonical
format used by makeGuestID in the monitoring package. The existing
legacy migration in GetWithLegacyMigration handles old dash-format
entries in guest_metadata.json.
When the GitHub API returns 403 (rate limited), Pulse now falls back
to parsing the releases.atom feed which doesn't count against API
rate limits. This ensures users can still check for updates even
when rate limited.
The feed parser:
- Extracts version tags from Atom feed entries
- Filters prereleases for stable channel users
- Returns the first matching release
Fixes#840
- Default enableDocker to false in UI to prevent unintended Docker
agent activation on host-only installs (Related to #766)
- Deploy agent scripts and binaries during web UI upgrades, not just
the main binary (Related to #760)
- Apply symlink resolution fix to standalone docker agent self-update
to prevent cross-device rename failures (Related to #737)
Bug: Pulse was showing update notifications for draft releases because
the update checker didn't filter them out.
The GitHub API returns draft releases in the releases endpoint, and
Pulse was treating them as available updates even though they're not
published yet.
Fix:
- Added Draft field to ReleaseInfo struct
- Added draft filtering in both RC and stable channel logic
- Draft releases are now skipped with debug logging
This prevents users from seeing "Update available" notifications
when maintainers create draft releases during the release workflow.
This commit implements a comprehensive refactoring of the update system
to address race conditions, redundant polling, and rate limiting issues.
Backend changes:
- Add job queue system to ensure only ONE update runs at a time
- Implement Server-Sent Events (SSE) for real-time update progress
- Add rate limiting to /api/updates/status (5-second minimum per client)
- Create SSE broadcaster for push-based status updates
- Integrate job queue with update manager for atomic operations
- Add comprehensive unit tests for queue and SSE components
Frontend changes:
- Update UpdateProgressModal to use SSE as primary mechanism
- Implement automatic fallback to polling when SSE unavailable
- Maintain backward compatibility with existing update flow
- Clean up SSE connections on component unmount
API changes:
- Add new endpoint: GET /api/updates/stream (SSE)
- Enhance /api/updates/status with client-based rate limiting
- Return cached status with appropriate headers when rate limited
Benefits:
- Eliminates 429 rate limit errors during updates
- Only one update job can run at a time (prevents race conditions)
- Real-time updates via SSE reduce unnecessary polling
- Graceful degradation to polling when SSE unavailable
- Better resource utilization and reduced server load
Testing:
- All existing tests pass
- New unit tests for queue and SSE functionality
- Integration tests verify complete update flow
Adds build support for 32-bit x86 (i386/i686) and ARMv6 (older Raspberry Pi models) architectures across all agents and install scripts.
Changes:
- Add linux-386 and linux-armv6 to build-release.sh builds array
- Update Dockerfile to build docker-agent, host-agent, and sensor-proxy for new architectures
- Update all install scripts to detect and handle i386/i686 and armv6l architectures
- Add architecture normalization in router download endpoints
- Update update manager architecture mapping
- Update validate-release.sh to expect 24 binaries (was 18)
This enables Pulse agents to run on older/legacy hardware including 32-bit x86 systems and Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W devices.
User ZaDarkSide reported that when updates fail, the UI shows a loading
spinner indefinitely with no feedback about what went wrong. Users had to
check backend logs to understand failures like "checksum verification failed".
The infrastructure was already in place:
- UpdateStatus struct had an Error field
- Frontend already renders error details when present
- But updateStatus() never populated the Error field
Changes:
- Modified updateStatus() to accept optional error parameter
- Added sanitizeError() to cap error message length (500 chars max)
- Updated all error cases in ApplyUpdate() to pass error details:
- Temp directory creation failures
- Download failures
- Checksum verification failures (most common user complaint)
- Extraction failures
- Backup creation failures
- Apply update failures
- Also updated CheckForUpdates() error cases
Now when updates fail, users immediately see the error message in the UI's
red error panel instead of being stuck on a loading spinner.
Security: Errors are only shown to authenticated admin users with update
permissions. Error messages are capped at 500 chars to prevent extremely
long output. Current error messages don't contain sensitive data (mainly
HTTP status codes, file paths, checksum mismatches).
Source builds use commit hashes (main-c147fa1) not semantic versions
(v4.23.0), so update checks would always fail or show misleading
"Update Available" banners.
Changes:
- Add IsSourceBuild flag to VersionInfo struct
- Detect source builds via BUILD_FROM_SOURCE marker file
- Skip update check for source builds (like Docker)
- Update frontend to show "Built from source" message
- Disable manual update check button for source builds
- Return "source" deployment type for source builds
Backend:
- internal/updates/version.go: Add isSourceBuildEnvironment() detection
- internal/updates/manager.go: Skip check with appropriate message
- internal/api/types.go: Add isSourceBuild to API response
- internal/api/router.go: Include isSourceBuild in version endpoint
Frontend:
- src/api/updates.ts: Add isSourceBuild to VersionInfo type
- src/stores/updates.ts: Don't poll for updates on source builds
- src/components/Settings/Settings.tsx: Show "Built from source" message
Fixes the confusing "Update Available" banner for users who explicitly
chose --source to get latest main branch code.
Co-authored-by: Codex AI
rcourtman