---
title: Upgrading Sencho
description: How to update Sencho, what happens during upgrades, and the version policy.
---

<Note>
  Sencho is used in production for day-to-day Docker Compose and fleet management. As a pre-1.0 project it still evolves quickly, so review the [known limitations](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/blob/main/KNOWN_LIMITATIONS.md) and validate against your own setup before deploying it on critical infrastructure.
</Note>

## Upgrade steps

Upgrading Sencho is a two-command process. Pull the latest image and recreate the container:

```bash
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
```

Or if you're running with `docker run`:

```bash
docker pull saelix/sencho:latest
docker stop sencho && docker rm sencho
# Re-run your original docker run command
```

Sencho will apply any necessary database migrations automatically on startup. No manual steps are required.

<Note>
  Remote nodes can be updated directly from the Fleet View without dropping to a shell. See [Remote Updates](/features/remote-updates) for details.
</Note>

---

## Automatic migrations

Sencho handles all schema changes internally. When the application starts, it checks whether the database needs updating and applies any pending migrations automatically. This covers:

- **New tables and columns** for features introduced in newer versions
- **Legacy config migration** from very early versions that used a JSON config file
- **Admin account migration** from single-admin storage to the multi-user system
- **Encryption of sensitive values** (node API tokens, registry credentials) that were previously stored in plaintext
- **SSO and RBAC setup** for single sign-on provider config and role-based access
- **Legacy cleanup** of obsolete fields from pre-0.7 versions (SSH/TLS columns)

You never need to run SQL commands, migration scripts, or any manual database operations.

---

## Backup before upgrading

Always back up your data directory before upgrading. If something goes wrong, restoring from backup is the only recovery path. Sencho does not support downgrading or rolling back database migrations.

```bash
# Copy both the database and the encryption key
cp /path/to/sencho-data/sencho.db /path/to/backup/sencho-pre-upgrade.db
cp /path/to/sencho-data/encryption.key /path/to/backup/encryption-pre-upgrade.key
```

See the [Backup & Restore guide](/operations/backup) for full backup procedures.

---

## Pinning a specific version

If you prefer to control exactly which version you run, pin the image tag in your `docker-compose.yml`:

```yaml
image: saelix/sencho:0.38.0
```



Fleet can update semver pins directly from the Node updates sheet: it rewrites the tag to the selected release before recreating the container. Digest pins and compose values that use variable interpolation must be changed manually before Fleet can update the node.

Check [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/releases) for available versions and changelogs.

---

## Version policy

Sencho follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/) (`MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH`):

| Change type | Version bump | Example |
|-------------|-------------|---------|
| Bug fixes, performance improvements | Patch | 0.38.0 → 0.38.1 |
| New features | Minor | 0.38.x → 0.39.0 |
| Breaking changes | Major | 0.x.y → 1.0.0 |

<Note>
  While the version is below 1.0, minor releases (0.x.0) may occasionally include breaking changes. These are always documented in the release notes. Once Sencho reaches 1.0, breaking changes will only occur in major releases.
</Note>

Breaking changes are marked with `BREAKING CHANGE` in the [release notes](https://github.com/studio-saelix/sencho/releases). Subscribe to the repository's releases to be notified of new versions.
