Updates

What leaves your machine

The update check is the only network request magpie makes on its own. It's a plain HTTPS GET for one static JSON file — https://github.com/akshaykrishh/magpie/releases/latest/download/latest.json — with no query parameters, no device ID, no telemetry, and no analytics. There's nothing else to opt out of, because there's nothing else magpie sends.

If you'd rather it never even makes that request, uncheck "Automatically check for updates" in Settings → About. You can still check manually whenever you want with the "Check for updates" button there — the only difference is whether it happens on its own every 6 hours in the background.

How checking works

• A background check runs at most once every 6 hours, tracked by a persisted update_next_check_at timestamp — not a fixed in-process timer, so it survives the app being closed and reopened.
• A found update is briefly "available" — this is when "Skip this version" is offered, if you'd rather not be reminded about that particular release — and a background download kicks off automatically, no click needed to start it. While it's downloading, Settings → About shows "Downloading X.Y.Z…" and the tray menu shows a generic "Downloading update… N%" item (no version number there).
• Once the download finishes, status becomes "ready": Settings → About shows "X.Y.Z is ready to install." next to an explicit "Install and relaunch" button — the only click required anywhere in this flow — and the tray menu shows a clickable "Update to X.Y.Z" item too. magpie never relaunches itself without you choosing to.
• "Release notes" next to the version number links out to that version's real GitHub release page — the same page RELEASING.md's changelog process writes.

Versioning, in user terms

magpie follows Semantic Versioning, with one pre-1.0 caveat: before 1.0, a breaking change bumps the minor version (0.4.0 → 0.5.0) instead of waiting for a major version that doesn't exist yet. There's no way to opt into early-access or release-candidate builds through the updater — every release is either the latest stable version, or not offered yet. (Anyone who wants a build ahead of a tagged release can grab one from CI directly — see Installation's "Development builds" section — but that path is unsigned and doesn't self-update.)

Why installs never relaunch on their own, and why .deb installs don't check for updates

Every install requires an explicit "Install and relaunch" click — magpie never decides on its own that now is a good time to restart and lose whatever state you had open.

.deb installs don't check for updates at all — magpie can only rewrite an .AppImage in place, so a .deb install shows a fixed note in Settings → About telling you to update via your package manager, and never checks the release server on its own. Check the releases page yourself, or switch to the .AppImage if you want auto-updates.