Upgrades

SyncBins is pre-1.0 (alpha). Treat upgrades as backup first, pull second, verify third.

Standard upgrade (Docker)

1. Back up — see Backups & restore. At minimum copy syncbins.db and blobs/.
2. Pull the new image:

   cd App/docker
   docker compose pull syncbins

3. Recreate the container:

   docker compose up -d

4. Check logs:

   docker compose logs -f syncbins --tail=100

   Look for a clean boot — no migration errors, listening on 0.0.0.0:8080.
5. Smoke test:

   curl -s https://your-domain/api/health

   Unlock the UI, send a test item, confirm sync on a second device if you have one.

Caddy usually does not need upgrading unless you change Caddyfile — docker compose pull caddy when you do.

Database migrations

The server runs idempotent SQL from server/src/db/schema.sql on every boot (IF NOT EXISTS). New columns and tables land automatically when you upgrade the binary.

There is no down-migration — rollback means restoring the previous image and the SQLite/blob backup from before the upgrade.

Release channels

Channel	How to get it
GHCR latest	ghcr.io/syncbins/syncbins:latest (compose default)
Tagged alpha	GitHub Releases deploy zip + image tag (e.g. v0.1.0-alpha.1)
From source	git pull, npm run build, rebuild Docker image locally

Release tags trigger CI that builds the image and attaches a deploy bundle — see App README.

Versioning expectations

Semver is the goal, but breaking changes may still land before 1.0. Read release notes on GitHub when skipping more than one tag.

• Patch/minor: usually safe — pull and restart.
• Major / alpha tag: read migration notes, run backup drill, plan rollback.

Rollback

1. Stop compose: docker compose down
2. Restore syncbins.db (+ blobs) from backup.
3. Pin the previous image tag in docker-compose.yml or docker compose pull the old digest.
4. docker compose up -d and verify /api/health.

Native / dev installs

If you run from source without Docker:

git pull
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev:server   # or restart your process manager

Rebuild better-sqlite3 if Node version changed: npm run rebuild:native.

Going deeper

Backups & restore Snapshot before every upgrade.

Troubleshooting When health check fails after upgrade.

Changelog Per-release notes (as we publish them).