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Updates

Release channels and how Mel ships new versions.

Mel ships as versioned releases you download and install — there is no silent in-app auto-update yet. This page explains how releases reach you and how to move to a new one.

How releases ship

  • Releases are cut as tagged builds and published on GitHub Releases, one per version.
  • Each release builds installers for all three platforms: a universal macOS .app (Apple Silicon + Intel), a Windows .zip, and a Linux .tar.gz.
  • The website's download buttons always point at the latest published binaries, so re-downloading from the site is a valid update path too.

A useful consequence of Mel's architecture: much of the agent's intelligence lives on the backend relay — routing, prompts, model catalog. Improvements there reach you without any app update at all. App and UI changes are what require a new release.

How Mel tells you an update exists

On startup, Mel checks GitHub Releases in the background and compares the latest tag against your running version (a plain semantic-version comparison — a malformed tag is ignored rather than offered). The result lives in the avatar menu:

  • Mel is up to date — nothing to do.
  • Update and relaunch Mel — shown in a distinct highlight color. Clicking it opens the release page in your browser; download the build for your OS and replace your installed copy. Despite the row's name, today's flow is download-and-reinstall — automatic download-and-relaunch is planned but not built yet.

There are no update-related settings to configure; the check is automatic and read-only.

Updating step by step

  1. Click the avatar → Update and relaunch Mel (or visit the website's download page).
  2. Download the build for your platform.
  3. Quit Mel, replace the app with the new one, and start it again.
  4. Confirm the new version under Settings → About — the version string has a one-click copy button.

Your data survives updates untouched: settings in ~/.mel/, conversations and Drive content in ~/.local/share/mel/. See Privacy for the full layout.

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