# Updating with the updater — a guide, step by step

With the updater running on the installation, you update draften on the Installation page with one button. The application keeps running, and should the new version cause trouble, going back is just as easy.

**Before you start**

- **The installation's operator** — Only the operator (superadmin in the interface) sees the Installation part of the menu.
- **A running updater** — It is switched on at installation (COMPOSE_PROFILES=updater in .env). Without it you update with ./draften update.

## Step 1 of 8: Open the Installation page

On the screen: In the menu under Installation, the Installation page; the Version card at the top.

Do this: The **Running** row shows the version that serves now. The **Updater** row must say **running** — otherwise you cannot update here and use the command line instead.

> Note: The updater looks for new versions itself and the row says when it last did. It downloads them with the key from the licence; on a machine without internet it offers a release you copy into the `updates/` folder of the installation directory.

## Step 2 of 8: Read what is new

On the screen: The New versions part with the version on offer.

Do this: The version shows its release date, its size and the release notes. Go through them so you know what changes for the people in the organisations.

> Note: A release we withdrew carries the label **withdrawn** and the reason; the updater does not offer it.

## Step 3 of 8: Start the update

On the screen: Below the notes, a button with the new version number.

Do this: Click **Update to 2026.9.2**.

> Note: The application keeps running during the update: the new version starts beside the current one and takes over only once it is healthy. Before that, the updater dumps the database into the `backups/` folder.

## Step 4 of 8: Confirm

On the screen: A dialog asking whether to update to the new version.

Do this: Click **Update**.

## Step 5 of 8: Follow the progress

On the screen: In the Version card, the request Update to 2026.9.2 with the status running.

Do this: Under **Progress** the updater adds its lines: checking the bundle, dumping the database, migrating, starting the new version. The page refreshes itself every two seconds.

> Note: While the request is **waiting**, you can **Cancel the request**. When the update fails, the current version keeps serving and the error shows in red in the request.

## Step 6 of 8: Load the new version

On the screen: A green bar Version 2026.9.2 is running.

Do this: The new version has taken over. The page in your browser is still from the old one, though — click **Load the new version**.

## Step 7 of 8: If the new version causes trouble

On the screen: Below the version, an offer to go back to the previous one.

Do this: Click **Go back to 2026.9.1** and confirm. The updater switches back to the version that served before the update; the application keeps running meanwhile.

> Note: After an update the previous version keeps running without traffic, so going back is immediate. Going back further means restoring a database dump — the page Updating from the command line describes it.

## Step 8 of 8: The request history

On the screen: At the bottom of the page, the Requests card.

Do this: Here are the updater's last ten requests — updates, rollbacks, changes of the number of processes and key rotations: who asked, when they finished and any error.

**The installation runs the new version** — An update does not touch the assistants' settings, the instructions or the mail — all of it stays in the database.

- **No updater?** — The page Updating from the command line describes ./draften update, checking a bundle and going back to an older version.
- **Database dumps** — Before every update the database is dumped into backups/ (the last three are kept). Copy them and .env off the server — see Backup and restore.