Anima

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Update Anima ​

An Anima update replaces the managed runtime under the selected Anima home. It does not move agent homes, team homes, knowledge bases, or the runtime records stored in the Anima home.

Most operators should update from the dashboard. Use the terminal path when the dashboard is unavailable or when you need an exact release target.

Update from the dashboard ​

Open Server in the dashboard navigation. The Version row shows the runtime track and current version. When a newer version is available, it shows the target, release notes when available, and Upgrade & restart.

If agents are working, the confirmation names them. The upgrade worker installs and checks the target before replacing the running services. During restart, Anima asks active work to reach a provider-safe boundary and requeues the affected inbox items for the new worker. Queued work stays queued.

The dashboard waits for the service to return, then reloads against the new runtime. A successful drain reports how many agents resumed.

If installation fails before restart, the current runtime keeps serving. If a later upgrade phase fails, the Server panel reports the running version, rollback result, error, and upgrade log path instead of claiming success.

Update from a terminal ​

Run the command from an external shell under the host user that owns the Anima installation:

bash
npx -y @meetquinn/animactl@latest restart

This selects the npm latest release, installs it into the managed runtime directory for the selected Anima home, and performs a drain-and-resume service restart.

To target canary or an exact version, make the target explicit:

bash
npx -y @meetquinn/animactl@canary restart
npx -y @meetquinn/animactl@<version> restart

For a non-default runtime, always name its home:

bash
ANIMA_HOME=/absolute/path/to/anima-home \
  npx -y @meetquinn/animactl@latest restart

Do not run a restart from inside an agent turn that belongs to the same Anima home. The CLI refuses that self-stop boundary. Use an external shell or the dashboard.

Verify the serving version ​

After the dashboard returns:

  1. Open Server and confirm the expected track, version, health, uptime, and Home path.

  2. Or run:

    bash
    npx -y @meetquinn/animactl@latest status

  3. Confirm both the agent and web services are running.

  4. Confirm an agent can receive and send one ordinary message before treating the update as closed.

Do not use Restart agent as an update mechanism. That action force-stops one hung agent and drops its current work. Runtime updates use the machine-level drain-and-resume path.

Go deeper ​