When a new release ships, the guided update helper brings it in while keeping your secrets and customizations and leaving your data untouched. The changelog lists any steps each release needs.
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Be clear about what to expect first. The platform is sold as-is, and there is no fixed release schedule. When a release does ship, its changelog says what changed and what, if anything, you need to do. Some are small fixes, like v2.2.1; v2.2.0 was a large reliability and security release with a few new controls and some one-time steps. Because you own the source, every update happens on your terms - there is no forced upgrade window and no vendor pushing a change into your live community overnight. When a release ships, you download it, review it, and apply it with a guided helper that walks you through every step. This page covers doing that safely, and the same helper is useful any time you want to lay a fresh copy of the code over your instance.
The download you received is a clean copy of the code. It has no connection back to a central repository, so there is nothing to pull from. When a new release ships, you download the new package the same way you got your first one, unzip it, and point the update helper at that new folder. The helper brings the new code into your instance while carefully keeping the parts that are yours.
That is the whole model. You are never merging against a live remote and you are never at the mercy of an automatic push. An update is just a new download that you choose to apply when you are ready.
Your members, posts, courses, events, and settings live in your database, not in the downloaded code files. The update helper copies code and does not run a data migration. A later deployment or migration is a separate step and can affect stored data, which is why this guide starts with a backup.
Because of this, a code update and a data change are two different things. Most releases are code only. When a release does need a data change, its changelog entry says so plainly, and the helper points you to the updating guide, which gives the exact commands for you to run yourself, when you are ready, after the code is in place.
Your download ships with a guided helper you run from your project folder.
Use the word run. A bare pnpm update is a different, built-in command that updates your dependency versions, which is not what you want here. The run keyword is what points at the guided helper.
Here is what the helper does for you, in plain terms.
A few flags are worth knowing.
--dry-run previews everything and copies nothing, so you can look before you leap.--from path/to/new-version points the helper straight at the unzipped new folder so it does not have to ask.Back up first. Take a fresh data export and confirm your secrets are saved somewhere safe. See Backups and Data Ownership.
Read the changelog. Know your current version and the new one, and read what changed between them. The changelog ships in the download as CHANGELOG.md, and each release that needs something from you has an IMPORTANT - do this when you update list. Follow those steps, in their order, for every version between yours and the new one. The exact commands and what they print are in SETUP/operations/06-updating-and-migrations.md, also in the download.
Download and unzip the new version somewhere you can find it, the same way you got your first download.
Preview the change without touching anything.
Read the list of files it would bring in and the list it would keep. This is your chance to confirm your customizations are in the keep list.
Apply the update. Run it for real and type yes when it shows you the preview.
Reinstall dependencies if the helper tells you the dependency list changed. It prints the exact command.
Let the doctor check your wiring. The helper runs a setup check at the end and tells you if anything needs attention.
If you would rather have a hand held through the whole thing, your download includes a guided companion for Claude Code. Open your project in Claude Code and it can read the setup guide, run the update helper with you one command at a time, explain each step in plain language, and confirm the sensitive ones before you run them. You do not need to be a developer to follow it. This is the same guided experience that walks a first-time buyer through the initial setup, pointed now at an update.
Getting the new code onto your machine is the safe, reversible half. Making it live is the second half, and the helper prints your exact next steps because they depend on what actually changed.
Skipping a required data change is the most common update mistake. If the app complains about missing or mismatched data right after an update, a data change that did not run is the first thing to check.
You own the source, so a way back is always available.
If an update goes wrong, restore your pre-update export into a fresh backend, put the prior code back, and cut over. This is exactly why the back-up-first rule exists. It is what makes rollback a real option rather than a wish.