Update to a new version
When a new version is published, the app or stack shows New version available with a short changelog and the Update button. A security version is highlighted in the dashboard and also sent by email to the accounts running an older version; the click stays yours. Before you confirm, the update shows what would change: the new version, whether it is a security release, new questions, services added or removed, memory that rose and whether it opens permissions.1
Safety snapshot
A snapshot of the
/app of each app and of the stack’s databases is taken without stopping anything.2
Deploy
The services are updated one after the other, with the same steps as a deploy: images, apps, variables, certificates, start and health check.
3
Rollback on failure
If a step fails, every service goes back: the variables, connections and the app’s settings return to what they were, and the snapshot is restored.
When a new version changes the recipe
A blocked update returns
TEMPLATE_UPDATE_BLOCKED with a reason: no_new_version, detached, template_removed, link_revoked, ram, plan, image_slots, app_building or deploy_in_progress. See the error reference.
Permissions never get stricter
An existing app keeps the policy it was created with. If the new version opens something (a closed template becomes open), it opens on the update. If a new version closes something, it applies only to apps created afterwards: whoever has already seen the code cannot unsee it. See Closed templates.Detached apps and removed templates
- If the template’s author removes the template, your app keeps running normally, with a notice that it will not receive more updates.
- If you edit the code of an open template’s app, the app detaches and becomes an ordinary app with no updates. The dashboard warns you before the first edit, and you can also detach it yourself. The app of a closed template cannot be detached.
- Versions of a template that some app uses are never deleted from storage.
Rollback and snapshots
Rollback of a template app depends on whether the software migrates its data when it updates.
Software such as n8n, Open WebUI and Evolution API migrates its database on startup, so older code cannot run on the data as it is now. That is why these templates require rollback with data. Apps that are not from a template, and apps that were detached, keep the usual rollback described in Rollback and zero-downtime deploys. For snapshots, see Backups and snapshots.
Why deploys without downtime come off
Deploys without downtime keep two copies of the app running at the same time while one replaces the other. Most templates keep this off and locked, because two copies would break the software:
An author can only restrict what the plan allows; the plan still decides what exists. Automatic rollback, where your plan has it, stays on by default.
Related
Stacks
The stack update runs every service together.
Errors
Update blocks and their reasons.