Update and uninstall

The update controls on this page apply to Desktop, local, and self-hosted Worktable. Worktable Cloud updates automatically.

Update Worktable Desktop

Signed Desktop releases check once after startup and at most once per day. Nothing downloads until you choose Download and Restart. Choose Help → Check for Updates… to check immediately. If installation fails, Desktop keeps the current app and offers the signed DMG for manual recovery.

If Help → Check for Updates… is unavailable, install the latest DMG once. Future updates can then be installed from the app.

The updater preserves workspace files, saved connections, and local settings. A Desktop-owned local host stops for restart; a CLI or managed service that Desktop only attached to keeps running. See the Desktop reference for connection and storage boundaries.

Update from the app

On a local or self-hosted install, open Settings → System → Software update. It shows the running version, checks for a newer release and names it once found, downloads it in the background, and restarts the service into it. You keep working until the restart. Already on the latest release? It says so instead of offering to update again. If the release server cannot be reached, the panel offers to retry the check and does not offer an update until the release is confirmed.

You don’t have to go looking: a dot appears on the sidebar’s Settings entry once a release is available, and the System entry carries an Update badge. Settings still opens normally on General, so the update never gets in the way when you came to change something else. A one-time toast announces each release; its Review update action opens System directly.

Update from the CLI

worktable update --check   # is there a newer release?
worktable update           # download and switch to it

worktable status also tells you when an update is available. Turn automatic checks off with Check for updates automatically in Settings → System. The configuration reference covers the environment override for automated or managed installations.

What shipped in each release is on What’s new.

Uninstall

worktable uninstall

It shows what it will remove — the launcher, installed releases, app data, shell completions, agent registrations — and asks first (--yes to skip the prompt).

Your workspace folder survives. Uninstalling removes Worktable, not your work: every doc, record, and annotation stays on disk, readable without Worktable installed. The one exception is explicit:

worktable uninstall --purge   # ALSO deletes the workspace folder

Reinstalling later picks the same workspace folder right back up.