Set Up Background Autoupdating

This guide shows you how to configure swamp to check for and install updates automatically in the background.

Prerequisites

swamp installed and on your PATH

Enable autoupdate interactively

The interactive setup wizard prompts you to choose a cadence and installs the platform-native scheduler in one step:

$ swamp update --setup-auto

The wizard asks whether to check daily or weekly, then installs the scheduler and confirms:

? How often should swamp check for updates? (daily / weekly)
> daily
Autoupdate enabled and scheduler installed

Enable autoupdate non-interactively

For scripted or headless setups, use swamp config set directly:

$ swamp config set update.auto enabled

config·set: Autoupdate enabled and scheduler installed

Choose a cadence

To change the update cadence from the default (daily) to weekly:

$ swamp config set update.cadence weekly

config·set: Cadence updated to "weekly" and scheduler reinstalled

To switch back:

$ swamp config set update.cadence daily

config·set: Cadence updated to "daily"

Check autoupdate status

$ swamp update --setup-auto status

When enabled:

update: Autoupdate: enabled
update: Cadence: "weekly"
update: Scheduler installed: true
update: Last check: "2026-05-07T22:40:18.898Z" ("up_to_date")

When disabled:

update: Autoupdate is disabled. Run `swamp update --setup-auto` to enable.

Disable autoupdate

$ swamp update --setup-auto disable

update: Autoupdate disabled and scheduler removed

You can also disable via swamp config set:

$ swamp config set update.auto disabled

config·set: Autoupdate disabled and scheduler removed

View the autoupdate log

To see recent autoupdate activity:

$ cat ~/.swamp/log/autoupdate.log

You will see output like:

{"timestamp":"2026-05-07T18:27:00.474Z","versionBefore":"20260206.200442.0-sha.","versionAfter":"20260507.175426.0-sha.618a0fec","outcome":"updated"}
{"timestamp":"2026-05-07T22:05:39.415Z","versionBefore":"20260507.214509.0-sha.e2ba2941","versionAfter":null,"outcome":"up_to_date"}