Updates and release channels

How GitLane updates itself, and the difference between the stable and beta channels.

GitLane ships desktop builds through the Tauri v2 updater. It checks GitHub Releases for a newer signed build, downloads and installs it, then relaunches.

Switch channels in Settings → About.

What’s new, and skipping a version

When an update is available, an icon lights up in the title bar. Click it to open What’s new: every version between the one you run and the one on offer, each with its release notes. Install from there, choose Later, or Skip this version.

The What’s new window listing two releases, with Skip this version, Later and Install update

A skipped version no longer lights the title bar. When a newer release comes out, GitLane offers it as usual. Check for updates in Settings → About still offers a version you skipped, marked Skipped, in case you change your mind.

Settings → About has the same list under a collapsible What’s new. When you’re up to date, it shows the version you run, marked Installed, with its notes, followed by earlier releases.

If the release notes can’t be loaded — offline, for example — GitLane links to the GitHub release page instead, and you can still install the update.

The two channels

Channel	What it tracks
Stable (default)	The newest non-pre-release GitHub release
Beta	A rolling manifest updated after every release, including pre-releases

Both channels are signed with the same updater key. Only the update endpoint differs, and the endpoint is baked into a build at compile time — so a stable build and a beta build are genuinely different artifacts, not the same binary with a setting.

Tags drive releases: vX.Y.Z publishes a stable release, and vX.Y.Z-beta.N publishes a GitHub pre-release built against the beta endpoint.

Signing

Updater artifacts are signed with a Tauri updater (minisign) key. This is separate from Apple code signing and notarization — which GitLane does not have yet, and which is why the first launch of a downloaded build shows a Gatekeeper or SmartScreen warning.

Source builds don’t auto-update

The updater is disabled in builds you compiled yourself. Settings → About identifies them as source builds. To update one, pull and rebuild:

git pull
bun install
bun run tauri build

Release assets you can ignore

Each release carries .sig, .app.tar.gz, and latest.json assets. Those are for the updater. Downloading by hand, you only ever want the .dmg, .exe, .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage.