diff --git a/.changeset/empirica-release.md b/.changeset/empirica-release.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3ab4e889
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/empirica-release.md
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+"@empirica/core": patch
+---
+
+Empirica proxy download was using hard links and it could break upgrades. It now uses copy for safety.
+That does mean we are using up more space on disk, but it remain relatively minimal all things
+considered. We might want to look into pruning old versions at some point, but it does not seem
+critical at the moment since empirica binaries are not that large.
+
+We've also improved looking up the current project release version by looking for the .empirica
+directory in parent directories. This is helpful in the case of export, which runs in subdirectory and
+will not pick up the correct empirica version.
diff --git a/.changeset/minor.template b/.changeset/minor.template
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ffa0b88b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/minor.template
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+"@empirica/core": minor
+---
diff --git a/.changeset/patch.template b/.changeset/patch.template
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c3f79e56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/patch.template
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+"@empirica/core": patch
+---
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_and_release.yml b/.github/workflows/build_and_release.yml
index bda98d90..bf2b1282 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_and_release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_and_release.yml
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Publish API docs
         run: |
-          cd lib/@empirica/core
+          cd empirica/lib/@empirica/core
           npm i
           ./docs.sh
           mv docs ../../../../docsv2/api
diff --git a/.github/workflows/on_push_proxy.yaml b/.github/workflows/on_push_proxy.yaml
index 60d161f1..9f76cd67 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/on_push_proxy.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/on_push_proxy.yaml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
   proxy:
     name: Build and upload proxy
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    if: github.repository == 'empiricaly/empirica' && github.event.pull_request.draft == false
+    if: github.repository == 'empiricaly/empirica' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v2
diff --git a/cmds/proxy/cmd/root.go b/cmds/proxy/cmd/root.go
index 75fc85d8..71e875f1 100644
--- a/cmds/proxy/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmds/proxy/cmd/root.go
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ func root(args []string) error {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "get binary")
 	}
 
+	log.Debug().
+		Str("path", path).
+		Msg("proxy: chosen binary path")
+
 	c := exec.CommandContext(ctx, path, args...)
 
 	c.Stderr = os.Stderr
diff --git a/internal/build/exec.go b/internal/build/exec.go
index 68e90af4..f1978140 100644
--- a/internal/build/exec.go
+++ b/internal/build/exec.go
@@ -33,12 +33,49 @@ const (
 )
 
 var (
-	ErrBuildMissing = errors.New("build info missing")
-	ErrBuildEmpty   = errors.New("build info empty")
+	ErrBuildMissing        = errors.New("build info missing")
+	ErrBuildEmpty          = errors.New("build info empty")
+	ErrEmpiricaDirNotFound = errors.New("empirica dir not found")
 )
 
 func ReleaseFilePath() string {
-	return settings.EmpiricaDir + "/" + settings.BuildSelectionFile
+	return path.Join(settings.EmpiricaDir, settings.BuildSelectionFile)
+}
+
+func FindReleaseFilePath() (string, error) {
+	p, err := FindEmpiricaDir()
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+
+	return path.Join(p, settings.BuildSelectionFile), nil
+}
+
+func FindEmpiricaDir() (string, error) {
+	if _, err := os.Stat(settings.EmpiricaDir); err == nil {
+		return settings.EmpiricaDir, nil
+	}
+
+	dir, err := os.Getwd()
+	if err != nil || dir == "/" {
+		return "", ErrEmpiricaDirNotFound
+	}
+
+	dir = filepath.Dir(dir)
+
+	for {
+		if dir == "/" {
+			break
+		}
+
+		if _, err := os.Stat(dir + "/" + settings.EmpiricaDir); err == nil {
+			return dir + "/" + settings.EmpiricaDir, nil
+		}
+
+		dir = filepath.Dir(dir)
+	}
+
+	return "", ErrEmpiricaDirNotFound
 }
 
 const filePerm = 0o600 // -rw-------
@@ -92,7 +129,12 @@ func BinaryVersion() (*Build, error) {
 			Interface("build", build).
 			Msg("proxy: using build from env var")
 	} else {
-		content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(ReleaseFilePath())
+		relPath, err := FindReleaseFilePath()
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, ErrBuildMissing
+		}
+
+		content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(relPath)
 		if err != nil {
 			if errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
 				log.Debug().
@@ -308,6 +350,11 @@ func DownloadBinary(build *Build, asProd bool) (string, error) {
 		return "", errors.New("no new binary paths found")
 	}
 
+	fileBytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(resp.Filename)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", errors.New("failed to read new binary")
+	}
+
 	for _, fileName := range binpaths {
 		dst, err := filepath.Abs(fileName)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -319,7 +366,7 @@ func DownloadBinary(build *Build, asProd bool) (string, error) {
 			return "", errors.Wrap(err, "create binary dir")
 		}
 
-		if err := os.Link(resp.Filename, dst); err != nil {
+		if err = ioutil.WriteFile(dst, fileBytes, 0o750); err != nil {
 			if errors.Is(err, os.ErrExist) {
 				if err = os.Remove(dst); err != nil {
 					return "", errors.Wrap(err, "remove old binary file")