Default nightly desktop builds to the nightly update channel

[juliusmarminge]

Summary

• Added shared update-channel helpers to पहचान nightly desktop versions and match incoming update artifacts to the selected channel.
• Defaulted packaged nightly builds to the nightly update channel while keeping stable builds on latest.
• Hardened desktop auto-update handling so update-available events are ignored when the published version does not match the active channel.
• Updated desktop settings loading to preserve legacy nightly settings and added coverage for the new defaults and channel matching logic.

Testing

• Added Vitest coverage in apps/desktop/src/updateChannels.test.ts for nightly version detection, default channel resolution, and channel/version matching.
• Added Vitest coverage in apps/desktop/src/desktopSettings.test.ts for nightly defaults and legacy nightly settings without an explicit update track.
• Not run: bun fmt
• Not run: bun lint
• Not run: bun typecheck
• Not run: bun run test

---

Note

Medium Risk
Changes affect update-channel selection, settings migration, and auto-update event handling, which can alter upgrade/downgrade behavior for existing users (especially legacy nightly installs).

Overview
Nightly desktop builds now default to the nightly update channel based on the packaged version string, via new shared helpers in updateChannels.ts (also used for stage labeling in appBranding.ts).

Desktop settings loading is now version-aware (readDesktopSettings(settingsPath, appVersion)) and persists a new updateChannelConfiguredByUser flag to distinguish explicit user choice from defaults; legacy settings are migrated so nightly builds without an explicit choice roll onto nightly while explicit stable picks are preserved.

The auto-updater in main.ts is hardened to ignore update-available events whose info.version doesn’t match the currently selected channel, preventing stable/nightly cross-channel prompts; nightly release tooling/docs are also updated so nightly versions are derived from the next patch (e.g., 0.0.17 -> 0.0.18-nightly.*).

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 93ce4e8. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Default nightly desktop builds to the nightly update channel

• Nightly app versions (matching -nightly.YYYYMMDD.N suffix) now default to the nightly update channel; stable builds continue to default to latest. Logic is centralized in updateChannels.ts.
• Adds updateChannelConfiguredByUser to DesktopSettings to distinguish explicit user preference from the version-derived default. Legacy settings without this flag are treated as user-configured only if they previously selected nightly.
• The auto-updater now ignores available releases that don't match the selected channel, preventing cross-channel updates from surfacing.
• Nightly release scripts now use the next patch version as the semver base (e.g. 0.0.17 → 0.0.18-nightly.*) via the new resolveNightlyTargetVersion function.
• Behavioral Change: existing nightly users with a persisted latest channel and no explicit updateChannelConfiguredByUser flag will be migrated to the nightly channel on next launch.

^{Macroscope summarized 93ce4e8.}

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

Autofix Details

Bugbot Autofix prepared a fix for the issue found in the latest run.

• ✅ Fixed: Periodic nightly checks fail after stable-to-nightly switch
  • Restored allowDowngrade = channel === "nightly" in applyAutoUpdaterChannel so that all update check paths (startup, poll, menu) correctly allow downgrades on the nightly channel, enabling discovery of semver-lower nightly pre-release versions.

Or push these changes by commenting:

@cursor push bd53a5b84b

Preview (bd53a5b84b)

diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
--- a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
@@ -1139,9 +1139,9 @@
 function applyAutoUpdaterChannel(channel: DesktopUpdateChannel): void {
   autoUpdater.channel = channel;
   autoUpdater.allowPrerelease = channel === "nightly";
-  autoUpdater.allowDowngrade = false;
+  autoUpdater.allowDowngrade = channel === "nightly";
   console.info(
-    `[desktop-updater] Using update channel '${channel}' (allowPrerelease=${channel === "nightly"}, allowDowngrade=false).`,
+    `[desktop-updater] Using update channel '${channel}' (allowPrerelease=${channel === "nightly"}, allowDowngrade=${channel === "nightly"}).`,
   );
 }

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Needs human review

This PR changes runtime behavior for how nightly desktop builds determine their default update channel and adds filtering logic that gates which updates the auto-updater will apply. While well-tested and the author is an admin, changes to update channel selection and version filtering are significant behavior changes that warrant human review.

^{You can customize Macroscope's approvability policy. Learn more.}

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 2 potential issues.

Bugbot Autofix prepared fixes for both issues found in the latest run.

• ✅ Fixed: Migration silently resets legacy explicit nightly preference
  • Legacy settings files lacking updateChannelConfiguredByUser now infer the flag as true when updateChannel is 'nightly', since the old default was always 'latest' and a saved 'nightly' value must have been an explicit user choice.
• ✅ Fixed: Same-channel early return skips recording user preference
  • Moved the settings persistence (setDesktopUpdateChannelPreference + writeDesktopSettings) before the same-channel early return so updateChannelConfiguredByUser is always recorded when the user explicitly sets a channel.

Or push these changes by commenting:

@cursor push 10938abe86

Preview (10938abe86)

diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/desktopSettings.ts b/apps/desktop/src/desktopSettings.ts
--- a/apps/desktop/src/desktopSettings.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/desktopSettings.ts
@@ -64,7 +64,10 @@
       parsed.updateChannel === "nightly" || parsed.updateChannel === "latest"
         ? parsed.updateChannel
         : null;
-    const updateChannelConfiguredByUser = parsed.updateChannelConfiguredByUser === true;
+    const isLegacySettings = parsed.updateChannelConfiguredByUser === undefined;
+    const updateChannelConfiguredByUser =
+      parsed.updateChannelConfiguredByUser === true ||
+      (isLegacySettings && parsedUpdateChannel === "nightly");
 
     return {
       serverExposureMode:

diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
--- a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
@@ -1802,13 +1802,14 @@
     }
 
     const nextChannel = rawChannel as DesktopUpdateChannel;
-    if (nextChannel === desktopSettings.updateChannel) {
-      return updateState;
-    }
 
     desktopSettings = setDesktopUpdateChannelPreference(desktopSettings, nextChannel);
     writeDesktopSettings(DESKTOP_SETTINGS_PATH, desktopSettings);
 
+    if (nextChannel === updateState.channel) {
+      return updateState;
+    }
+
     const enabled = shouldEnableAutoUpdates();
     setUpdateState(createBaseUpdateState(nextChannel, enabled));

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 76d6ea4. Configure here.}

[juliusmarminge]

@cursor push 10938ab