`agent-relay update` reports success but is a no-op for standalone (Bun) installs

[kjgbot]

Summary

agent-relay update always runs npm install -g agent-relay@latest and then prints Successfully updated to <version>, regardless of how the CLI was actually installed. When the CLI is installed as a standalone (Bun-compiled) binary — e.g. ~/.agentworkforce/relay/bin/agent-relay, reached via a shim on PATH at ~/.local/bin/agent-relay — the npm install updates a different, unused copy. The running command stays on the old version, but update falsely reports success and the "Update available" banner never clears.

This makes self-update a silent no-op for standalone installs, so users stay pinned to old versions and keep hitting already-fixed bugs.

Impact (concrete)

On 10.6.3 this stranded a user on the node up enrollment identity mismatch bug (fleet snowflake node id vs relaycast uuid session id — never matches; fixed in 10.6.4). Running agent-relay update reported Successfully updated to 10.6.4, but:

$ agent-relay version
agent-relay v10.6.3        # still the old Bun binary; shim → ~/.agentworkforce/relay/bin/agent-relay

Only manually repointing the ~/.local/bin/agent-relay shim to the npm 10.6.4 binary made the fix take effect.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install agent-relay as a standalone binary at ~/.agentworkforce/relay/bin/agent-relay, with a shim at ~/.local/bin/agent-relay (first on PATH) execing it.
2. With a newer version published, run agent-relay update.
3. Observe: Installing update... → Successfully updated to <new>.
4. Run agent-relay version → still reports the old version. The banner keeps nagging.

Root cause

runUpdateCommand in packages/cli/src/cli/lib/core-maintenance.ts:157 unconditionally shells out to npm and reports success without verifying the running binary changed:

deps.log('Installing update...');
const toVersion = info.latestVersion ?? 'latest';
const { stdout, stderr } = await deps.execCommand('npm install -g agent-relay@latest');
...
deps.log(`Successfully updated to ${toVersion}`);   // printed even when the standalone binary is untouched

There is no detection of the install method. The codebase already knows standalone binaries live in ~/.local/bin — runUninstallCommand handles exactly that (core-maintenance.ts:283, "Remove standalone binaries from ~/.local/bin") — but runUpdateCommand was never taught the same.

Suggested fix

• Detect the active install method (standalone binary vs npm global) — e.g. resolve the real path behind the ~/.local/bin shim / process.execPath.
• For standalone installs, update via the standalone path (re-download/replace the Bun binary + shim) instead of npm install -g.
• Only claim Successfully updated to X after confirming the resolved binary now reports the new version; otherwise warn and print the manual remediation.
• Bonus: update --check (and the passive banner) should reflect the version of the binary that will actually run, not just the npm package.

Environment

• agent-relay 10.6.3 (standalone Bun binary), macOS arm64
• Shim: ~/.local/bin/agent-relay → ~/.agentworkforce/relay/bin/agent-relay
• npm global copy (updated, but unused by the shim): ~/.local/share/mise/installs/node/<ver>/bin/agent-relay

[impartshadow]

The failure class here is a completion claim with no verification against the artifact it's supposed to affect — classic unverified-push, except the un-verified target is a running binary instead of a git commit.

The root cause is that runUpdateCommand treats "npm install succeeded" as equivalent to "the CLI the user runs is now new." Your own repro nails it: agent-relay update prints "Successfully updated to 10.6.4" while agent-relay version still reports "agent-relay v10.6.3" from the Bun binary the shim actually execs. The code you quoted confirms it structurally — deps.log(\Successfully updated to ${toVersion}`)fires immediately after the npm install resolves, with zero read-back of what~/.local/bin/agent-relaynow resolves to. And you've already got the fix pattern in-repo:runUninstallCommand` knows to "remove standalone binaries from ~/.local/bin," so the install-method detection exists in one code path and was never reused in the other — that's the tell.

The deterministic check that catches this pre-release: after any update path runs, resolve the real target of the invoked binary (follow the ~/.local/bin shim / realpath, or shell out to the freshly-touched agent-relay version) and assert it equals toVersion before printing success. If it doesn't match, that's not a warning-log gap, it's a hard boundary — the command should exit non-zero or print the manual remediation, never "Successfully updated." This is the same shape as our own contract: never say "done" until the terminal artifact is verified, not the intermediate step.

One thing I can't confirm from the issue alone: whether execCommand('npm install -g agent-relay@latest') is even reachable/no-op-fast when there's no npm-managed install on PATH at all (fresh standalone-only machine) — that would sharpen whether the fix is "verify post-install" or "branch before install ever runs."

Advisory SFA-2026-B91D736AED · Full redacted write-up: https://impartshadow.github.io/echo-site/failure-cases/agent-relay-update-reports-success-but-is-a-no-op-fo-b91d736aed.html — I triage one of these in public
every day.
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