wendy os update
Updates the OS on a WendyOS device using the Mender OTA mechanism.
wendy os update
Updates the OS on a WendyOS device using the Mender OTA mechanism.
# Auto-detect the latest stable release for the connected device
wendy os update
# Use the latest nightly build
wendy os update --nightly
# Provide a specific Mender artifact URL
wendy os update --artifact-url https://example.com/update.mender
# Provide a local Mender artifact file
wendy os update ./update.menderSupported targets
wendy os update only works with WendyOS devices that have OTA support. The command validates the target before doing anything else, including before updating the agent binary.
A target is treated as a WendyOS OTA target when the agent reports os = "linux" and either:
os_versionbegins withWendyOS-, ordevice_typeis set (non-empty).
Hosts that are not WendyOS OTA targets — including macOS, Windows, unknown platforms, Wendy Lite / BLE-only targets, external/local-provider targets, and generic Linux hosts with wendy-agent installed but no WendyOS identity — are rejected immediately with an actionable error message.
| Circumstance | Error |
|---|---|
| macOS, Windows, unknown non-WendyOS platform, Wendy Lite, external/local provider | This setup cannot be updated with wendy os update. Use this machine's normal OS update tools instead. To use WendyOS OTA updates, install WendyOS on supported hardware with wendy os install. |
Generic Linux host with wendy-agent but no WendyOS identity (including hosts that also have mender-update installed) | This Linux host has wendy-agent installed, but it cannot be updated with WendyOS OTA artifacts. Use the Linux distribution's package manager, such as apt, dnf, or pacman, to update this machine. |
WendyOS identity present but mender-update not found | This WendyOS image does not support OTA updates because mender-update was not found. Reinstall or upgrade to a WendyOS image with OTA support. |
| No explicit artifact and the device type is missing, unknown, or has no matching stable/nightly OTA artifact | Cannot choose an OTA artifact for this device. Provide a specific .mender artifact, or update/reinstall WendyOS so the device reports a supported device type. |
Note: macOS agents report a host OS version, but this does not qualify the host as a WendyOS OTA target. Only a
WendyOS--prefixedos_versionor a non-emptydevice_typeon a Linux host qualifies.
Update sequence
- Validate target identity — query
GetAgentVersionand confirm the target is a WendyOS OTA target. Exits immediately with an error if not. - Update the agent — ensure the agent binary is at the latest release before proceeding with the OS image update. GitHub release lookups use the
GITHUB_TOKENenvironment variable when present, and fall back to unauthenticated requests otherwise. - Re-query version — query
GetAgentVersionagain after the agent update. - Validate OTA support — confirm
menderis present in the featureset. - Resolve artifact — if no artifact or URL was provided, look up the latest OTA artifact for the device's reported
device_type. Exits with an error if the device type is missing or has no matching artifact. - Check current version — if the device is already at the latest version, exits without updating.
- Stream update — call
UpdateOSon the agent, which runsmender-update installand streams progress to the terminal.
Artifact auto-selection
When no artifact path or --artifact-url is given, the CLI uses the device's device_type field to look up the latest OTA artifact from the WendyOS release manifest. The OTA picker fallback is not used; if no matching artifact exists for the device type, the command exits with an error.
Use --nightly to select nightly (pre-release) artifacts instead of stable ones.
Flags reference
| Flag | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
--artifact-url | — | URL of a Mender artifact to install directly |
--nightly | false | Use nightly/pre-release builds for auto-selection |
A positional argument (local file path) can be used instead of --artifact-url.