[Feature]: Need more docs on update/upgrade process

[jhmonroe]

Problem

There are docs on how to backup but non on how to update to latest version, where to place the backup files in the new folders, etc

Proposed solution

According to Claude it's pretty simple. I forget every time and look to the docs and end up asking Claude again:

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If you cloned the repo and run it directly (dev setup):

cd instatic
git pull
bun install
bun run dev        # or: bun run build && bun run start

Since Instatic bundles its own SQLite/Postgres database and stores content in data_tables/data_rows, your content isn't touched by pulling new code — just back up the database file and uploads folder first as a precaution.

If you're running it via Docker (self-hosted VPS setup): updating is just a redeploy — when a new version is available, pull the latest image and redeploy it. The database and uploads stay on the attached storage volume, so the app container can be replaced without rebuilding the site from scratch. Concretely:

docker compose -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.sqlite.yml pull
INSTATIC_IMAGE=ghcr.io/corebunch/instatic:latest docker compose -f compose.prod.yml -f compose.sqlite.yml up -d

(swap compose.sqlite.yml for your Postgres compose file if that's what you're using).

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HOWEVER... this did not work and I was somehow in a branch not the main.

Revised instructions worked:

cd instatic
git checkout main
git pull
bun install

Alternatives considered

No response

Area

No response

[DavidBabinec]

Hi @jhmonroe

good catch, we indeed need better docs on updating! Thanks for pointing it out.

Btw. if the steps above didn't work and you were inside of a branch, it's not a fault of that flow, but your agent probably created a branch and it was active on your machine. But yeah, it indeed is a good practice to confirm that you are on main when pulling updates.

Btw. yesterday I made small update to our dev boot script, so running bun install is not necessary anymore. Previously, if we added a new dependency, and you started dev server without installing first, it would throw because it couldn't find the dependency, and bun install had to be run beforehand. Now bun install command is part of bun run dev, so that is all you need if you it locally.

We will soon introduce better ways of managing local deployments, stay tuned :)

[jhmonroe]

@DavidBabinec thanks bud you're the best! excited to continue following along with your progress, testing, and giving productive feedback :-)