Updating

Watchwright checks npm for a newer version twice a day. When there is one, admins see Update in the top bar, and Admin › Server › Updates says what's new and how to update. How you update depends on how you installed it.

Installed with npm

If you installed it with npm install -g watchwright, update in one step, from the web page or a terminal:

• Admin › Server › Update to …, or
• watchwright update in a terminal.

Either way, Watchwright stops, installs the new version with npm install -g, and starts again with the same options (port, data folder, login). It takes about a minute. The web page waits for it and reloads with the new version. If you started the server in a terminal, it comes back in the background (its output goes to logs/server.log in the data folder).

watchwright update            # asks first, then updates
watchwright update --check    # only says whether there is a newer version
watchwright update --yes      # doesn't ask

Runs in progress. Watchwright won't update while runs are going, unless you say so: the page asks first, and the command needs --now. Runs it interrupts go on by themselves once it's back when Resume interrupted runs is on (Settings › New run); otherwise they wait for Resume on their page.

Agents keep working. Claude Desktop and other agents that start watchwright mcp stay connected through the update. A call made while the server is away waits for it to come back, and once it's back the agent gets the new version's tools. You don't need to quit Claude Desktop first.

If it fails, the old version starts again, and Admin › Server says so. The update's own log is logs/update.log in the data folder.

Why this works on Windows

Windows doesn't let npm replace files a running program has loaded. The update runs from a small separate process that waits for the server to exit before npm starts. watchwright mcp doesn't load any of the files npm replaces, so it can stay running.

Docker and Portainer

A container can't replace its own image, so in Docker the page shows how to update instead of an Update button. Pull the new image and recreate the container; the data folder upgrades itself when the new version starts.

• Portainer: open the stack and press Update the stack with Re-pull image and redeploy on.
• Docker Compose: docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

The latest and 0.x tags move with each release, and each version also has its own tag to pin. To update automatically, a tool such as Watchtower can pull new images and recreate the container. See Self-hosting.

npx and projects

• npx runs the newest version by itself: npx watchwright@latest serve.
• As a dependency of a project, update it the way you installed it, such as npm install watchwright@latest in that project.

Turning the check off

Switch off Check npm for a newer version in Admin › Server. Watchwright then never asks npm on its own, and Check now still asks when you press it. The check sends nothing but the request for the newest version. To use another registry (a mirror), set WATCHWRIGHT_NPM_REGISTRY; otherwise npm's own registry setting is used.