Updating

loadout update --check    # is there a newer release?
loadout update            # install it

The binary and your shell are separate

Upgrading loadout does not update your shell.

The generated file is output, and loadout does not rewrite it behind your back — you might have deliberately not applied something. So after any upgrade:

loadout apply

Release notes state this explicitly whenever the shipped catalog changed. That part is computed rather than remembered: the release process diffs the golden files against the previous tag, and when the generated shell changed, the notes say so. Without that line an upgrade looks like it did nothing.

It will not overwrite what it does not own

loadout update only replaces the binary when loadout owns the file. Otherwise it prints the right command instead:

Installed with	Update with
The install script	loadout update
Homebrew	brew upgrade loadout
go install	go install ...@latest

Overwriting a Homebrew-managed file behind brew’s back leaves it reporting a version it never installed, and the next brew upgrade will happily overwrite your update. Refusing is the correct behaviour, and the message names which tool owns the file.

How the download is handled

• HTTPS on every redirect hop, not only the first URL.
• The published checksum is verified before anything is installed.
• A release publishing no checksum is refused outright rather than installed unverified.
• The replacement is a rename, so an interrupted update cannot leave a broken binary on your PATH.

Flags

loadout update --check                  # report only, install nothing
loadout update --force                  # install even when versions cannot be compared
loadout update --release v0.2.1         # a specific version
loadout update --base-url https://...   # a mirror

--base-url also reads LOADOUT_BASE_URL, and --release reads LOADOUT_VERSION.

When versions cannot be compared

loadout accepts vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH and nothing else. A development build, a pre-release suffix or a commit SHA reports as not comparable rather than being coerced into an ordering that might be wrong.

That is what --force is for: it installs the latest release without needing the comparison to succeed. A build from go install at a commit is the usual reason to reach for it.

Checking without installing

$ loadout update --check
installed: v0.2.0
latest:    v0.2.1
installed via homebrew

An update is available: v0.2.0 -> v0.2.1

It names the install method, so you know which command to run before you run the wrong one.

After updating

loadout version
loadout apply      # the step that actually reaches your shell
loadout doctor