Updating

Voice Studio checks the latest GitHub release and can apply updates in place. The About panel shows your current version and an "update available" badge when a newer release exists.

In-app update (the easy path)

When an update is available, click the badge and confirm. Voice Studio runs the same steps the manual path does, streaming a live log:

git fetch origin --tags
git checkout <tag> — checks out the release (a detached HEAD, pinned to the tag, not a branch)
reinstalls backend dependencies from requirements.txt
rebuilds the frontend (npm run build)

When it finishes, restart Voice Studio to run the new version.

Requirements for auto-update

The one-click updater only runs on a clean git checkout of the official repo. Specifically it needs:

The install to be a git clone (not a downloaded ZIP).
The origin remote pointing at the Voice Studio repository.
No uncommitted changes in the working tree.

If any of those aren't met, the app switches to a notify-only mode: it still tells you a new version exists and links to the release page, but won't modify your files. Update manually instead.

Manual update

If the in-app updater is unavailable or fails, update from a terminal in the repo root. You need the release tag (for example v0.4.0) — find it on the releases page.

Option A — the CLI updater

This runs the exact same flow as the in-app button, from the terminal:

python studio.py update --tag v0.4.0

Option B — fully by hand

If studio.py update also can't run (for example, git reports a problem you want to resolve yourself), do the four steps directly:

# 1. get the latest tags
git fetch origin --tags

# 2. check out the release (or use `git pull origin main` for the newest commit)
git checkout v0.4.0

# 3. reinstall backend dependencies into the venv
#    Windows:
backend\venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -r backend\requirements.txt
#    macOS / Linux:
backend/venv/bin/python -m pip install -r backend/requirements.txt

# 4. rebuild the frontend
cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

Then start the app again:

python studio.py start

If auto-update refused to run

The updater guards against touching a checkout it doesn't fully control. The usual reasons, and the fix:

"uncommitted local changes" — you (or a tool) edited files in the repo. Run git status to see them, then git stash (to set them aside) or git checkout -- . (to discard them), and try again.
"not a git checkout" — you downloaded a ZIP instead of cloning. Re-install with git clone https://github.com/msrbuilds/voice-studio.git so future updates work in place.
"origin remote is not the Voice Studio repo" — your origin points somewhere else (e.g. a fork). Update it with git remote set-url origin https://github.com/msrbuilds/voice-studio.git, or just update by hand with Option B.

Engine environments and downloaded model weights are not touched by an update — they live outside the code and carry over. If a new release adds an engine, install it from the engine menu as usual.