Update and Restore

How to keep OpenWolf current across projects and recover from problems.

openwolf update

Updates every registered project (or one) to the installed OpenWolf version.

openwolf update
openwolf update --project my-app   # partial name match
openwolf update --dry-run          # preview, touch nothing
openwolf update --list             # show registered projects

What it does, in order

1. Backup. A timestamped copy of .wolf/ is created before anything changes. openwolf restore rolls back to any of them.
2. Config merge. Newly introduced settings are added to your config.json without touching existing values. Ports, budgets, and custom excludes survive every update.
3. Dead-weight cleanup. Files shipped by older versions that your project never used are removed, but only when they are byte-identical to our templates or verifiably empty stubs. Anything you edited stays.
4. Hook refresh. All hook scripts are replaced with the current versions, and OpenWolf's entries in .claude/settings.json are updated. Your own hook entries are never touched.
5. Install verification. Every hook file must exist, and every registered hook must pass a selfcheck (its imports must load). A failure fails the whole project update loudly. This exists because a missing dependency file once broke a hook silently for three weeks; now that class of failure is caught at install time, at session start, and on the dashboard.
6. Adapters and skills. The agents recorded in your config (Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, Cursor) are re-wired, and the skills are refreshed. Customized skill files are left alone.
7. State migrations. One-time repairs and migrations (ledger corrections, snippet upgrades) run idempotently. A legacy CLAUDE.md snippet is replaced with the current stub only when it is byte-identical to something we shipped.
8. Memory sync. On Claude Code, the cerebrum syncs with native auto-memory in both directions.

What is never overwritten

config.json, cerebrum.md, memory.md, buglog.json, anatomy.md and the index, STATUS.md, and any custom files you added to .wolf/.

openwolf restore [backup]

openwolf restore                    # list available backups
openwolf restore 2026-08-20T1655    # restore this one

Restores .wolf/ (and the backed-up .claude settings and rules) from the snapshot. Restoring replaces current state including user data, so check the timestamp before you pull the trigger.

Registered projects

Every openwolf init registers the project path. openwolf update iterates that registry and skips paths that no longer exist.

openwolf update --list

One global install

Keep exactly one global OpenWolf on your machine. If an old copy lingers on another Node installation (for example under /usr/local from a pre-nvm setup), your shell can resolve it first and an openwolf update from an old version will downgrade your projects' hooks. Check with:

which openwolf && openwolf --version

If the version is older than you installed, remove the stale copy (the path which printed) and run hash -r. A downgraded project is fully repaired by running openwolf update again from the current version; backups from before the downgrade also remain available.