Updating Your Installation

AI Business OS separates the files it owns from the files you own. An update replaces or merges its own files, the engine files, and leaves yours alone. You run updates yourself with /update, and you can undo the last one with /update rollback.

What an Update Changes

Kind of file	Examples	What an update does
Critical engine files	.claude/FRAMEWORK.md, the engine manifest, the autonomy, blocked commands, checkpoint and engine protection rules, the update script and the safety hook scripts	Replaces them with the new version, discarding any local change
.claude/settings.json	Permissions and hooks	Merges the new engine entries with yours, so the permissions you approved and any hooks you added stay
Other engine files	Commands, skills, agents, the other rules and the files in .claude/docs/	Merges the new version with any edits you made, so your changes are kept
Your files	.claude/CLAUDE.md, .claude/company/, .claude/state/state.json, .claude/config/integrations.json, the CLAUDE.md in each domain	Never touched
Files you added	Your own skills, commands, rules and every project folder	Never touched, because they are not on the engine list

The engine list is .claude/engine-manifest.json. An update never deletes a file, so a file that a new version no longer ships stays in your workspace.

If your workspace has PRIMA Project Management, /update updates it in the same run and leaves the commands it owns to that update. PRIMA Scholar updates through Claude Code’s plugin commands, described in Installing in Claude Code. For PRIMA Memory and PRIMA CRM, see Installing PRIMA Memory and Installing PRIMA CRM.

Run an Update

1. Open your workspace in VS Code.
2. In the Claude Code panel, type /update and send it.
3. Read the preview. Claude shows your current version, the version available and the files that would change. If you are already up to date, it says so and stops.
4. Choose whether to apply the update now or skip it.
5. If you apply it, wait for Claude to report the result and commit the update.
6. Start a new Claude Code session, so that Claude reads the updated rules.

When the update finishes, Claude reports the old and new versions, the number of files updated, where the backup is and how to undo the update.

Engine updated: v3.0.1 → v3.0.2
[count] files updated, backup saved to .claude/engine-backups/v3.0.1/

To undo this update: type /update rollback

You do not need to commit your own work first. If you have uncommitted changes, the update commits them as a snapshot before it changes anything, so your work and the update sit in separate commits.

Backups

Before it changes anything, the update copies every engine file to .claude/engine-backups/v<old version>/. If the same run updates PRIMA Project Management, its files go to .claude/prima-backups/. /update rollback restores from .claude/engine-backups/ only.

Merge Conflicts

If you edited an engine file and the new version changes the same lines, the update cannot decide which version to keep. It marks the file as a conflict and lists it at the end.

1. Open each file in the list.
2. Search for <<<<<<<.
3. Keep the lines you want from each side and delete the markers.
4. Commit the result, or ask Claude to resolve the conflict and commit it.

Engine protection explains how to extend the engine with your own files instead of editing its files, which avoids conflicts altogether.

Caution

The first update on a workspace may have no earlier version to compare against. In that case the update cannot tell an engine file you edited from an unedited one, so it overwrites it. The preview lists these files under “No merge base”, and the copies from before the update are kept in .claude/engine-backups/. Check the list before you apply the update, and recover any edits from the backup afterwards.

Undoing an Update

1. In the Claude Code panel, type /update rollback, or ask Claude to undo the last update.
2. Claude restores the engine files saved before the last update and reports the version restored and the number of files.
3. Claude commits the restored files, unless you ask to review them first.

A rollback restores engine files only. Your company files, projects and settings you added are not affected. If the last update also updated PRIMA Project Management, the rollback does not undo that part. If there is no backup, Claude tells you there is no earlier version to return to.

Updating From a Terminal

You can run the same update script yourself in a terminal opened in the workspace folder.

bash Infrastructure/Scripts/update-engine.sh

Flag	What it does
--dry-run	Shows what would change and changes nothing
--force	Applies the update without asking for confirmation
--rollback	Restores the engine files from the most recent backup
--health	Lists any critical engine files that differ from the version you are running. It changes no files, but it adds the upstream remote if your workspace does not have one

When you run the script yourself, it stages the changes and prints the commit command for you to run.

Checking for Changed Critical Files

/status runs the health check and adds an Engine Health section to its report. It lists any critical file you have changed, with a warning that the next update will overwrite it. See /status.

If the Update Stops

Message or symptom	What to do
jq is not installed	Install it as described in Requirements, then run /update again
The engine manifest is missing	The workspace predates the update system and needs a manual update. See Getting Help
The PRIMA Project Management part is skipped with a warning	The AI Business OS update still applies. Run /update again later to retry the PRIMA Project Management part
Merge conflicts are listed	Resolve them as described in Merge Conflicts above

/update and Troubleshooting cover more cases.