auto-update-systems_skill

Overview

This skill is an expert guide for implementing secure, reliable auto-update systems for Tauri apps with emphasis on signature verification, rollback, staged rollouts, and safe distribution. It focuses on practical controls to prevent malicious updates, ensure recoverability after failures, and reduce blast radius during deployments. The guidance is test-driven and security-first.

How this skill works

The skill inspects updater configuration, manifest formats, and distribution endpoints to ensure Ed25519 signature verification and HTTPS-only delivery. It prescribes test-first workflows, backup-and-rollback mechanics, staged rollout logic, and monitoring hooks to detect and remediate update failures. Implementation snippets show how to check, download, verify, install, and restore updates in Tauri.

When to use it

• Integrating auto-updates into a Tauri desktop application
• Designing secure update servers and signed manifests
• Establishing rollback and recovery for failed deployments
• Running staged rollouts or channel-based releases (stable/beta)
• Auditing update integrity after a supply-chain incident

Best practices

• Always embed and enforce public key verification; never bypass signature checks
• Serve manifests and artifacts over HTTPS and consider certificate pinning
• Write tests first for checks: update detection, invalid signature rejection, rollback
• Implement atomic installs with targeted backups and minimal backup retention
• Use staged rollouts and telemetry to limit impact and monitor health

Example use cases

• Configure tauri.conf.json with pubkey, endpoints, and passive install mode
• Create an update manifest containing per-platform URLs and signatures
• Implement download_and_verify flow that aborts on signature failure
• Run a staged rollout: 1% -> 10% -> 50% -> 100% while monitoring errors
• Automated rollback triggered by install failures or rising crash rates