wr looks for a newer release by itself. In the reader, a few seconds after
it starts, it asks GitHub for the latest release, at most once every 12 hours
(one request to api.github.com, nothing about you is sent; the answer is
remembered in ~/.local/state/wr/update.json). If there is a newer one you get a
notice once, and the footer keeps a reminder: ↑ v0.6.1 (U). Nothing is
downloaded until you ask, and the check never runs for --md, pipes or the MCP
server. Turn it off with Check for updates in Settings, update_check = false
or the environment variable WR_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1.
To update, press U (or menu → Update wr / what’s new…). The window shows
what the new version brings and asks for enter:
╭─ wr v0.6.1 is available ─────────────────────────────────╮
│ You have v0.6.0. │
│ │
│ Released 2026-10-20 │
│ │
│ Features │
│ • read script-drawn pages, guess code languages … │
│ │
│ enter update now esc later o release page │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯wr downloads the archive for your system from the project’s GitHub release,
checks its SHA-256 against the release’s checksums.txt, runs the new binary to
make sure it works and is the version it claims to be, and only then replaces
the running one (atomically, so a failure leaves your current wr untouched).
You can keep reading while it works; when it finishes, restart wr to use it.
If the folder is not writable (a system-wide install), it says so and points to
install.sh or sudo wr --update.
From the command line: wr --update does the same without the reader,
printing the release notes first.
The “what’s new” window is off by default. Turn on Show what’s new
(whats_new = true) and the window opens by itself, once per version, when an
update is found (never while you are typing a search or an address), and again
on the first launch after you update, with the notes of the version you are now
on. U opens it whenever you like, whatever the setting.
Builds that carry no release version (a plain go build between tags reads
dev) never look for updates: there is nothing to compare.