Automatic Self-Upgrade (Retired)
Retired in v4.13
The Automatic Self-Upgrade feature described on this page — the watchdog sidecar, one-click "Upgrade Now" button, and unattended auto-apply setting — has been removed as of MeshMonitor v4.13. This page is kept so old links and bookmarks don't 404.
Why it was removed
The watchdog sidecar coordinated with the main container through shared trigger/status files with no locking or handshake, and had to reverse-engineer each user's Docker setup (Compose paths, project labels, Portainer/Synology/Unraid stacks) to recreate the container correctly — over half its commit history was bug fixes for exactly that class of problem. It also required mounting the Docker socket (root-equivalent host access) for a convenience feature, and never worked at all outside Docker Compose (no LXC, Kubernetes, bare metal, or Windows/Mac support).
MeshMonitor now takes the same posture as other mature self-hosted apps (Home Assistant, Grafana, Gitea): it detects and notifies, and leaves the actual upgrade to tools built for the job.
What to do instead
See Updating MeshMonitor for:
- How the update-available banner and
upgrade-availableautomation event work now. - Per-platform update instructions (Docker Compose, LXC, Kubernetes/Helm, bare metal).
- An unattended-updates recipe using Watchtower.
- A migration checklist if you were running the old sidecar.
For the full rationale, read the retirement announcement on the blog.