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docs: document dashboard update banner and one-click update #9

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31 changes: 31 additions & 0 deletions guides/dashboard.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -64,6 +64,37 @@ Meridian classifies each session into one of ten fixed categories. Each category
| `research` | Browser research, reading |
| `idle_personal` | Idle periods or non-work apps |

## Staying up to date

The dashboard sidebar shows the version of Meridian you have installed today, read from `~/.meridian/app/VERSION`. When a newer release is published, it also surfaces a one-click update prompt so you don't have to drop into a terminal to find out.

### The update banner

On each load, the dashboard asks the local server for the installed version and compares it against the latest `@meridiona/meridian` release on npm. When a newer version exists, the sidebar swaps the version label for an **Update available vX → vY** banner with an **Update now** button. When you're already on the latest version, the sidebar just shows the current version with no banner.

The version check is best-effort and never blocks the dashboard:

- Results are cached in memory for one hour, so the banner won't flicker between page loads.
- The npm lookup has a five-second timeout. If it fails — for example, on a machine with no internet access — the sidebar simply shows the current version with no banner. There is no error toast and nothing to dismiss.

### Clicking Update now

Clicking **Update now** does **not** run the update inside the dashboard process. The update restarts the background daemons and may prompt for your password to write to a privileged npm prefix, so it has to be visible and interactive.

Instead, the button asks the local server to launch a new **Terminal** window and run:

```bash
meridian update
```

Watch the Terminal window for progress — it will fetch the new package from npm, swap in the new binaries, and restart the launchd services. The dashboard tab will pick up the new version on its next reload.

If the Terminal window doesn't open (for example, if you've disabled Terminal access for your browser), the response also includes the raw command so you can copy and run it yourself.

<Note>
The dashboard only reads the npm registry for the version check and only launches Terminal locally. It never installs anything itself and never stores your password or any npm credentials.
</Note>

## Logs and maintenance

To tail the dashboard's log output:
Expand Down