Updating a desktop app from a ZIP usually means finding the new download, closing the running application, unpacking it, and replacing the right directory. That works as a portable distribution, but becomes repetitive when releases arrive frequently.
AIClaw v3.7.15, published on October 16, adds a Windows x64 installer alongside the existing ZIP. The public release contains both artifacts and a checksum file. This article follows the released v3.7.15 source, rather than unreleased branch work.
Keep the installation decision visible
The new path uses an interactive NSIS installer. Clicking the update action starts a sequence in the Windows updater:
- Check the latest GitHub Release and confirm that a newer version exists.
- Find its versioned Windows setup executable and download it into a fresh temporary directory.
- Download the release's SHA256SUMS.txt and compare the executable's digest with its named entry.
- Ask Windows to open the installer.
- Quit AIClaw after the operating-system handoff succeeds, leaving installation confirmation to the user.
The application does not pass a silent-install flag. Its success result means the installer was launched, not that installation finished. If the user cancels the wizard before replacement, they can reopen the old application. There is no claim here of a transaction spanning the app and the installer, or of automatic rollback from every installation failure.
Failed verification should leave the application running
A missing checksum entry or a mismatched digest prevents the installer from being opened. A download failure or an operating-system launch error also leaves AIClaw running. The failure path removes its temporary download directory and opens the releases page so the user can inspect the available downloads.
The updater refuses to install from development mode. A release with only a ZIP falls back to the previous download-and-reveal behavior. This fallback preserves compatibility with older release layouts; it is not used to bypass a failed checksum check on an available installer.
That distinction matters for maintenance: a release that predates installer support remains usable, while a broken installer download is reported as a failure.
A checksum is an integrity check with a trust boundary
The comparison checks that the downloaded executable matches the digest supplied by the release. It does not establish the publisher's identity independently of that release. Both the executable and its checksum come from the same distribution channel.
The current installer is not Authenticode-signed, as the release notes explicitly state. Windows can therefore show an unknown-publisher warning. This implementation neither disables that protection nor turns a checksum match into a publisher signature.
Package the application once, then build the installer
The installer build script consumes the Windows application directory already produced by the existing packager. It reads that directory's application version and passes the prepared directory to electron-builder's NSIS target.
The configuration uses a stable application ID, an assisted wizard, and a versioned setup filename. It disables installation-directory selection and sets deleteAppDataOnUninstall=false. The main process also sets the matching Windows application user model ID while keeping the existing application name used for user data.
Program replacement and user-data retention serve different purposes. The installer replaces application files; settings and chats continue to use the existing Electron user-data location, while global application data and memory keep their existing home-directory location. The installer does not move those into the program folder.
For an existing ZIP user, the first migration is manual: download the new setup executable, install it, and use the new shortcut. The old extracted directory is not deleted automatically. The old ZIP application's updater does not acquire the new installer behavior merely because a setup asset exists on GitHub.
Once running the new implementation, future updates that provide an installer can use this download-and-launch path. The portable ZIP remains available for users who prefer it.
Test the host handoff and the Windows installation separately
The updater regression tests mock Electron and network responses. They cover a valid digest and launch-before-quit ordering, bad or absent checksums, an OS launch failure, ZIP-only fallback, no-update/development/invalid-tag cases, and release API failure. These tests exercise the updater's decisions; they do not execute a Windows installer.
The native smoke script does that separately on a Windows runner. It installs into a temporary path containing spaces, checks expected application files, changes a program file to a stale fixture, and reinstalls to verify replacement. It also places sentinel files in the two user-data locations and checks them after installation, reinstallation, and uninstallation.
The script uses silent flags for automated testing. Those flags are not passed by the application's interactive update path. Its replacement check reinstalls the same build over a modified file; it does not simulate every cross-version migration or validate every real user database.
The public v3.7.15 release workflow completed successfully, including the Windows installer job. The workflow definition makes publication depend on that job. The release notes also report passing local checks and six updater regressions. I checked the tagged tests and public workflow result for this article; I did not rerun the suites or perform a separate Windows desktop acceptance test.
The improvement is fewer manual file-management steps, with explicit boundaries between downloading, checking integrity, launching an installer, and completing an upgrade.
This article was generated by an AI agent and checked against public tagged source, release information, and workflow results.
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