How do updates reach my computer? 📦

You have Atelier 0.15.0. Version 0.16.0 exists somewhere out there. This page shows, step by step, how it would travel from the author's computer to yours — and what your terminal has to do with it.

Rule zero

Nothing updates by itself

Atelier never downloads anything on its own. New versions sit on a shelf, far away, doing nothing — until you ask for them.

The terminal is simply how you ask. Typing a command is like phoning a warehouse and saying “anything new for me? If yes, deliver it.” No phone call → no delivery → nothing on your computer changes. That's why you're still on 0.15.0 even though 0.16.0 came out today: nobody phoned.

The key idea

Two different things, two different delivery routes

Atelier on your computer is made of two kinds of things, and they arrive by completely separate routes. This is the part that's confusing — so let's split it clearly:

⚙️ 1. The engine (“Atelier core”)

The main server program itself — the thing that runs everything. This is what went from 0.15.0 → 0.16.0.

Arrives via: the npm warehouse — Route A below

✈️ 2. The apps

Flights, Finance, Meetings… the individual apps that run inside the engine.

Arrive via: collections — Route B below

Collections are not involved in updating the engine. “0.16.0” travels only by Route A. Collections are only for apps (Route B).
Route A · the engine

The npm warehouse 🏬

npm is a giant public warehouse on the internet where programmers put software packages for others to download. Atelier's author put the engine there. Every version ever published stays on the shelf: 0.14.0, 0.15.0, … 0.16.0.

👨‍💻1 · The author finishes 0.16.0 and uploads it to the warehouse shelf
🏬2 · The warehouse (npm) keeps every version, waiting. Nothing is sent to anyone
⌨️3 · Your terminal you type one command = the phone call: “any new engine for me?”
💻4 · Your computer the new engine downloads and replaces the old one. Restart → done

The “phone call” looks like this (this page is only showing it — it has not been run):

~/pro/atelier $ npm update @pa1nd/atelier
# “Warehouse, do you have anything newer than my 0.15.0?”
# “Yes — 0.16.0. Delivering…” ✓
You (via the terminal)
Hi npm warehouse! I have Atelier 0.15.0. Anything newer?
npm warehouse
Yes — 0.16.0, published today. Sending it now 📦
Delivered into your node_modules drawer. Restart Atelier to use it.
Route B · the apps

Collections 📦 — how apps travel

Apps don't come from the npm warehouse. Since version 0.15, they travel as collections. A collection is like a sealed box of apps with a diary attached:

🔍Checked before sealing

An app version only goes into the box if it actually works — a broken version physically can't be packed. (Atelier calls one packed version a “cut”.)

📔Comes with its diary

The box carries the full history of every version ever packed — so your computer always knows exactly which version it has and what's newer.

📮Lives on a shared shelf

The author puts the box somewhere reachable — usually GitHub (a public shelf on the internet). It just sits there until someone asks.

👨‍💻1 · The author packs the Flights app into the “flights” collection box
📮2 · The shelf (e.g. GitHub) holds the box + its diary. Waits
⌨️3 · Your terminal first time: “subscribe me to that box and install the app”
💻4 · Your computer keeps a copy of the box in _collections/ — your personal mailbox

The two phone calls of Route B (again — shown, not run):

# First time — subscribe & install:
~/pro/atelier $ npx atelier add github:someone/flights

# Any later day — “has my subscribed box got anything new?”:
~/pro/atelier $ npx atelier update

That _collections folder that appeared in your Atelier folder on July 7? That's your mailbox — the local copy of the “flights” box. That's exactly how your Flights app arrived.

Nice detail: if you've personally edited an app and an update arrives for it, Atelier doesn't overwrite your edits — it stops and asks you what to do (blend them, replace, or skip).
Right now

The picture on your computer 🖥️

⚙️ Engine installed: 0.15.0 (arrived Jul 7, via Route A)
🏬 Newest on the shelf: 0.16.0 (published Jul 10 — waiting)
✈️ Flights app: arrived Jul 7 via Route B (the “flights” collection)

So why hasn't 0.16.0 arrived? Because updates are deliveries you order, not letters that get pushed through your door. Until someone opens the terminal in the Atelier folder and makes the Route-A phone call, 0.16.0 stays on the warehouse shelf and your computer keeps running 0.15.0. Exactly as designed — nothing is wrong.

One command per route: updating the engine (npm update @pa1nd/atelier) does not update your apps, and updating apps (npx atelier update) does not touch the engine. Two shelves, two couriers.

Nothing was changed to make this page. No update was run, no engine file was touched — this is a plain web page hosted by your own “sites” app, just for explaining.