Skip to content

Staying up to date

Memory Bank has three install paths (pipx, Homebrew, git clone), each with its own upgrade command. This page covers only the released, on-demand upgrade paths — pick the one that matches how you installed in the first place.

pipx upgrade memory-bank-skill

If an upgrade doesn't seem to pick up the new version (stale cached wheel, partial venv state), force a clean reinstall instead:

pipx reinstall memory-bank-skill

After upgrading, re-run the global install so any new hooks/commands/agents get wired in:

memory-bank install

Verify the result:

memory-bank doctor
memory-bank version

Homebrew (macOS / Linuxbrew)

brew upgrade memory-bank
memory-bank install

brew upgrade only updates the CLI package itself; memory-bank install is what actually refreshes the hooks, commands, and agent files under your host's config directory (~/.claude/, ~/.codex/, ~/.cursor/, etc.) to match the new version.

git clone (developers / contributors)

For a git clone install, the canonical way to check for and apply an update is the skill's own /mb upgrade command, backed by scripts/mb-upgrade.sh:

/mb upgrade            # check, show pending commits, ask for confirmation, then apply
/mb upgrade --check    # check only — exit 1 if an update is available, exit 0 if current
/mb upgrade --force    # apply without an interactive confirmation prompt

What it does under the hood:

  1. Pre-flight: confirms ~/.claude/skills/skill-memory-bank is a git repository with a clean working tree.
  2. Reads the local VERSION file and current commit hash.
  3. Runs git fetch origin and compares local vs. remote (ahead/behind).
  4. Shows the pending commits (git log HEAD..origin/main).
  5. With --check, still prints the local/remote version+commit, ahead/behind status, and the pending commit log, then exits 1 if an update is available or 0 if already current (no pull, no prompt).
  6. Without --check or --force, asks for confirmation before applying.
  7. On confirmation (or with --force): git pull --ff-only, then re-runs install.sh — an idempotent merge of hooks/commands into your host config.
  8. Prints the version transition, e.g. 2.0.0-dev (cd65d0a) → 2.1.0 (abc1234).

You can also drive the same script directly without going through the slash command:

git -C ~/.claude/skills/skill-memory-bank fetch origin
bash ~/.claude/skills/skill-memory-bank/scripts/mb-upgrade.sh --check
bash ~/.claude/skills/skill-memory-bank/scripts/mb-upgrade.sh --force

Common failure modes

  • Skill is not a git clone — you likely installed via pipx or Homebrew instead; use the matching section above rather than /mb upgrade.
  • Dirty working tree — /mb upgrade refuses to pull over local edits. Stash or discard them first (git stash or git checkout --), then retry.
  • Divergent branches — git fetch shows both ahead and behind commits; resolve manually (git log, git merge/git rebase as appropriate) rather than forcing a fast-forward pull.
  • Non-interactive mode without --force — automated/CI contexts should always pass --force explicitly rather than relying on a prompt that can't be answered.

Important: the skill repo (~/.claude/skills/skill-memory-bank) is the canonical source. After git pull, install.sh must be re-run to refresh host-specific globals — the runtime aliases (~/.claude/skills/memory-bank, ~/.codex/skills/memory-bank), and the managed block in ~/.codex/AGENTS.md. /mb upgrade/mb-upgrade.sh does this automatically as its last step; if you ever pull manually outside the script, re-run ./install.sh yourself afterward.

Troubleshooting an install, generally

If the upgrade itself succeeds but something still looks wrong afterward, install.md's troubleshooting section covers the general cases: memory-bank: command not found (check ~/.local/bin for pipx or /opt/homebrew/bin for Homebrew is on $PATH), memory-bank doctor reporting Bundle: NOT FOUND (reinstall via pipx reinstall memory-bank-skill), missing jq (brew install jq / sudo apt install jq), and memory-bank uninstall hanging in CI (pass -y/--non-interactive).

  • Installation — the three install paths from scratch, plus the full CLI reference.
  • /mb upgrade — the router entry for the git-clone upgrade command (commands/mb.md).