Upgrade

The short version

For most patch releases (v1.0.x → v1.0.y), re-running the installer is enough:

curl -fsSL https://install.deepsql.ai/install.sh | bash

The installer pulls the latest released install.sh, which resolves the latest GitHub release tag and reinstalls from that source archive. Your existing .env is preserved, so all your secrets and configuration carry over.

What gets upgraded automatically

What	Upgraded?	Notes
install.sh / uninstall.sh / diagnose.sh	✅	Pulled fresh from the new release
docker-compose.yml	✅	Pulled fresh — new compose tweaks apply
Backend / frontend Docker images	⚠️ Only if .env image refs are updated	See below
Your .env (secrets, admin creds, custom config)	✅ Preserved	Existing values are NOT overwritten
Postgres / Valkey data	✅ Preserved	Volumes are untouched

When Docker images need to bump

Patch releases (v1.0.x) are usually script-only fixes — they ship against the same :1.0.0 images. No image bump needed.

Minor/major releases (v1.1.0, v2.0.0) typically include new images. Check the release notes. To bump:

# 1. Stop the stack but KEEP your data
cd ~/.deepsql/self-host
./scripts/uninstall.sh --keep-data

# 2. Update image refs in .env to the new versioned tags
#    e.g. ghcr.io/deepsqlai/deepsql-self-host-backend:1.1.0
nano .env

# 3. Re-run the installer — it'll pull the new images and restart
curl -fsSL https://install.deepsql.ai/install.sh | bash

`--keep-data` is the only time you should preserve volumes

--keep-data works correctly during a same-version upgrade because the existing ENCRYPTION_KEY and DB_PASSWORD in your .env still match what’s encrypted in the volume.

Do NOT pair --keep-data with a fresh .env (e.g. if you deleted it manually). That regenerates secrets and the backend won’t be able to decrypt existing data. See Uninstall for the gory details.

Pinning to a specific version

If you don’t want “whatever the latest release is” and prefer to pin to a known-good version, set DEEPSQL_SELF_HOST_REF before running the installer:

DEEPSQL_SELF_HOST_REF=v1.0.4 curl -fsSL https://install.deepsql.ai/install.sh | bash

This bypasses the GitHub releases API lookup and downloads exactly that tag.

Upgrading a CloudFormation deploy

The CloudFormation template’s UserData calls install.sh only on first boot. To upgrade an existing CFN-deployed instance:

aws ssm start-session --region <region> --target <instance-id>
# On the instance:
cd ~/.deepsql/self-host
./scripts/uninstall.sh --keep-data
curl -fsSL https://install.deepsql.ai/install.sh | bash

The CFN stack itself doesn’t need updating unless the template changes (it usually doesn’t between patch releases).

Release notes

Full per-version changelog is on GitHub: https://github.com/DeepSQLAI/deepsql-self-host/releases

What’s coming

A dedicated ./scripts/upgrade.sh that handles the image-bump dance automatically is on the roadmap — it’ll do “pull new images, run migrations, restart with zero downtime” in one command. Until then, the manual flow above is the supported path.