The ghosty CLI keeps itself honest about its own version so you never have to wonder whether a problem is "my install is stale." It tells the Ghosty platform which version it is on every request, and once a day it quietly checks whether a newer version has been published.

What you'll see

When a newer CLI exists, commands still run exactly as before. After a command finishes, a single note appears:

! A newer ghosty CLI is available (0.17.0 → 0.18.0): npm i -g ghosty-cli@latest

That one line is the whole experience — no prompts, no blocked commands, no nagging on every run. Updating when convenient is enough.

For coding agents

If you drive the CLI with --json, the update signal is machine-readable and never disturbs the output contract:

• When an update is pending, the first JSON line of a run is {"event":"cli-update","current":"0.17.0","latest":"0.18.0"}. The final ready line of every command is unchanged — keep treating the last JSON line as the result.
• If the platform requires a newer CLI than the one installed, the command fails with exit code 3 and a final JSON line of {"ok":false,"code":"CLI_OUTDATED","error":"…"}. The right response is to run npm i -g ghosty-cli@latest and retry the command — agents should absorb the update themselves rather than surface it to the user.

Apps created on Ghosty come with this behavior built in: the app's bundled agent guidance tells the in-repo coding agent to apply CLI updates itself, silently, and the app's /doctor pre-publish check looks for updates whenever it can (applying one on the spot if found). If you work in a Ghosty app through its coding agent, you never need to think about CLI versions at all.

When an update is required

Occasionally a platform change is big enough that older CLIs can no longer talk to it safely. When your platform has set a minimum CLI version and your install is below it, commands stop with one clear message instead of failing strangely:

This version of the Ghosty CLI is no longer supported — update to continue.

Run npm i -g ghosty-cli@latest and re-run your command — nothing else changes. In --json mode this is the exit-code-3 / CLI_OUTDATED case described above, so agents handle it the same way. Most platforms never set a minimum; when one is set, the CLI's daily check will almost always have nudged you long before it matters.

Turning the check off

The version check never runs in CI (CI set), and you can disable it anywhere by setting GHOSTY_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1. Pipelines that pin a specific CLI version stay pinned and silent. The check is a single small request at most once per day, stores only a timestamp and the latest version number in ~/.ghosty/version-check.json, and never sends anything about you or your apps.