feat: add auto-update to every command when your task-master instance is out of date (#1217)

apps/cli/src/index.ts

@@ -13,6 +13,13 @@ export { SetStatusCommand } from './commands/set-status.command.js';
 // UI utilities (for other commands to use)
 export * as ui from './utils/ui.js';
 
+// Auto-update utilities
+export {
+	checkForUpdate,
+	performAutoUpdate,
+	displayUpgradeNotification
+} from './utils/auto-update.js';
+
 // Re-export commonly used types from tm-core
 export type {
 	Task,

apps/cli/src/utils/auto-update.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,238 @@
+/**
+ * @fileoverview Auto-update utilities for task-master-ai CLI
+ */
+
+import { spawn } from 'child_process';
+import https from 'https';
+import chalk from 'chalk';
+import ora from 'ora';
+import boxen from 'boxen';
+import packageJson from '../../../../package.json' with { type: 'json' };
+
+export interface UpdateInfo {
+	currentVersion: string;
+	latestVersion: string;
+	needsUpdate: boolean;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Get current version from package.json
+ */
+function getCurrentVersion(): string {
+	try {
+		return packageJson.version;
+	} catch (error) {
+		console.warn('Could not read package.json for version info');
+		return '0.0.0';
+	}
+}
+
+/**
+ * Compare semantic versions with proper pre-release handling
+ * @param v1 - First version
+ * @param v2 - Second version
+ * @returns -1 if v1 < v2, 0 if v1 = v2, 1 if v1 > v2
+ */
+function compareVersions(v1: string, v2: string): number {
+	const toParts = (v: string) => {
+		const [core, pre = ''] = v.split('-', 2);
+		const nums = core.split('.').map((n) => Number.parseInt(n, 10) || 0);
+		return { nums, pre };
+	};
+
+	const a = toParts(v1);
+	const b = toParts(v2);
+	const len = Math.max(a.nums.length, b.nums.length);
+
+	// Compare numeric parts
+	for (let i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+		const d = (a.nums[i] || 0) - (b.nums[i] || 0);
+		if (d !== 0) return d < 0 ? -1 : 1;
+	}
+
+	// Handle pre-release comparison
+	if (a.pre && !b.pre) return -1; // prerelease < release
+	if (!a.pre && b.pre) return 1; // release > prerelease
+	if (a.pre === b.pre) return 0; // same or both empty
+	return a.pre < b.pre ? -1 : 1; // basic prerelease tie-break
+}
+
+/**
+ * Check for newer version of task-master-ai
+ */
+export async function checkForUpdate(
+	currentVersionOverride?: string
+): Promise<UpdateInfo> {
+	const currentVersion = currentVersionOverride || getCurrentVersion();
+
+	return new Promise((resolve) => {
+		const options = {
+			hostname: 'registry.npmjs.org',
+			path: '/task-master-ai',
+			method: 'GET',
+			headers: {
+				Accept: 'application/vnd.npm.install-v1+json',
+				'User-Agent': `task-master-ai/${currentVersion}`
+			}
+		};
+
+		const req = https.request(options, (res) => {
+			let data = '';
+
+			res.on('data', (chunk) => {
+				data += chunk;
+			});
+
+			res.on('end', () => {
+				try {
+					if (res.statusCode !== 200)
+						throw new Error(`npm registry status ${res.statusCode}`);
+					const npmData = JSON.parse(data);
+					const latestVersion = npmData['dist-tags']?.latest || currentVersion;
+
+					const needsUpdate =
+						compareVersions(currentVersion, latestVersion) < 0;
+
+					resolve({
+						currentVersion,
+						latestVersion,
+						needsUpdate
+					});
+				} catch (error) {
+					resolve({
+						currentVersion,
+						latestVersion: currentVersion,
+						needsUpdate: false
+					});
+				}
+			});
+		});
+
+		req.on('error', () => {
+			resolve({
+				currentVersion,
+				latestVersion: currentVersion,
+				needsUpdate: false
+			});
+		});
+
+		req.setTimeout(3000, () => {
+			req.destroy();
+			resolve({
+				currentVersion,
+				latestVersion: currentVersion,
+				needsUpdate: false
+			});
+		});
+
+		req.end();
+	});
+}
+
+/**
+ * Display upgrade notification message
+ */
+export function displayUpgradeNotification(
+	currentVersion: string,
+	latestVersion: string
+) {
+	const message = boxen(
+		`${chalk.blue.bold('Update Available!')} ${chalk.dim(currentVersion)} → ${chalk.green(latestVersion)}\n\n` +
+			`Auto-updating to the latest version with new features and bug fixes...`,
+		{
+			padding: 1,
+			margin: { top: 1, bottom: 1 },
+			borderColor: 'yellow',
+			borderStyle: 'round'
+		}
+	);
+
+	console.log(message);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Automatically update task-master-ai to the latest version
+ */
+export async function performAutoUpdate(
+	latestVersion: string
+): Promise<boolean> {
+	if (process.env.TASKMASTER_SKIP_AUTO_UPDATE === '1' || process.env.CI) {
+		console.log(
+			chalk.dim('Skipping auto-update (TASKMASTER_SKIP_AUTO_UPDATE/CI).')
+		);
+		return false;
+	}
+	const spinner = ora({
+		text: chalk.blue(
+			`Updating task-master-ai to version ${chalk.green(latestVersion)}`
+		),
+		spinner: 'dots',
+		color: 'blue'
+	}).start();
+
+	return new Promise((resolve) => {
+		const updateProcess = spawn(
+			'npm',
+			[
+				'install',
+				'-g',
+				`task-master-ai@${latestVersion}`,
+				'--no-fund',
+				'--no-audit',
+				'--loglevel=warn'
+			],
+			{
+				stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'pipe']
+			}
+		);
+
+		let errorOutput = '';
+
+		updateProcess.stdout.on('data', () => {
+			// Update spinner text with progress
+			spinner.text = chalk.blue(
+				`Installing task-master-ai@${latestVersion}...`
+			);
+		});
+
+		updateProcess.stderr.on('data', (data) => {
+			errorOutput += data.toString();
+		});
+
+		updateProcess.on('close', (code) => {
+			if (code === 0) {
+				spinner.succeed(
+					chalk.green(
+						`Successfully updated to version ${chalk.bold(latestVersion)}`
+					)
+				);
+				console.log(
+					chalk.dim('Please restart your command to use the new version.')
+				);
+				resolve(true);
+			} else {
+				spinner.fail(chalk.red('Auto-update failed'));
+				console.log(
+					chalk.cyan(
+						`Please run manually: npm install -g task-master-ai@${latestVersion}`
+					)
+				);
+				if (errorOutput) {
+					console.log(chalk.dim(`Error: ${errorOutput.trim()}`));
+				}
+				resolve(false);
+			}
+		});
+
+		updateProcess.on('error', (error) => {
+			spinner.fail(chalk.red('Auto-update failed'));
+			console.log(chalk.red('Error:'), error.message);
+			console.log(
+				chalk.cyan(
+					`Please run manually: npm install -g task-master-ai@${latestVersion}`
+				)
+			);
+			resolve(false);
+		});
+	});
+}

apps/docs/best-practices/configuration-advanced.mdx

@@ -83,6 +83,8 @@ Taskmaster uses two primary methods for configuration:
   - `VERTEX_PROJECT_ID`: Your Google Cloud project ID for Vertex AI. Required when using the 'vertex' provider.
   - `VERTEX_LOCATION`: Google Cloud region for Vertex AI (e.g., 'us-central1'). Default is 'us-central1'.
   - `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`: Path to service account credentials JSON file for Google Cloud auth (alternative to API key for Vertex AI).
+- **Optional Auto-Update Control:**
+  - `TASKMASTER_SKIP_AUTO_UPDATE`: Set to '1' to disable automatic updates. Also automatically disabled in CI environments (when `CI` environment variable is set).
 
 **Important:** Settings like model ID selections (`main`, `research`, `fallback`), `maxTokens`, `temperature`, `logLevel`, `defaultSubtasks`, `defaultPriority`, and `projectName` are **managed in `.taskmaster/config.json`** (or `.taskmasterconfig` for unmigrated projects), not environment variables.