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    Welcome & Overview5 min
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    Agent Commands10 min
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    NTM Command Center8 min
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    NTM Prompt Palette6 min
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    The Flywheel Loop10 min
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    Keeping Updated4 min
    NOW
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    UBS: Code Quality Guardrails8 min
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    Agent Mail Coordination10 min
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    CASS: Learning from History8 min
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    The Memory System8 min
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    Beads: Issue Tracking8 min
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    Safety Tools: SLB & CAAM6 min
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    The Art of Agent Direction12 min
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    Case Study: cass-memory15 min
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    Case Study: SLB12 min
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11/20
Lesson 11
4 min

Keeping Updated

Maintain and upgrade your environment

New to ACFS?

Complete the setup wizard first to get the most from these lessons.

Go to Choose Your OS
Goal

Learn how to keep your ACFS tools current.

Why Updates Matter

Your VPS has 30+ tools installed. Each one gets improvements:

  • Bug fixes and security patches
  • New features and capabilities
  • Better performance

Keeping things updated means:

Fewer mysterious errors
Better security
Access to new agent features

The Update Command

ACFS provides a single command to update everything:

bash
acfs-update

That's it! This updates:

System packagesapt
Shell toolsOMZ, P10K, plugins
Coding agentsClaude, Codex, Gemini
Cloud CLIsWrangler, Supabase, Vercel

Common Update Patterns

Quick Agent Update

If you just want the latest agent versions:

bash
acfs-update --agents-only

Skip System Packages

apt updates can be slow. Skip them when you're in a hurry:

bash
acfs-update --no-apt

Preview Changes

See what would be updated without changing anything:

bash
acfs-update --dry-run

Include Stack Tools

The Dicklesworthstone stack (ntm, slb, ubs, etc.) is skipped by default because it takes longer. Include it with:

bash
acfs-update --stack

Automated Updates

For hands-off maintenance, use quiet mode:

bash
acfs-update --yes --quiet

This runs without prompts and only shows errors.

Pro Tip
You can add this to a cron job for weekly updates!
bash
# Edit crontab
crontab -e
# Add this line for weekly Sunday 3am updates
0 3 * * 0 /home/ubuntu/.local/bin/acfs-update --yes --quiet >> ~/.acfs/logs/cron-update.log 2>&1

Checking Update Logs

Every update is logged:

bash
1# List recent logs
2ls -lt ~/.acfs/logs/updates/ | head -5
3
4# View the most recent log
5cat ~/.acfs/logs/updates/$(ls -1t ~/.acfs/logs/updates | head -1)
6
7# Watch a running update
8tail -f ~/.acfs/logs/updates/$(ls -1t ~/.acfs/logs/updates | head -1)

Troubleshooting

apt is locked

If you see "apt is locked by another process":

# Wait for other apt operations to finish, or:
sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Agent update failed

Try updating directly:

# Claude
claude update

# Codex
bun install -g --trust @openai/codex@latest

# Gemini
bun install -g --trust @google/gemini-cli@latest

Shell tools won't update

Check git remote access:

git -C ~/.oh-my-zsh remote -v

Quick Reference

Command
What it does
acfs-update
Update everything (except stack)
acfs-update --stack
Include stack tools
acfs-update --agents-only
Just update agents
acfs-update --no-apt
Skip apt (faster)
acfs-update --dry-run
Preview changes
acfs-update --yes --quiet
Automated mode
acfs-update --help
Full help

How Often to Update?

Recommendations:

Weekly - Full update including stack
After issues - If something breaks, update first
Before major work - Get latest agent versions

Congratulations!

You've completed the ACFS onboarding!

You now have:

A fully configured development VPS
Three powerful coding agents
A complete coordination toolstack
The knowledge to use it all

Go build something amazing!

Ready to level up?

Mark complete to track your learning progress.

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