In-App Updates

Starting in FiestaBoard 5.0, you can update FiestaBoard directly from the web UI — no terminal required.

The Update Now button

When a new version is available, a banner appears in Settings → System. Click Update Now, confirm, and FiestaBoard handles the rest:

1. The fiestaupdater sidecar pulls the new Docker image in the background
2. FiestaBoard restarts with the new image
3. A full-screen overlay polls the API every 2 seconds
4. When the new version is detected, the page reloads automatically

The whole process takes about a minute on a fast connection, a bit longer on a Raspberry Pi.

Auto-update

In Settings → System, there's an Auto-update toggle:

Install type	Default	What it does
FiestaPi	On	Checks for updates daily and applies them automatically
Docker / manual	Off	Shows a banner when updates are available; you decide when to apply

You can flip the toggle any time.

How it works (technical)

FiestaBoard uses a small companion container called fiestaupdater. It sits on the same Docker Compose internal network as FiestaBoard and has access to the Docker socket — FiestaBoard itself does not.

When you click Update Now, the web UI POSTs to the FiestaBoard API, which calls the updater over the internal network. The updater runs docker compose pull && docker compose up -d against your compose file. Because it's a separate process, FiestaBoard can update itself without getting cut off mid-response.

Opting in on Docker installs

The updater is opt-in for Docker and manual installs (it's already on for FiestaPi).

Via the install script (easiest): Run ./scripts/install.sh (or install.ps1 on Windows) — it asks about this and configures everything.

Manually: Edit your .env file:

COMPOSE_PROFILES=fiestaupdater
FIESTAUPDATER_TOKEN=<64-hex-char random string>

Generate a token:

head -c 32 /dev/urandom | od -An -tx1 | tr -d ' \n'

Then restart:

docker compose up -d

The Update Now button will appear in Settings → System once the sidecar is healthy.

Security

• The updater is only reachable on the Docker Compose internal network — it's never published on a host port
• All requests require a bearer token (FIESTAUPDATER_TOKEN), unique to your install
• The sidecar can only restart the service listed in FIESTAUPDATER_SERVICE — no arbitrary container access

If you prefer not to use the Docker socket at all, leave the fiestaupdater profile off and update manually instead.

Updating manually (always works)

The Update Now button is a convenience shortcut. You can always update from the terminal:

# For Docker Hub installs
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml up -d

# For FiestaPi (SSH in first)
ssh fiesta@fiestapi.local
cd /opt/fiestaboard
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Troubleshooting

The Update Now button isn't showing — Check the status panel just below the button area in Settings → System. It will say whether the updater sidecar is reachable. Most common cause: COMPOSE_PROFILES=fiestaupdater isn't set in .env, or the sidecar container isn't running.

Update started but the page never came back — Open http://fiestaboard.local:4420 (or localhost:4420) again after a minute. If it's still down, check logs: docker logs fiestaboard. As a last resort, docker compose up -d will bring you back online.

I want to roll back — Pin the previous image tag in docker-compose.yml, then docker compose up -d. Automated rollback is planned for a future release.