Upgrading¶

How to roll a running dispatch agent onto a new harness image tag, and how to update its skills without a redeploy.

Upgrade image (manage-dispatch mode 4)¶

The agent runs ghcr.io/boldblackai/harness:<tag> — the HarnessImageTag stack parameter selects the tag. Rolling to a new release is a parameter bump plus redeploy; no image is rebuilt:

1. Pick the tag from the harness releases page (e.g. hermes-1.9.11).
2. Run the /manage-dispatch skill in upgrade-image mode (mode 4), naming the new tag. The skill bumps the HarnessImageTag stack parameter and redeploys the stack.
3. The ECS service replaces the task; state survives on the EBS volume.

The generator's template tracks the latest released tag by default, so freshly generated agents already run the newest image — upgrading applies to agents deployed earlier.

Update skills, memories, prompts (manage-dispatch mode 1 — overlay)¶

Everything in the repo's agent_home/ — skills, memories, system prompt, personas — updates without any redeploy:

1. Edit agent_home/ in the generated repo and commit.
2. Run the /manage-dispatch skill in overlay mode (the default). It pushes the repo's agent_home/ onto the agent's ~/.hermes over ECS Exec (tar + base64 transport), with a dry-run diff first.
3. Restart if the change needs one (the skill tells you when).

config.yaml is excluded from the overlay — use merge-config mode (mode 3) for it.

Merge config (manage-dispatch mode 3)¶

agent_home/config.yaml merges into the live config.yaml at the key level: fetch live config → merge → flag conflicts → show diff → push. Conflicts resolve by choosing the repo value, the live value, or a hand-edited blend.