git-updater

Keep your Windows apps up to date straight from their GitHub releases.

A ton of great software ships on GitHub — and nothing keeps it updated. git-updater is a self-hosted Ninite replacement: you pick the apps, it checks their latest releases and updates them, portable apps and installed programs alike. No accounts, no background services, no store — just your list and GitHub.

Get it

1. Download the zip for your machine from Releases (x64 or arm64).
2. Unzip anywhere and run git-updater.exe.

That's the whole install: it's fully portable — no setup, no admin rights, and closing the window exits everything. Binaries are Authenticode-signed (Thomas Schmitz, via Azure Trusted Signing).

What it does

• Tracks any app that ships GitHub releases. Paste a releases URL (or owner/repo), say whether you want it portable or installed, done. It figures out the right Windows download by itself — architecture, zip vs installer, even matching an existing MSI vs EXE install so you never end up with duplicates.
• Shows what you actually have. Current comes from Windows itself (the uninstall registry, or the portable folder) — not from what some tool remembers doing. Next to it: the latest available version and a live status.
• Updates on your terms. Per-app Check/Update buttons, or Check all / Update all batches with live progress (Downloading 42% → Verifying → Installing). Each row has an overflow menu: Edit, Force reinstall, Close app & update, View release, Open folder, Stop tracking.
• Scan this PC. Finds programs you already have that git-updater recognizes — a curated catalog of 120+ GitHub-released apps (browsers, media, dev tools, AI tools, runtimes) — and adds the ones you pick. Or browse the whole catalog and cherry-pick.
• Safe by default. Every download is checksum-verified. Portable updates are transactional — a failed or interrupted update restores the previous version completely, and your settings inside the app folder survive. Installers that need admin rights fall back to their own window with a normal UAC prompt.
• Quiet by design. Nothing runs at startup, nothing phones home, no background service. Open it, update, close it. It even tells you when git-updater itself has a new release.

Quick start

1. Open Settings (top right) and pick your portable apps folder (e.g. C:\PortableApps).
2. Add app → paste a GitHub releases URL → choose Portable or Installer.
3. Check all, then Update all. That's it.

Prefer beta builds for a specific app? Tick include beta (pre-release) versions when adding it.

On the open-quake panel

git-updater is also available as a drop-in app for open-quake (Settings → Drop-In Apps → Browse). It shares the same app list and state with the desktop version — add apps here, update them from the panel, or vice versa.

For developers

npm install && npm start   # run from source
npm test                   # engine tests
npm run dist               # build the portable zips (signed when the machine has the signing setup)

There's also a headless CLI (node bin/watch.js check|update) for scripting. Config lives at %APPDATA%\git-updater\config.json — per-app overrides (asset patterns, custom install dirs, installer switches), architecture notes, and design details are in docs/INTERNALS.md.