Update, back up, fix

Time: 5 minutes for an update or a backup.

This guide keeps your runner healthy: how to update it, undo an update, back it up, and read what it says when something is wrong. Run every command in the loopgate folder (cd ~/loopgate). New words are explained in The words we use.

Update

Each release of Loopgate is a new compose.yaml. An update downloads only what changed, about 14 MB.

Keep a copy of the current file, so you can go back, then download the new one and restart. Your settings are kept.
```
cp compose.yaml compose.previous.yaml
curl -fsSLO https://loopgate.dev/runner/compose.yaml
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
```
You should see: each container Started or Running, and Runner ready at … in docker compose logs runner.

Browsers stay signed in across a restart, but a temporary address changes, so on one each person opens the runner from the portal again. A step that was working when the runner restarted shows as interrupted, with Retry.

Undo an update

Put the previous file back and restart.

cp compose.previous.yaml compose.yaml
docker compose up -d

Back up

A backup copies everything the runner keeps: its runs and settings, your code on the box, and the coding tools' sign-ins. It holds those sign-ins, so store it like a password.

Stop the runner, copy everything into one file, and start it again.

docker compose stop
docker run --rm -v loopgate-runner_data:/data -v loopgate-runner_repos:/repos -v loopgate-runner_home:/home/node -v "$PWD":/backup debian:bookworm-slim tar czf /backup/loopgate-runner.tgz /data /repos /home/node
docker compose start

You should see: a file loopgate-runner.tgz in the folder. Copy it off the box to somewhere safe.

Stop a task or the whole runner

Stop one task: Stop on the task in the workbench or in its Slack thread, or docker compose exec runner loopgate cancel <run> (the run's id is in its workbench address).
Shut the door for everyone: revoke the runner in the portal's Devices page, or run docker compose exec runner loopgate logout. Within a minute nobody can open it. Tasks already working carry on until they need a person or end, within their limits.

What the runner says

Read the runner's messages with docker compose logs runner, and the Slack app's with docker compose logs slack.

It says	What it means and what to do
`Runner ready at https://…`	All is well. `(temporary address)` after it is the quick tunnel's, which changes at a restart.
`This runner is signed out. Run loopgate login on its host.`	Paste a fresh line from the portal's Devices → Add a runner, or run `docker compose exec runner loopgate login --no-open`.
`The install token was refused: …`	The rest of the line says why. Paste a fresh line from the portal's Devices → Add a runner.
`The runner is fetching its org policy.`	It is starting. Wait a minute.
`This runner belongs to another org. Give it a fresh data directory.`	The box was signed in to a different Loopgate org before. Ask us for help.
`This data directory has runs from before it was a runner. Give it a fresh one.`	The box's data predates the runner. Ask us for help.
`Loopgate Slack worker is connected for T…`	The Slack app is working. Settings → Slack says the same, or the worker's error in one sentence.
`No Loopgate daemon answers in /data: …`	The runner is not up. Check `docker compose ps` and the runner's messages.

What people see

"This link expired. Open the runner from the portal again." The portal's pass lasts one minute and works once. Open the portal, go to Devices and press Open again.

"Not a current member of this org." The person is not a member of your Loopgate org, or was removed. An owner or admin adds them in the portal. A new member can get in within about two minutes.

"Ask an owner or admin of your org to … on this runner." Signing in engines, saving GitHub or Slack and adding workspaces on a runner are an owner's or admin's.

What Slack says is in Connect Slack.

Ask for help

Write to us where we shared these guides with you. Send:

what you did and what you expected;
the last lines the runner printed: docker compose logs --tail 50 runner;
the output of docker compose ps.

Look through what you send first. Never send a token, a key, runner.env, slack.env, tunnel.env or a backup file.

Doing it by hand

slack.env's own messages and every file's lines are in By hand.