librechat-mac-app-updates

Publishes the latest available version of the LibreChat Mac app, so the app itself can poll for updates without requiring authentication.

The actual app source lives at A8C GHE instance. This public repo only holds a small manifest — a pointer to the latest release. The binaries themselves still live behind the VPN-gated GHE instance.

How it works

On launch and every 6 hours after, the app fetches latest.json from this repo. If the version listed here is newer than the running app's bundle version, an "Update available" banner appears in the app window, with a button to open the release page in the user's default browser.

latest.json is the only file the app reads. Everything else here is documentation.

Manifest schema

{
  "version": "0.4.6",                                                                    // bare semver, no leading "v"
  "releaseURL": "https://github.a8c.com/Automattic/librechat-mac-app/releases/tag/v0.4.6", // where to send the user
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-27T15:47:24Z",                                                 // ISO 8601 UTC, optional
  "notes": "Optional one-line summary shown in the update banner."                       // optional
}

• version is the only required field. The app does a numeric semver compare against Bundle.main.shortVersion; if newer, the banner fires.
• releaseURL defaults to the github.a8c.com releases listing if absent.
• notes and publishedAt are optional UI hints.

Updating the manifest

Eventually this will be automated by the Mac app's release script. For now, after cutting a new release:

1. Cut and publish the release on github.a8c.com.
2. Edit latest.json here, bump version / releaseURL / publishedAt.
3. Commit and push to trunk. Within ~6 hours every installed copy will see the banner.

raw.githubusercontent.com is CDN-cached for a few minutes; if you want immediate propagation for testing, append a query string in the app's fetch URL (or wait).