Thrum Beta Channel

Every Thrum release goes through a soak window as -rc.N (release candidate) before being promoted to stable. Beta users help catch regressions before they hit releases/latest. This guide covers how to opt in, what to expect, and how to report what you find.

Choose a track

Thrum currently runs two parallel pre-release tracks. Pick one — they install the same binary, so you can only be on one track at a time.

  • Stable-track (v0.10.x cycle) — bug-fix and small-feature RCs against the current stable line. Recommended for production use; lower churn.
  • Substrate-track (v0.11.x cycle) — the Personal Agent Substrate work: unified scheduler, scheduled-agent lifecycle, skill library, email transport, reminders. Rapid iteration; expect breakage. Recommended only if you're actively helping shake the substrate out.

The sections below cover the current pre-release on each track. Install mechanics (binary + plugins + rollback) are shared further down the page — they're parameterized over VERSION and the release branch.

Stable-track current pre-release

No stable-track pre-release right now. v0.10.5 shipped to stable on 2026-05-21 — see What's New for the full release notes (note the BREAKING thrum send change: the bare form now requires --to @<agent> or --broadcast).

When the first v0.10.6-rc.N tags, this section will carry its callout + a Quick install block pinned to the release/v0.10.6 branch. Until then, install the current stable release the normal way — no VERSION= override needed:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
thrum daemon restart

Substrate-track current pre-release

No substrate-track pre-release yet. First will be v0.11.0-rc.1.

When v0.11.0-rc.1 publishes, this section will carry the substrate-track callout + Quick install block pinned to the release/v0.11.0 branch. Watch the GitHub releases page or the Personal Agent Substrate intro for the announcement.

For refresh between rc.N bumps, switching tracks, switching back to stable, and the parameterized versions of these commands, see How to install the matching plugins below.

What this is

When a new version is ready for soak, the coordinator cuts a release/vX.Y.Z branch and tags vX.Y.Z-rc.1. GoReleaser publishes that tag as a GitHub prerelease — separate from the stable releases page. RCs sit in soak for at least 48 hours, get exercised in 3+ real projects, and only graduate to stable once zero P0/P1 bugs are open against them.

You can opt into running these RCs at any time. Doing so gives you the release a few days early in exchange for being on the leading edge.

What to expect

  • RCs may have known issues. The whole point of soak is to surface problems; don't be surprised if you hit one.
  • Daemon migrations may need additional re-soak. A bugfix that touches daemon, sync, identity, migration, or storage projection paths re-starts a full 48h soak window. Less risky areas (CLI, hooks, docs) re-soak for 24h.
  • Report what you find. The faster a bug is filed, the faster the next rc.N rolls.
  • Stable users are unaffected. If you don't opt into the beta channel, nothing changes for you.

How to install an RC

The curl install path supports a VERSION= env var for opting into a specific tag, including prereleases. Place VERSION= on the sh side of the pipe, not the curl side — otherwise the variable is set on the curl process and the script never sees it (it falls back to latest):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | VERSION=vX.Y.Z-rc.N sh

To find the current RC tag, browse the GitHub releases page and look for entries marked Pre-release. The RC pattern is vX.Y.Z-rc.N (e.g. v0.11.0-rc.2).

After installing, restart the daemon so it picks up the new binary:

thrum daemon restart
thrum version

How to upgrade between RCs

When a new rc.N drops (e.g. rc.1 → rc.2 because a bugfix landed), re-run the same command with the new VERSION:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | VERSION=vX.Y.Z-rc.N sh
thrum daemon restart

You don't need to uninstall the previous RC first — the install script overwrites the binary in place.

How to install the matching Claude Code and Codex plugins

The plugins live in the same repo as the binary, so the release branch (release/vX.Y.Z) carries the plugin payload that matches the RC binary you just installed. Install from that branch instead of the default marketplace so the plugin's slash commands, hooks, and skills stay in lockstep with the daemon.

Claude Code plugin

Inside Claude Code, add the marketplace pinned to the release branch using the <github-user>/<repo>#<branch> shorthand, then install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add leonletto/thrum#release/vX.Y.Z
/plugin install thrum@thrum
/reload-plugins

The first command registers the marketplace named thrum and pins it to the release branch. The second installs the thrum plugin from that marketplace (<plugin-name>@<marketplace-name>).

When a new rc.N drops on the same release branch, refresh the marketplace without re-adding it:

/plugin marketplace update thrum
/reload-plugins

If you've previously installed the stable marketplace and want to switch back to it after a release ships, remove the beta marketplace first:

/plugin marketplace remove thrum
/plugin marketplace add leonletto/thrum
/plugin install thrum@thrum

Codex plugin

The Codex installer accepts a THRUM_INSTALL_REF env var. Set it to the release branch and run the installer from that same branch so both the script and the plugin payload come from the same revision:

THRUM_INSTALL_REF=release/vX.Y.Z bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/release/vX.Y.Z/codex-plugin/plugins/thrum/scripts/install-plugin.sh)

When a new rc.N drops on the same release branch, re-run the same command — the installer is idempotent on size+mtime and re-stages the cache from the latest revision of the branch.

To switch back to stable after a release ships, rerun the installer with the default ref:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/thrum-dev/codex-plugin/plugins/thrum/scripts/install-plugin.sh)

How to roll back to stable

Before opting into the beta channel for the first time, take a backup of your .thrum/ state directory in case you need to revert:

cp -r .thrum .thrum.pre-rc-$(date +%F)

To roll back, install the previous stable version (use vX.Y.Z without the -rc.N suffix) and restart the daemon:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | VERSION=v0.10.2 sh
thrum daemon restart

If you've created data on an RC and want to revert, restoring .thrum/ from your pre-RC backup is the safe path (see Data safety below).

Data safety

Rollback across a migration is not guaranteed. We test downgrade as part of every release's test cycle on a best-effort basis, but if you've created data on an RC and want to revert, restoring from your pre-RC backup is the safe path.

# Restore from backup (created before opting into beta)
mv .thrum .thrum.rc-discarded
cp -r .thrum.pre-rc-2026-05-01 .thrum
thrum daemon restart

If a specific RC's downgrade test failed during pre-release, the failure mode will be called out in that release's notes. Always read the release notes for the RC you're installing.

Reporting bugs

File RC bugs at the GitHub issue tracker with the rc-feedback label preset:

https://github.com/leonletto/thrum/issues/new?labels=rc-feedback

Include:

  • RC version — output of thrum --version
  • Daemon version — output of thrum daemon status --json | jq -r .version
  • Operating system — uname -a or equivalent
  • Reproduction steps — minimum sequence of commands that triggers the bug. If the bug is intermittent, note how often you've seen it
  • What you expected vs. what happened

The rc-feedback label is what the coordinator filters on when triaging during soak — labelled issues block promotion at P0/P1; unlabelled bug reports may not be seen until after stable ships.

Switching between stable-track and substrate-track

To move between the two tracks, install the binary with the target track's VERSION= and refresh both plugins against the matching release branch.

# Example: substrate-track → stable-track (when stable-track has a pre-release;
# otherwise just install the latest stable release without VERSION=)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
thrum daemon restart
# Then refresh plugins against the release branch (see Claude Code + Codex
# sections above) — currently the stable line is the v0.10.3 release.

The binary and plugins share the same install paths regardless of track, so the switch is "install the other track's version" rather than uninstall + reinstall. The plugin remove-and-re-add step in the "Leaving the beta channel" section below applies in the same way if Claude Code has cached the previous track's marketplace ref.

Leaving the beta channel

When you're done testing, revert the binary and any plugins you installed from the release branch back to their stable counterparts.

Binary

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
thrum daemon restart
thrum version

Stable releases come without a -rc.N suffix. Once you're back on stable, you'll only receive non-prerelease updates until you opt back in with a specific VERSION=.

Claude Code plugin

If you installed the plugin from a release branch (via leonletto/thrum#release/vX.Y.Z), remove that marketplace and re-add the stable one before re-installing:

/plugin marketplace remove thrum
/plugin marketplace add leonletto/thrum
/plugin install thrum@thrum
/reload-plugins

The remove step is required — Claude Code keeps the cached source URL with the branch ref pinned, so re-adding without removing first leaves you on the same beta source.

Codex plugin

Rerun the installer without THRUM_INSTALL_REF, pulling from thrum-dev:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leonletto/thrum/thrum-dev/codex-plugin/plugins/thrum/scripts/install-plugin.sh)

The installer is idempotent and re-stages the cache, so the previous branch state is overwritten in place. No remove step is needed for the Codex plugin.

Note: the Codex plugin currently tracks thrum-dev rather than a versioned release tag. Once the plugin starts shipping versioned releases (the way the Claude plugin does via marketplace.json), the revert command here will gain a version pin similar to the Claude flow above.

Note for Homebrew users

The beta channel is curl-only. The Homebrew tap doesn't carry prereleases — homebrew_casks.skip_upload: auto in .goreleaser.yaml keeps RCs off the tap so brew upgrade thrum only ever moves you between stable releases.

If you usually install via brew install leonletto/tap/thrum and want to test an RC, run the curl command above; the install script writes to ~/.local/bin/thrum, which takes precedence over the Homebrew binary on most PATH setups. To return to the Homebrew-managed binary, remove the local copy and run brew upgrade thrum.