[Bug] v0.15.0 release missing latest.yml — auto-updater throws 404 on every launch

Summary

Starting with v0.15.0, wmux's bundled electron-updater throws a noisy 404 on every launch because the GitHub release for v0.15.0 is missing the latest.yml metadata file that electron-updater requires.

This is purely cosmetic (the app still works), but the error is printed on startup and every 6 hours thereafter (RECHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 6 * 60 * 60 * 1000 in src/main/updater.ts).

Environment

• wmux version: v0.15.0
• OS: Windows 10/11
• Install method: Release zip (wmux-0.15.0-win-x64.zip)
• Install location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\wmux\

Steps to reproduce

1. Download wmux-0.15.0-win-x64.zip from https://github.com/amirlehmam/wmux/releases/tag/v0.15.0
2. Extract anywhere
3. Run wmux.exe

Observed output

[wmux] Installed wmux OpenCode plugin to C:\Users\ilies\.config\opencode\plugin\wmux.js
Checking for update
wmux pipe server listening on \\.\pipe\wmux
Error: Error: Cannot find latest.yml in the latest release artifacts
(https://github.com/amirlehmam/wmux/releases/download/v0.15.0/latest.yml): HttpError: 404
  "method: GET url: https://github.com/amirlehmam/wmux/releases/download/v0.15.0/latest.yml
   Please double check that your authentication token is correct..."
[updater] Auto-updater error: Error: Cannot find latest.yml in the latest release artifacts...
  code: 'ERR_UPDATER_CHANNEL_FILE_NOT_FOUND'

Root cause

Looking at the v0.15.0 release: https://github.com/amirlehmam/wmux/releases/tag/v0.15.0

The release ships:

• wmux-0.15.0-win-x64.zip (the binary)
• Source code (zip) / Source code (tar.gz) (auto-generated by GitHub)

But it is missing latest.yml, which electron-updater (loaded in src/main/updater.ts via import { autoUpdater } from 'electron-updater') requires to discover update metadata. Without it, electron-updater fetches https://github.com/amirlehmam/wmux/releases/download/v0.15.0/latest.yml and gets a 404.

The autoUpdater.error event listener in initAutoUpdater() (lines 88–90 of src/main/updater.ts) logs the full error, and the error fires on every checkForUpdates() call — which happens on startup and every 6 hours.

Suggested fixes (in order of preference)

1. Ship latest.yml in the release (preferred — the right fix)

electron-builder is configured in electron-builder.json. The release workflow should be generating latest.yml (or latest.yml.gz) and uploading it as a release asset. Verify the build pipeline:

• In CI, the build step should run electron-builder --win --x64 --publish never (or always) which produces dist/latest.yml alongside the zip.
• The release workflow should upload dist/latest.yml to the GitHub release as an asset.

Sample latest.yml for v0.15.0:

version: 0.15.0
files:
  - url: wmux-0.15.0-win-x64.zip
    sha512: <sha512 of the zip>
    size: <size in bytes>
path: wmux-0.15.0-win-x64.zip
sha512: <sha512 of the zip>
releaseDate: '2026-07-02T00:00:00.000Z'

For macOS/Linux builds (if/when added), also ship latest-mac.yml and latest-linux.yml as needed.

2. Defensive fix in code: catch + silence the 404

Even with latest.yml shipped, transient GitHub outages or partial releases (e.g. for hot-patch builds) can trigger the same error. Make initAutoUpdater() more defensive:

autoUpdater.on('error', (err) => {
  // Channel-file-not-found is expected when the release doesn't ship
  // latest.yml (e.g. manual/partial releases). Log a warning, not the full stack.
  const msg = err?.message || String(err);
  if (msg.includes('ERR_UPDATER_CHANNEL_FILE_NOT_FOUND') ||
      msg.includes('Cannot find latest.yml')) {
    console.warn('[updater] latest.yml not found in latest release — update check skipped.');
    return;
  }
  console.error('[updater] Auto-updater error:', err);
});

3. Allow disabling the updater via env var

Some users (e.g. air-gapped, corporate, sandboxed) cannot reach GitHub. Add a kill switch:

export function initAutoUpdater(): void {
  if (process.env.WMUX_DISABLE_UPDATER === '1') {
    console.log('[updater] Disabled via WMUX_DISABLE_UPDATER=1');
    return;
  }
  // ...existing code
}

This is consistent with other env-var overrides already in the codebase (e.g. WMUX_MIN_RELEASE_AGE_DAYS).

Workaround for end users (until fixed)

None clean. The error is purely cosmetic. To suppress it locally, you can patch app.asar (not recommended — lost on every reinstall), or downgrade to a release that ships latest.yml.

Related

• electron-updater docs: https://www.electron.build/auto-update
• electron-builder latest.yml format: https://www.electron.build/configuration/publish#generated-updater-artifacts

Priority

Medium — the app functions correctly, but the error spam is a poor first-launch experience and obscures real problems in the user's terminal scrollback.