Running and updating PDT

How PDT runs on your machine, starts at login, updates itself and how to remove it. To install it, see Install PDT.

How PDT runs

PDT is a small server on your machine that you use in your browser, at http://127.0.0.1:7420, or from your phone with remote access. A supervisor starts it at login, restarts it if it stops and installs updates. Agents and runs carry on when you close the browser, and resume where they were after PDT restarts.

The tray app

On macOS, Windows and a Linux desktop, PDT has an icon in the menu bar or system tray. Its menu has:

Open: opens PDT in your browser (on Windows, left-clicking the icon does the same).
Check for updates: checks now and offers to install what it finds.
Restart daemon: restarts PDT’s server. Sessions are interrupted and resume when it’s back.
Version: the version you’re running.
Start at login (macOS and Windows): whether the tray icon comes back when you log in. PDT itself starts either way.
Quit: closes the tray icon only. PDT and your agents keep running.

If the tray says the app is in the wrong place (on macOS, a disk image or your Downloads folder), move it to Applications and open it from there: PDT can’t start at login or update itself from anywhere else.

macOS: a login item, Personal Dev Team, in System Settings › General › Login Items under Allow in the Background.
Windows: a startup app, in Settings › Apps › Startup.
Linux: a systemd user service, pdt-host. It stops when you log out unless you run loginctl enable-linger "$USER" once, which keeps it running from boot. systemctl --user status pdt-host shows whether it runs; journalctl --user -u pdt-host shows its output.

Updates

PDT checks for a new release every hour (change how often under Check for updates, from every 15 minutes to once a day). Choose what it does in Settings › This host › Updates › Install updates:

Install automatically when idle (the default): installs as soon as no agent is working or waiting on background tasks and no run is setting up.
Notify only: a banner says Update to v… available. Release notes shows what’s new since your version; Update installs it.
Manual (no checks): PDT checks only when you click Check for updates.

If you install an update while agents are busy, PDT says what’s busy and asks first. Sessions resume afterwards.

Installing updates by themselves

With Install automatically when idle, the built-in Install updates workflow does the installing. Set it in Settings › This host › Updates › Installing updates:

Only in a time window: updates install by themselves only between two times, such as 02:00 to 06:00 (your computer’s time). Outside it, an update waits for the window.
While agents work: Wait for them to finish (the default), or install anyway after a few hours. With a time window, only the time agents work inside it counts. Installing anyway stops what’s running; sessions resume afterwards.
Stable releases only: on the nightly channel, a nightly build doesn’t install by itself. Install it from the banner.
Check PDT after installing (on by default): a few minutes after PDT starts on the new version, it checks that it runs that version and its background work keeps going.
Tell me what changed: a notification linking to the release notes once PDT runs the new version, and a post to a chat channel such as Discord if you pick one.

An update that fails to download or install, or a failed check after installing, goes to your Inbox with what went wrong. Switching to Install automatically when idle while an update waits installs that one too.

To add steps of your own, click Customize as a workflow →. Once you change the workflow beyond these settings, Settings says Updates follow your customized workflow and offers Open and Reset to default. Turned off, no update installs by itself.

Each update is checked against the release’s checksums, and PDT copies its database before installing. If the new version doesn’t start properly, PDT puts back the version you had (on Windows, with its entry in Settings › Apps) and the database copy, and a banner says Update to v… failed (…) and was rolled back with the reason. Nothing is lost, and PDT doesn’t retry that version on its own. See An update rolled back.

The GitHub token for updates

PDT reads its releases from GitHub without a token: you don’t need one to get updates.

A token is only for a private repository or a fork, or if you check so often that GitHub’s limit for checks without one runs out. When it does, PDT says so and checks again once the limit resets. Paste a token in Settings › This host › Updates › Advanced › GitHub token and click Save token. It’s kept in your system’s keychain, and is also used to file bug reports you send with Report a bug…. Settings › This host › Danger zone removes it.

If GitHub rejects the saved token (it expired or was revoked), PDT keeps updating without it and says the token was ignored, so you can replace or remove it.

Release channels

Choose in Settings › This host › Updates › Update channel:

Stable releases (the default): full releases only.
Nightly builds too: also a build of the latest code each night it changed. A nightly build can change your data in ways no stable release reads yet, so once you’ve installed one you can’t go back to an older stable release.

PDT never installs an older version than the one you run. Switching back to Stable releases keeps you on the nightly build until a newer stable release comes out.

Uninstall

Uninstalling keeps your data. To remove that too, see Your data.

macOS: stop PDT and remove it from your login items, then quit the tray icon and move Personal Dev Team to the Bin:

"/Applications/Personal Dev Team.app/Contents/MacOS/pdt-host" uninstall

If you installed with the one-line command, the app is in the Applications folder in your home folder:

"$HOME/Applications/Personal Dev Team.app/Contents/MacOS/pdt-host" uninstall

Windows: uninstall Personal Dev Team in Settings › Apps › Installed apps. That also stops PDT and removes it from startup.

Linux: remove the service, then delete the folder you installed into:

~/.local/opt/pdt/pdt-host uninstall
rm -r ~/.local/opt/pdt

For the AppImage, run pdt-host uninstall from the app folder in PDT’s data folder, then delete the AppImage.