Fix CLI symlink not updated after Studio app update by wojtekn · Pull Request #3713 · Automattic/studio

wojtekn · 2026-06-05T16:33:37Z

Related issues

Fixes STU-1787

How AI was used in this PR

This PR was developed with Claude Code assistance.

Proposed Changes

After Studio is updated, the studio CLI command could continue running the binary from a previous app bundle. The root cause was that autoInstallIfNeeded used a single cliAutoInstalled flag to mean both "we've done first-time install" and "user deliberately uninstalled — don't reinstall". Once set, it prevented installCli() from ever running again, so a stale symlink would never get fixed.

This PR introduces a separate cliUserUninstalled flag that is explicitly set when the user uninstalls the CLI via Settings, and cleared when they reinstall it. autoInstallIfNeeded now skips only when cliUserUninstalled is true, and otherwise calls installCli() on every launch. Since installCli() already no-ops when the symlink is correct, this is safe and cheap — it only re-points the symlink when it's actually stale.

Testing Instructions

Install Studio, complete CLI installation
Uninstall CLI via Settings — confirm studio command is gone and re-launching Studio does not reinstall it
Reinstall CLI via Settings — confirm studio command works and re-launching Studio keeps it pointing to the correct app

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

wojtekn · 2026-06-05T18:27:28Z

It seems it works:

Remove symlink ~/.local/bin/studio
Build Studio, open from out/, enable CLI in settings, close Studio
Confirm the symlink was created and points to location in out/

% readlink ~/.local/bin/studio
/Users/USER/Sites/studio/apps/studio/out/make/zip/darwin/arm64/Studio.app/Contents/Resources/bin/studio-cli.sh

Close Studio, move/copy it to /Applications/
Open Studio from /Applications/
Confirm the symlink resolves to the default location now:

% readlink ~/.local/bin/studio
/Applications/Studio.app/Contents/Resources/bin/studio-cli.sh

I thought I may be fixing an edge case that could happen only during development and testing local build, but it seems it can happen for the user, too:

Download Studio, open DMG, drag and drop to the Downloads directory
Open Studio, enable CLI, save
Move Studio to /Applications/
Symlink now points to a non-existent file and the studio command fails

bcotrim

Works as described.

I found one behavior change that may regress users who explicitly uninstalled the CLI before cliUserUninstalled existed.

With this state:

cliAutoInstalled: true
no cliUserUninstalled key
~/.local/bin/studio absent

After launching this branch, Studio recreated ~/.local/bin/studio.

Was that intentional? This state is ambiguous, but it also matches the old “user uninstalled via Settings” state. The stale-bundle case should still have an existing symlink pointing to an old app path, so I wonder if absent symlink + legacy config should keep the CLI uninstalled.

…d flag

…void IPC handler path

…end to avoid IPC handler path" This reverts commit e2a0c2a.

wojtekn · 2026-06-09T16:45:58Z

@bcotrim thanks for testing it. I added handling for that case.

wpmobilebot · 2026-06-09T17:13:24Z

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing 9224436 vs trunk

app-size

Metric	trunk	`9224436`	Diff	Change
App Size (Mac)	1358.03 MB	1358.03 MB	+0.00 MB	⚪ 0.0%

site-editor

Metric	trunk	`9224436`	Diff	Change
load	1632 ms	1686 ms	+54 ms	🔴 3.3%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	`9224436`	Diff	Change
siteCreation	9040 ms	9035 ms	5 ms	⚪ 0.0%
siteStartup	4402 ms	4380 ms	22 ms	⚪ 0.0%

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)

wojtekn · 2026-06-09T17:20:12Z

I tested the main flow again, and it works fine:

% readlink ~/.local/bin/studio
/Users/USER/Sites/studio/apps/studio/out/Studio-darwin-arm64/Studio.app/Contents/Resources/bin/studio-cli.sh
% readlink ~/.local/bin/studio
/Applications/Studio.app/Contents/Resources/bin/studio-cli.sh

fredrikekelund · 2026-06-10T07:58:46Z

It took me a second to wrap my head around this, but if I understand it correctly, it's really meant to fix an issue where if you run a local dev build and install it, it might set up a weird symlink at ~/.local/bin compared to a production install.

This is kind of an edge case, but I don't have any strong objections to switching the paradigm to running an install on every launch unless we know the user explicitly uninstalled the CLI. However, I think we should consider removing userData.cliAutoInstalled entirely.

It looks like there's some data migration logic in there (and maybe that's the only real reason we kept that prop). If that's the case, I'd ask that we write an explicit data migration in apps/studio/src/migrations instead

wojtekn · 2026-06-10T08:06:18Z

@fredrikekelund it could also happen for standard user:

Download Studio, open DMG, drag and drop to the Downloads directory
Open Studio, enable CLI, save
Move Studio to /Applications/
Symlink now points to a non-existent file and the studio command fails

fredrikekelund · 2026-06-11T07:05:31Z

Right. I'd appreciate it if you could revisit the userData.cliAutoInstalled prop, though. I could be mistaken, but it doesn't appear to be needed anymore, and the CLI installation with the symlink chain is complex already.

wojtekn · 2026-06-11T10:31:48Z

Right. I'd appreciate it if you could revisit the userData.cliAutoInstalled prop, though. I could be mistaken, but it doesn't appear to be needed anymore, and the CLI installation with the symlink chain is complex already.

Good catch. We don't need to write it anymore, but we should support it to ensure we don't have to reinstall the CLI for users who uninstalled it in the past. I opened #3781

…led (#3781) ## Related issues - Follow-up to #3713 ## How AI was used in this PR Developed with Claude Code assistance. ## Proposed Changes Now that `cliUserUninstalled` exists as an explicit signal, `cliAutoInstalled` no longer serves an ongoing purpose. Its original role — preventing re-installation after first launch — is fully handled by `cliUserUninstalled` (absent = not uninstalled). The only remaining use is a one-time migration: on first launch of the new version, `cliAutoInstalled: true` + absent symlink/directory is treated as a deliberate uninstall and sets `cliUserUninstalled: true`. After that migration runs once per user, `cliAutoInstalled` is never meaningfully consulted again. This PR stops writing `cliAutoInstalled` on new installs and marks it `@deprecated` in the storage type. The migration block still reads it, so existing users who uninstalled before #3713 shipped are correctly preserved. The flag and migration block can be removed entirely in a follow-up release. On Windows, this also fixes `updateWindowsCliVersionedPathIfNeeded()` to run on every launch where the CLI is installed (not only when `cliAutoInstalled` was set), keeping the proxy `.bat` path up to date after app updates. ## Testing Instructions - Launch Studio with `cliAutoInstalled: true` + symlink absent in `app.json` → `cliUserUninstalled` should be set to `true`, CLI not reinstalled - Launch Studio with `cliAutoInstalled: true` + symlink present but stale → symlink re-pointed to current app - Fresh install (no flags set) → CLI installs as normal, `cliAutoInstalled` is NOT written ## Pre-merge Checklist - [ ] Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors? --------- Co-authored-by: Fredrik Rombach Ekelund <fredrik.rombach.ekelund@automattic.com>

Fix CLI symlink not being updated after Studio app update

86af1d0

github-actions Bot assigned wojtekn Jun 5, 2026

wojtekn marked this pull request as ready for review June 5, 2026 18:27

wojtekn requested review from a team and fredrikekelund June 5, 2026 18:27

bcotrim reviewed Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

wojtekn added 3 commits June 9, 2026 18:35

Preserve existing uninstall state when migrating to cliUserUninstalle…

ea75de5

…d flag

Fix export/import tests broken by pool:forks — stub process.send to a…

e2a0c2a

…void IPC handler path

Revert "Fix export/import tests broken by pool:forks — stub process.s…

9513c25

…end to avoid IPC handler path" This reverts commit e2a0c2a.

Merge branch 'trunk' into fix-cli-symlink-after-update

7cb8830

Merge branch 'trunk' into fix-cli-symlink-after-update

9224436

wojtekn merged commit 13d87a1 into trunk Jun 10, 2026
11 checks passed

wojtekn deleted the fix-cli-symlink-after-update branch June 10, 2026 06:43

wojtekn mentioned this pull request Jun 11, 2026

Stop writing cliAutoInstalled, deprecate in favour of cliUserUninstalled #3781

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Fix CLI symlink not updated after Studio app update - #3713

Fix CLI symlink not updated after Studio app update#3713
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Related issues

How AI was used in this PR

Proposed Changes

Testing Instructions

Pre-merge Checklist

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📊 Performance Test Results

app-size

site-editor

site-startup

wojtekn commented Jun 9, 2026

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