Update and uninstall

Update MiniCut yourself or let it update by itself, turn the automatic update off, and remove MiniCut with or without your projects.

MiniCut keeps your projects, library, canvas and settings.json through every update. An uninstall keeps them too, unless you ask it not to.

Update MiniCut

1. Check your version. The line Minicut CLI shows it.

minicut status

2. Run the update.

minicut update

3. Wait for it to finish. It ends with updated to and the new version. If you already had the newest version, it ends with ready. Then it prints Log: with the path of the install log and minicut: with the full path of the command.

The update installs the newest version beside the one you have, for the region saved at install. You stay signed in. The MiniCut app restarts on the new files, which ends the session of an open app page. Commands that are already running finish on the old files. MiniCut keeps the old version for one more update, so it can go back to it.

If the new app does not start within 10 seconds, MiniCut goes back to your old version and the update exits with code 2. If Python 3.12 or ffmpeg is missing, the update still finishes. It prints a MISSING: line. Install the tool, then run minicut setup. If another update is running, the command prints Another Minicut update is running on this computer. Run minicut update again when it has finished. and exits with code 75.

The command is described in Setup. If another command prints This Minicut is too old. Run minicut update, then the same command again., run the update first. That message comes with exit code 12.

Automatic updates

Automatic updates are on. Any minicut command starts a check in the background, and no command waits for it. A check runs at most once a day. The first one runs a day after the first command that follows the install. minicut update, minicut uninstall and minicut setup start no check.

MiniCut updates by itself only when all of these are true:

• The newest version is higher than yours. MiniCut never goes back to a lower version.
• It is your computer's turn. A new version reaches computers in stages.
• No MiniCut app page was used in the last 10 minutes.

If your computer's turn has not come, an app page was in use, or the check cannot reach minicut.ai, MiniCut tries again in an hour. After an automatic update, your next command prints one line on stderr, once:

Minicut updated to VERSION.

Turn off automatic updates

Do any one of these. The update then happens only when you run minicut update.

• Set the environment variable MINICUT_NO_AUTOUPDATE to 1.
• Add "auto_update": false to settings.json in your MiniCut home folder, ~/.minicut on macOS and Linux. Keep the other keys in the file.
• Set CI. MiniCut makes no automatic update when CI is set to anything except 0 or false.

{
  "auto_update": false
}

To check, run minicut status. Its last line shows auto_update and, when it is off, the reason.

MINICUT_NO_AUTOUPDATE=1 minicut status

auto_update: {"on":false,"off_because":"MINICUT_NO_AUTOUPDATE is set","last_check":null,"last_result":null,"next_check":null}

Uninstall MiniCut

1. Run the uninstall. It asks nothing and starts at once. If your agent runs it, Claude Code and Codex ask you first when you have run minicut agent-rules.

minicut uninstall

2. To remove your projects, library, canvas and settings too, add --all.

minicut uninstall --all

3. Check the exit code. 0 means MiniCut is removed. 7 means it is removed, but minicut.ai did not answer. Then this computer stays on the Devices page of your account until you remove it there.

The uninstall prints one line for each step it did, such as signed out, removed the login item and removed the tools and the app; kept projects, library, canvas, settings.json. The steps are listed under minicut uninstall on Setup.

Left behind

If the home folder has no minicut-home.json, the uninstall changes nothing. It prints FOLDER has no Minicut install marker (minicut-home.json), so it may hold files that are not Minicut's. Nothing was removed. and exits with code 1. FOLDER is the path of the home folder.

To install again, run the install line from Install in a terminal. The install keeps the projects, library, canvas and settings.json it finds in the home folder.

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