Updates and Channels
Loca keeps itself current so you do not have to track releases by hand. When a new release is ready, the app offers to install it, and the Core can stage and apply its own update safely, rolling back if something goes wrong rather than leaving you with a broken service. You can always download the latest installer to jump straight to the newest build.
Channels
How new a build you run is set by its channel. A channel is a track of releases that move at different speeds, so you can choose how close to the leading edge you want to be:
| Channel | Pace | For |
|---|---|---|
| Stable | Changes slowly | Everyday use; the default |
| Latest | Moves faster | Newer features, sooner |
| Dev | Bleeding edge | Development and testing |
Running channels side by side
You do not have to choose one channel for good. You can run more than one side by
side, each with its own separate data under ~/.loca, so a newer build is fully
isolated from your everyday setup. Trying latest for a week cannot disturb the
sessions and settings on stable, because they never share state.
Note
Large model downloads are the exception: they are shared across channels rather than copied, so switching channels does not mean fetching gigabytes again. See Language Model.
How It Works
An update is never applied on trust. Each release ships with a signature that only Loca’s release key could have produced, and the Core checks that signature against a key built into it before it will touch a downloaded build, so a file that was tampered with or came from the wrong place is rejected. Only after that does it stage the new version beside the old one and hand off to a tiny helper that swaps them and restarts. If the fresh build fails to come up cleanly, the Core notices on the next start and puts the previous one back, which is the rollback that keeps a bad update from leaving you stranded.
Channels are kept apart by a plainer mechanism: each one is a separate folder under
~/.loca, with its own sessions, settings, and Core. That is the whole reason two
channels can run at once without colliding. Downloaded models are the one thing parked
outside any channel’s folder, in a shared location, so every channel reaches the same
multi-gigabyte files instead of each keeping its own copy.
That isolation is what makes a second channel safe to keep around: a place to try what is coming next without putting your daily work at risk. If you are taking Loca back off instead, see Uninstalling Loca.