Documentation

Updating Genesis

Genesis receives updates through its git repository. Updates bring new stack profiles, improved templates, additional agents, bug fixes, and documentation improvements.

Using the /update skill

cd ~/claude/genesis
claude

Then invoke:

/update

The skill follows a five-step process:

  1. Checks for local changes and warns about uncommitted modifications
  2. Fetches updates from the remote repository
  3. Shows changed items listing incoming commits
  4. Asks for confirmation before proceeding
  5. Applies the update via git pull origin main

Manual update

cd ~/claude/genesis
git fetch origin main
git log HEAD..origin/main --oneline
git pull origin main

What gets preserved

Three gitignored files are never overwritten:

  • personalisation.md: locale, output style, role, experience level, defaults
  • environment.md: platform, shell, package manager, paths
  • .claude/settings.local.json: local permission overrides

These files are yours. Genesis updates will never touch them.

What gets updated

ComponentLocation
Master instructionsCLAUDE.md
Agents.claude/agents/*.md
Skills.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md
Templates.claude/skills/genesis/templates/*.tmpl
References.claude/skills/genesis/references/*.md
Example configspersonalisation.md.example, environment.md.example
Documentationdocs/, README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md
Settings.claude/settings.json

Checking for new configuration options

After an update, compare your personal files against the examples:

  1. Compare personalisation.md with personalisation.md.example
  2. Compare environment.md with environment.md.example
  3. Add any new fields you want to your personal files

Previously generated projects

Updates to Genesis do not affect previously generated projects. Each generated project is independent; it has its own CLAUDE.md, agents, skills, and settings that were written at generation time.

To bring improvements to an older project:

  1. Regenerate with the same name after removing the old directory
  2. Manually copy improvements from updated templates

Rollback

cd ~/claude/genesis
git log --oneline -5        # find the commit before the update
git reset --hard <commit>   # revert to that commit

Your personalisation.md and environment.md are unaffected by rollbacks since they're gitignored.

Use git reflog for a full HEAD history including pull operations.

Update frequency

There's no required update schedule. Update when you want new features or improvements. Genesis works perfectly well on any version; updates are purely additive.

Check for available updates:

cd ~/claude/genesis
git fetch origin main
git rev-list HEAD..origin/main --count

A count of 0 means you're current. Any other number shows how many commits are available.

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