ide-updater 0.1.6

A powerful CLI tool for Linux developers to automatically update and manage popular IDEs (VS Code, Cursor) with smart version detection, progress tracking, and seamless installation handling

IDE Updater

A CLI tool to quickly update Linux IDEs (VS Code and Cursor) with a simple command.

Keep your development environment fresh with automatic IDE updates!

Features

• 🚀 Multi-IDE Support: VS Code and Cursor IDE
• 🔍 Smart Version Detection: Checks both system-wide and local installations
• 📦 Automatic Downloads: Fetches latest versions from official sources
• 🎯 Clean Installation: Manages AppImages and tar.gz files properly
• 🔄 Smart Updates: Automatically updates IDEs in their current location
• ⚙️ Configurable: Stores settings in ~/.config/ide-updater/
• 🎨 Beautiful Output: Rich terminal interface with progress bars

Installation

Quick Install with pipx (Recommended)

If you have pipx installed:

pipx install ide-updater && pipx ensurepath

If you don't have pipx yet (complete one-command install):

python3 -m pip install --user pipx && python3 -m pipx ensurepath && pipx install ide-updater && pipx ensurepath

After installation: Restart your terminal or run source ~/.bashrc to make the command available immediately.

Why pipx?

pipx is the recommended way to install Python CLI applications. It:

• ✅ Installs apps in isolated environments (no conflicts)
• ✅ Makes commands globally available
• ✅ Works on modern Linux systems (avoids "externally-managed-environment" errors)
• ✅ Easy to update: pipx upgrade ide-updater

Alternative: Using pip in a virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate && pip install ide-updater

From Source

git clone https://github.com/cosmah/ide-updater.git
cd ide-updater
pip install -e .

Usage

# Check for updates
ide-updater check

# Update all IDEs
ide-updater update

# Update specific IDE
ide-updater update cursor
ide-updater update vscode

# Initialize configuration
ide-updater init

Configuration

The tool stores configuration in ~/.config/ide-updater/config.json:

{
    "install_dir": "/home/user/Applications",
    "temp_dir": "/home/user/.cache/ide-updater",
    "ides": {
        "vscode": {"enabled": true, "channel": "stable"},
        "cursor": {"enabled": true},
        "kiro": {"enabled": false}
    }
}

Note: Kiro support is temporarily disabled due to download access restrictions. The download URLs have changed or require authentication.

Installation Behavior

Smart Update Location:

• If an IDE is already installed (detected in PATH or known locations), the updater will replace it in the same location
• If no existing installation is found, it installs to the configured install_dir (default: ~/Applications/)
• Old versions are automatically backed up with a .backup extension before replacement

This ensures your system configurations (desktop entries, PATH, etc.) continue working after updates!

Supported IDEs

IDE	Version Detection	Download Source	Installation	Status
VS Code	Microsoft Update API	Official Microsoft	tar.gz extraction	✅ Active
Cursor	Changelog scraping	cursor.com API	AppImage	✅ Active
Kiro	Downloads page + AWS	AWS S3 bucket	AppImage/tar.gz	⚠️ Disabled (Access restricted)

Requirements

• Linux (tested on Ubuntu, should work on other distributions)
• Python 3.8+
• Internet connection for downloads

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support the Project

If this tool saves you time and makes your development workflow easier, consider supporting its development:

Your support helps maintain and improve this tool for the entire Linux developer community!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.