Public binary releases
The application source repository can remain private. Public artifacts live in amuxos/amux-releases; downloads need no GitHub login. That repository contains documentation and release assets, not application source history.
Maintainer setup
Enable GitHub Actions in the source repository. Create a fine-grained token owned by the publishing account with access to only amuxos/amux-releases, repository Contents read/write, and an explicit expiration. Store it as the source repository Actions secret AMUX_RELEASE_TOKEN. Renew that secret before the credential expires. Do not reuse a developer's broadly scoped CLI token.
The workflow uses read-only source access. Only the publish step receives the cross-repository secret. The release repository's own workflows are not needed.
Publish
After reviewing and merging a source change, run the complete gate with the CI toolchain, then create a stable vX.Y.Z tag on the checked main commit and push it. .github/workflows/release.yml checks that the tag belongs to main, reruns the gate, builds five platform packages (macOS/Linux amd64+arm64 native, Windows amd64 cross-compiled with Setup.exe), and verifies the complete set. It uploads all assets to a draft release before publishing it as latest.
The public tag is created against the release repository's documentation branch. It never points to or imports the application's private Git history. Release notes are purpose-written; private commit messages are not copied into them.
The workflow can also be dispatched manually with an existing stable tag. Failed drafts can be retried. An already published version is immutable; publish a new version for corrections. Concurrency serializes releases.
Download contract
Each version has install.sh, version.txt, latest.json, platform tarballs for macOS/Linux, Windows *_Setup.exe plus its tarball, and their .sha256 files. The installer resolves version.txt once and downloads the pinned platform filename and checksum. amux update --restart and update checks use latest.json; on that manifest path the updater verifies SHA256 before extraction (a custom --release-url/AMUX_RELEASE_URL pointing directly at a .tar.gz archive skips checksum verification). Both paths reject unsupported archive entries. Packages include license notices and a platform-matched Claude SDK sidecar. Install and update also download the managed Agent Pack Contract SCM release from amuxos/agent-pack-contract-releases into ~/.amux/libexec/agent-pack-contract when AGENT_PACK_CONTRACT_SCM_URL is unset. Native agents and Node remain external prerequisites. Linux packages also include the matching amux-isolation-helper; packaging fails if it is missing. Its initial privileged installation remains explicit, while later updates refresh an existing service.
For a mirror, AMUX_RELEASE_BASE_URL selects the installer's GitHub-style releases directory; configure AMUX_RELEASE_URL for subsequent CLI and service update checks (AMUX_SCM_LATEST_URL remains accepted as a legacy fallback). Environment overrides are not automatically persisted into native service environments. Local binary and source installation remain available.
Version rollback is not database rollback. File activation failures restore the previous binaries and sidecar; errors after activation require diagnosis before attempting an older version against current user data.