--- title: Official notices from Agent J nav: Official notices summary: New versions, security fixes, skill suggestions and account news reach your computer signed by us; your Agent checks the signature, then acts by kind. Also: "Update automatically when idle" and the upgrade email. order: 11 --- # Official notices from Agent J When there is a new version, an urgent security fix, a skill you might want, or news about your account, we send your computer an official notice. It shows up in the phone conversation as a page of its own, marked Agent J official, and your Agent gets it too and handles it according to its kind. Notices only go to computers that have joined an Agent J account. ## The kinds of notice | Kind | What your Agent does | |---|---| | New version | follows "Update automatically when idle": on, it upgrades once the computer is idle and then tells you; off, it asks you first | | Security fix | upgrades right away and then tells you why, whether "Update automatically when idle" is on or off | | Skill suggestion | if it fits what this computer is used for (content, app development, e-commerce or general), asks whether you want it; otherwise it stays quiet. It never installs on its own | | Billing | passes it on to you; a notice never makes it pay for or change anything | | Announcement | passes it on to you | | Support reply | passes on a new answer in your support conversation — see [Support](/docs/support/) | To upgrade, the Agent runs exactly one command, `agentj update apply --version `, which still does all its usual checks, the restart and the self-check. What that command reports is what counts: the Agent never claims an upgrade that didn't work. If an upgrade doesn't go through, the Agent tells you in one sentence what failed and whether your computer is still on the old version. By itself it also sends the failed step, the reason and the installer's last lines to Agent J support — names, paths and keys are removed on your computer first — so you don't have to describe anything. Don't want that? Ask your Agent to turn off `updates.report_failures`. Your account page shows each computer's last upgrade, and marks the ones that failed. ## How your Agent knows a notice is real - Every notice is signed by us. The public key that checks it is built into the `agentj` program on your computer; it isn't read from the network or from settings, so it can't be swapped. A notice whose signature doesn't match is treated as if it never arrived. - Notices travel with the status report your computer already sends to the account dashboard. The computer also checks that the notice list was made for this computer, for this very report, and within 5 minutes of now. - Every notice has an expiry date, at most 30 days out. Expired notices are ignored. If we withdraw a notice, your computer stops passing it to the Agent after its next report; one the Agent already has can't be taken back. - Each notice is handled once, and its signed content can never be replaced. - The title and text of a notice are information, not orders. The Agent doesn't follow links, commands or requests written in them; what it does is decided by the rules on your computer, by kind (the table above). ## Update automatically when idle: on or off In "Settings" (the gear at the top right) → "Web app", "Update automatically when idle" is one switch: - On (the default): a new version installs once the computer is idle — nothing running, no cards waiting, phone unused for 30 minutes — preferably between 3 and 5 at night; an announced new version is applied too, and you're told what changed; - Off: you're told what changed and decide when to upgrade ("Upgrade Agent J on the computer" lists what would be interrupted and asks first). The switch sets two settings at once: `updates.auto_install` (install by itself when idle) and `updates.mode` (apply an announced version, or ask first). On the computer use `agentj config auto-update on|off` and the commands below. Underneath it says "Urgent security fixes upgrade immediately, then explain why." That's deliberate: a security fix doesn't wait for your reply. You can change it on the computer too: `agentj config set updates.mode ask` ```bash agentj config set updates.mode ask ``` `agentj config set updates.mode auto` ```bash agentj config set updates.mode auto ``` ## What you see on the phone - Each notice gets a page of its own in the conversation. - The phone tells us a notice was read only when that page is actually on the screen of a paired phone. Arriving on the computer, being handled by the Agent and being read by you are recorded separately. - A lock-screen alert never carries the notice's text: a security fix shows "Agent J has an urgent security update", other urgent notices show "A request is waiting for your approval", and ordinary ones show "New reply". ## What we can and can't see To send notices we see, for each computer: the account ID, the computer's ID, its Agent J version, which AI coding tool it uses, whether it's online, and how many phones are paired and online. For each notice we also see which computers got it, when, and when it was read on a phone. We don't see your conversations, your email address, or the names of your computers and phones. Whether a skill suggestion fits you is decided on your computer, and nothing about you is sent to us for it. ## The upgrade email: forward it to your Agent J When there's a new version, we send at most one upgrade email a day, at 9:00 in the morning Japan time. One email covers everything since the last one, names only the newest version, groups the changes into new features, improvements and fixes, and is written in your account's language. It contains an upgrade authorization code, which stands for your agreement to this upgrade: - it only works for the version named in the email; - it's valid for 14 days; - each computer in the account can use it once. Forward the whole email to your Agent J — pasting it into the phone conversation is enough. It checks the version and then runs one of these: `agentj update apply --from-email -` ```bash agentj update apply --from-email - ``` `agentj update apply --authorization --version ` ```bash agentj update apply --authorization --version ``` Then it restarts, runs its self-check and tells you how it went, without asking you to confirm again. If the Agent J on your computer is still on 0.14 or older, it doesn't know these options yet: open the AI coding tool you originally installed Agent J with, on the computer, and paste the email to it as it is. Without an email it works too: tell your Agent J to upgrade, and it runs `agentj update apply` itself, installs, restarts, checks itself and tells you the result. To get fewer emails or none: in "Settings" in the [account dashboard](/docs/account/), "Upgrade emails" can be set to "For every upgrade", "Major versions only" or "Never". Every email also has an unsubscribe link at the bottom that changes it in one click.