ally-tray

MyAlly System Tray Application - Binary releases for cross-platform auto-update.

Overview

This repository hosts binary releases of the MyAlly system tray application. The tray app provides:

• 🚀 Backend process management (start/stop)
• 🌐 One-click frontend launch
• 📦 Automatic update checking
• 🔔 Update notifications with tray icon badge
• ⬆️ Update application via menu

Installation

These scripts install the full MyAlly platform (backend, frontend, and dependencies) from the private sarukas/ally repository.

Prerequisites

The installer will attempt to install missing prerequisites automatically, but you may need:

Prerequisite	Required	Auto-installed?
Git	Yes	Yes (via winget / brew / apt)
Python 3.11+	Yes	Yes (via winget / brew / apt)
Node.js 18+	Yes	Yes (via platform installer)
uv	Yes	Yes (via astral.sh)

• Private repo access — one of:
  • GitHub CLI (gh) authenticated with gh auth login
  • SSH key configured for GitHub
  • A GitHub Personal Access Token with repo scope (you'll be prompted)

Windows

Download https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sarukas/ally-tray/refs/heads/main/install.bat and double-click it or from a terminal:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sarukas/ally-tray/refs/heads/main/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sarukas/ally-tray/refs/heads/main/install.sh | bash

Installer Options

install.bat / install.ps1 (Windows)

install.bat [--install-dir <path>] [--force] [--component <main-app|tray|all>]

Flag	Description
--install-dir <path>	Custom installation directory (default: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MyAlly)
--force	Force reinstall of components
--component <name>	Update only a specific component (main-app, tray, or all)

PowerShell equivalent flags: -InstallDir, -Force, -Component.

install.sh (macOS / Linux)

./install.sh [--install-dir <path>]

When piped (curl | bash), the installer runs non-interactively.

See the main repository for full documentation.

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ally-updater CLI

After installation, updates are managed by the ally-updater CLI. The tray app checks for updates automatically, but you can also run it directly:

ally-updater                              # Update all components (non-interactive)
ally-updater update                       # Same as above
ally-updater update main-app              # Update only the main application
ally-updater update tray                  # Update only the tray binary
ally-updater update main-app --force      # Force reinstall main-app
ally-updater update --force               # Force reinstall all
ally-updater update --interactive         # Per-component prompts
ally-updater update-node                  # Update Node.js separately
ally-updater check                        # Check for updates without applying
ally-updater config check                 # Check pending config migrations
ally-updater config migrate               # Apply config migrations
ally-updater config history               # Show migration history

Key behaviors

• Non-interactive by default — runs without prompts, ideal for automation and tray-triggered updates.
• Component as positional argument — update main-app not --component main-app.
• Node.js updates are explicit — use update-node; never auto-selected during regular updates.
• --interactive — enables per-component prompts for granular control over what gets updated.
• --force — force reinstall even if up-to-date. Works per-component: update tray --force.

Global flags

Flag	Description
--install-dir <path>	Custom installation directory
--json	Machine-readable JSON output
--verbose / -v	Verbose output
--quiet / -q	Suppress non-essential output
--version	Show ally-updater version

Backwards compatibility

Old flags still work with deprecation warnings:

Old	New equivalent
ally-updater --check	ally-updater check
ally-updater --confirm	ally-updater update --interactive
ally-updater --component main-app	ally-updater update main-app
ally-updater --force --component main-app --yes	ally-updater update main-app --force
ally-updater --yes	ally-updater (non-interactive is now default)

---

Installation Layout

<install-dir>/                  # Default: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MyAlly (Windows)
├── app/                        #          ~/Library/Application Support/MyAlly (macOS)
│   ├── .venv/                  #          ~/.local/share/myally (Linux)
│   ├── services/myally/        # Backend (FastAPI + SQLite)
│   └── apps/ally-frontend/     # Frontend (React)
├── tray/
│   └── myally-tray.exe         # Tray launcher binary
└── mcp-servers/                # MCP server extensions (future)

Configuration and data are stored in ~/.ally/:

Path	Contents
~/.ally/config.yaml	Installation config
~/.ally/myally.db	SQLite database (WAL mode)
~/.ally/logs/	Log files (daily rotation)
~/.ally/tray.yaml	Tray launcher settings

---

Downloads

Download the latest tray app release from the Releases page.

Platform	File
Windows	myally-tray.exe
macOS	myally-tray (coming soon)
Linux	myally-tray (coming soon)

Troubleshooting

Clone fails with authentication error

Ensure you have access to the private sarukas/ally repository:

gh auth login       # Authenticate GitHub CLI
# Then re-run the installer

Python not found after installation

Restart your terminal to pick up PATH changes, then re-run the installer.

Backend won't start

Check logs at ~/.ally/logs/myally.log. Common issues:

• Port 8080 already in use — check with netstat -ano | findstr 8080 (Windows) or lsof -i :8080 (macOS/Linux)
• Claude Agent SDK issue — the CLI is bundled with the SDK, no separate install needed. Run uv sync --all-packages in the app directory to fix.

Updater fails mid-update

Re-run the installer — it's idempotent and will pick up where it left off. Use --force if a component is in a broken state.

Integration

The tray application integrates with the ally-updater package for automatic updates. The installer scripts (install.ps1, install.bat, install.sh) are maintained in the main repository and synced here during releases.

License

MIT