This page shows the app's version, and whether a newer one is waiting. Vantage looks for updates only once you turn that on: switch "Check for updates" on, and it asks once right away, then soon after each start and once a day. "Check for updates" asks right now.
When a version is available, read its notes, press Download, and wait for the bar. The file is checked against a signed hash before anything else can happen. Only then does Install and restart appear (on Linux, a command to copy and run yourself: Vantage runs nothing as root).
With the switch off, as it is until you turn it on, Vantage makes no request at all, and a new version is a new installer you open by hand. When it is on, GitHub sees your IP address and "Vantage/<version>", nothing else: no machine count, no id, no fleet data. There is no Vantage server and no telemetry.
Opening a downloaded copy for the first time on a Mac: Vantage is signed by AVYR LABS with its own certificate, not by Apple. macOS cannot vouch for it, so the first launch of a downloaded copy asks you to confirm. To be sure the app's file is ours, compare its SHA-256 (shasum -a 256 on the file) with its line in the signed SHA256SUMS on the release page. The one-line command on that page installs the agent on a machine, not the app; it checks the agent for you.
On macOS 15 and later: open Vantage once and let it be refused, then go to System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Vantage and press Open Anyway. The old right-click > Open shortcut no longer works there. This says you trust this one app. It does not turn anything off for other apps, and Vantage never asks you to switch Gatekeeper off.
The macOS widget shows how many machines are up and what is open. Add it from the desktop: right-click, Edit Widgets, search Vantage. Agents update from Settings > Agents & updates.
Something not working?
"Vantage can't be opened" on a Mac: that is step 5 above. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security and press Open Anyway. Do not run spctl --master-disable or xattr -cr for this, and do not turn Gatekeeper off.
An update line in red names what went wrong and the next step to take. Most often it is the connection: check that this computer can reach github.com, then press Check for updates again.
"No newer release has been published yet" means you already have the newest version. Nothing is wrong.
Install says it cannot replace itself: Vantage is not in a folder you can write to. The new copy is where Vantage says; quit Vantage and drag it over the old one.
On Linux a .deb or .rpm is installed with the command Vantage shows, in a terminal, with sudo. If the file is gone, press Download again.
To install the agent on a machine with a command that checks the release's signature first, download install.sh from the release page, read it, and run sudo sh install.sh. A file fetched this way carries no download mark, so macOS asks nothing.
The widget shows nothing: open Vantage once, then add the widget again.
Check the version here against the one the machines report.
