Release Channels

Syntic Code ships on three release channels that let you trade stability for early access. A channel determines which build of the CLI you run and how often it updates. Choosing the right channel means you get the reliability you need for daily work while still being able to try new capabilities before they reach everyone.

The channels

Channel	Audience	Cadence	Stability
`stable`	Everyday use, teams, CI	Periodic, well-tested releases	Highest
`preview`	Early adopters	Frequent release candidates	Good, minor rough edges
`dev`	Contributors, testers	Continuous, latest changes	Experimental

The stable channel is the default and is what you should use for production work and automation. preview gives you features that are complete and in final testing before promotion to stable. dev tracks the newest changes and may include incomplete features or regressions — use it to test upcoming behavior, not for critical work.

Selecting a channel

You can set the channel per run, per session, or globally:

# One run on the preview channel
syntic --channel preview
 
# Set the default for your environment
export SYNTIC_CHANNEL=stable
 
# View or switch inside a session
/channel preview

How updates work

Each channel updates independently, so switching to preview does not affect your stable install. When a preview build proves reliable it is promoted to stable, and dev changes flow into preview as they stabilize. If a new build on a faster channel causes trouble, drop back to stable at any time — the environment variable SYNTIC_CHANNEL and the --channel flag both take effect immediately on the next run. Automation and CI should always pin to stable so scheduled runs are not surprised by upstream changes.

Plugins Reference Glossary