The pre-release packages currently ship with an outdated manifest.json version.
Example:
GitHub release: 0.8.0-rc11
manifest.json version: 0.7.4
This creates confusion because Obsidian itself relies on manifest.json to display the installed plugin version.
As a result, after manually installing a pre-release, there is no clear indication in Obsidian that the user is actually running a pre-release build.
Why this is confusing
Initially, I thought Relay did not support pre-release installation/update flows because the official documentation only describes the native Obsidian plugin updater workflow.
I manually installed the pre-release by placing the release assets into .obsidian/plugins/... and was confused because:
Obsidian still appeared to show the stable version
the plugin explorer still treated Relay as the stable install
the installed version information did not clearly reflect the pre-release state
Only later, by randomly discovering the Relay: Show versions command in the command palette, did I realize Relay actually has its own internal release/version manager with Stable/Beta/Dev channels.
That UI correctly showed:
0.8.0-rc11
PRE-RELEASE
Installed
So the functionality already exists and works well — it is just not documented clearly.
Suggested fixes
- Fix manifest versioning
Ensure pre-release assets ship with a matching manifest.json version.
Example:
"version": "0.8.0-rc11"
instead of:
"version": "0.7.4"
2. Update documentation
The current docs only describe the native Obsidian updater flow:
Settings → Community plugins → Check for updates
But Relay also appears to support:
Stable/Beta/Dev channels
release switching
pre-release installation
version management directly inside Relay
through the command palette / release manager UI.
This functionality is extremely useful but currently undocumented (or at least difficult to discover).
The pre-release packages currently ship with an outdated manifest.json version.
Example:
GitHub release: 0.8.0-rc11
manifest.json version: 0.7.4
This creates confusion because Obsidian itself relies on manifest.json to display the installed plugin version.
As a result, after manually installing a pre-release, there is no clear indication in Obsidian that the user is actually running a pre-release build.
Why this is confusing
Initially, I thought Relay did not support pre-release installation/update flows because the official documentation only describes the native Obsidian plugin updater workflow.
I manually installed the pre-release by placing the release assets into .obsidian/plugins/... and was confused because:
Obsidian still appeared to show the stable version
the plugin explorer still treated Relay as the stable install
the installed version information did not clearly reflect the pre-release state
Only later, by randomly discovering the Relay: Show versions command in the command palette, did I realize Relay actually has its own internal release/version manager with Stable/Beta/Dev channels.
That UI correctly showed:
0.8.0-rc11
PRE-RELEASE
Installed
So the functionality already exists and works well — it is just not documented clearly.
Suggested fixes
Ensure pre-release assets ship with a matching manifest.json version.
Example:
"version": "0.8.0-rc11"
instead of:
"version": "0.7.4"
2. Update documentation
The current docs only describe the native Obsidian updater flow:
Settings → Community plugins → Check for updates
But Relay also appears to support:
Stable/Beta/Dev channels
release switching
pre-release installation
version management directly inside Relay
through the command palette / release manager UI.
This functionality is extremely useful but currently undocumented (or at least difficult to discover).