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REQ-F-029: Auto-Update Suppression in Non-Interactive Mode

Tier: Framework-Automatic | Priority: P1

Source: §32 Self-Update & Auto-Upgrade Behavior

Addresses: Severity: High / Token Spend: Medium / Time: High / Context: Low

Description

The framework MUST disable any auto-update behavior (including update checks that add latency) when: isatty(stdout) == false, CI is set, TOOL_NO_UPDATE is set, or --no-update-check is passed. The framework MUST ensure that update availability information is surfaced only as a non-blocking meta.update_available field. The framework MUST ensure that the tool binary is never replaced while any instance is running.

Acceptance Criteria

  • No update check occurs when CI=true
  • No update check occurs when stdout is not a TTY
  • Setting TOOL_NO_UPDATE=1 disables all update behavior including background checks
  • No measurable latency is added to any command due to update checking in non-interactive mode

Schema

No dedicated schema type — this requirement governs framework startup behavior without adding new wire-format fields

Wire Format

No wire-format fields — this requirement governs framework behavior only

Example

Framework-Automatic: no command author action needed. The framework checks isatty(stdout) and the CI and TOOL_NO_UPDATE environment variables before the command is dispatched. If any suppression condition is met, the framework sets NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER=1 (or the equivalent internal flag) before executing the command.

$ CI=true tool deploy --env prod
→ No update check performed
→ No "update available" message on stderr
→ Command executes with zero added latency

$ TOOL_NO_UPDATE=1 tool deploy --env prod
→ No update check performed, background checks also disabled

$ tool deploy --env prod   (stdout is a pipe)
→ isatty(stdout) == false → update check suppressed automatically
Requirement Tier Relationship
REQ-F-009 F Provides: non-interactive mode detection reused to suppress updates
REQ-F-050 F Specializes: suppresses update notifier side-channel writes in non-interactive mode
REQ-F-008 F Composes: CI environment variable detection shared with this requirement
REQ-F-038 F Composes: auto-quiet mode applies the same non-TTY detection