Upgrading Solo

Overview

If you already have Solo installed, upgrade to the latest release using the same package manager you originally installed with. This page covers the Homebrew and npm upgrade paths, switching between them, and a clean-reinstall recipe for when an upgrade leaves Solo in a broken state.

Tip: Check your current version first with solo --version, and compare it against the latest release on the Solo releases page.

Upgrade a Homebrew install

If you installed Solo with brew install hiero-ledger/tools/solo, update Homebrew’s formula list and upgrade:

brew update
brew upgrade hiero-ledger/tools/solo

brew update refreshes Homebrew’s formulae; brew upgrade then installs the latest Solo and refreshes its kubectl and Helm dependencies. Verify the new version:

solo --version

Upgrade an npm install

If you installed Solo with npm, re-run the global install with the @latest tag to move to the newest release:

npm install -g @hiero-ledger/solo@latest

Note: Unlike the Homebrew formula, npm does not install kubectl and Helm. After a major-version upgrade, re-check the required tool versions in System Readiness.

Switching between Homebrew and npm

If you want to switch package managers (for example, from an older npm install to Homebrew), remove the existing copy first so you do not end up with two solo binaries on your PATH:

# Remove the npm copy before installing via Homebrew (or vice versa)
npm uninstall -g @hiero-ledger/solo

Then follow the install steps in System Readiness.

Clean reinstall

If an upgrade leaves Solo in a broken state - for example, conflicts from an older install or a partially migrated ~/.solo - remove Solo and its configuration, then reinstall.

Warning: This deletes your Solo home directory (~/.solo), including cached configuration and logs. Destroy any running deployments first with solo one-shot single destroy - see the Cleanup guide.

• Homebrew
• npm

brew uninstall hiero-ledger/tools/solo
rm -rf ~/.solo
brew install hiero-ledger/tools/solo

npm uninstall -g @hiero-ledger/solo
rm -rf ~/.solo
npm install -g @hiero-ledger/solo@latest

Confirm the reinstall:

solo --version

For additional cleanup options (removing Solo-managed Kind clusters and other artifacts), see Troubleshooting Installation.