lyrn upgrade

$ lyrn upgrade [path] [--dry-run] [--yes]

The standard moves on - a workflow gains a job, cliff.toml a group - and the repositories it was written into stay where they were. lyrn.toml says which version each one carries; lyrn upgrade brings it to the version this lyrn writes, and commits the result as one change.

$ lyrn upgrade --yes
lyrn upgrade: `.`, a cli project, from the standard 2026.10 to 2026.11

What the standard changed since:
  2026.11
    - A shopfront workflow, `.github/workflows/shopfronts.yml`: `lyrn check` on every push, ...
    - cliff.toml keeps the changelog's explanation in its header, ...
    ...

  .github/workflows/shopfronts.yml  added
  CHANGELOG.md                      merged: the standard's change, beside the repository's own
  cliff.toml                        updated
  lyrn.toml                         updated

Committed: chore(standard): take the line's standard 2026.11
  git show --stat    # what the upgrade changed

What each version changed is listed on The standard, version by version.

A three-way merge

Every file of the standard is merged from three versions of it: what the standard wrote then, what the repository has now, and what the standard writes today. lyrn keeps every version of the standard it has released, as templates, and renders the old one and the new one with the repository’s own name, description, accent and add-ons - so a line the two render alike is a line the standard did not change, whatever the repository says in it.

Step	When
added	The standard writes a file the repository does not have
updated	The standard changed a file the repository had left as it was written
merged	Both changed the file, in different places: the repository’s lines are kept and the standard’s change lands beside them
needs a hand	Both changed the same lines - see below
removed	The standard no longer writes a file the repository had left as it was
kept	The repository keeps the file under another name (LICENSE.md), its own decision log in docs/adr/, or a file the standard dropped and the repository changed

The README is never merged: it is the product’s words, and the standard’s README was only ever their first draft. The changelog is not merged either, but split: its releases are the repository’s and stay as they are, and the header above them - the text cliff.toml writes there - is the standard’s, since git cliff --prepend keeps it on top only while the two are the same. A changelog once written with --output lost its header, and gets the standard’s back over all its releases. A file checked out with \r\n line ends is merged on its lines and written back with them.

Where both changed the same lines

The file gets the markers git uses, with the three versions named:

<<<<<<< yours
standard = "2026.10" # held here on purpose
||||||| standard 2026.10
standard = "2026.10"
=======
standard = "2026.11"
>>>>>>> standard 2026.11

Every file is still written, nothing is committed, and the run ends with exit code 1. Keep what both sides meant, drop the markers, and commit with the message it prints. Until then lyrn doctor reports the place as a failure.

The commit, and the changelog

A clean upgrade commits only the files it wrote, as chore(standard): take the line's standard 2026.11, with what each version changed in the body. That commit is how the changelog learns which standard the repository caught up with: the changelog is written by git-cliff from the commits, and the standard’s cliff.toml gives chore(standard) a group of its own, so the next release says it under Standard. A line typed into CHANGELOG.md by hand would land under the wrong release, or be written over.

Files the upgrade would change that hold work not yet committed stop it before anything is written: the merge would read the unfinished work as the repository’s version, and the commit would carry it under the standard’s name.

What it needs

• lyrn.toml with [template] standard - written by lyrn new and lyrn adopt. A repository without one is adopted first.
• A version of the standard this lyrn keeps. The oldest is 2026.10, the first version lyrn recorded; a newer one than this lyrn writes asks for a newer lyrn.
• A built-in form. A project generated from a template of your own is refused: its files are that template’s, and lyrn keeps no versions of it.

A repository already on the newest version has nothing to do, and says so.

Options

Option	Default	What it does
[path]	.	The repository to upgrade
--dry-run	—	Print what would change, with the diffs, and write nothing
-y, --yes	—	Write without asking; otherwise, at a terminal, the diffs are shown and the question asked first