OpenHands/.agents/skills/update-sdk/SKILL.md

name, description

name

description

update-sdk

This skill should be used when the user asks to "update SDK", "bump SDK version", "pin SDK to a commit", "test unreleased SDK", "update agent-server image", "bump the version", "prepare a release", "what files change for a release", or needs to know how SDK packages are managed in the OpenHands repository. For detailed reference material, see references/docker-image-locations.md and references/sdk-pinning-examples.md in this skill directory.

Update SDK

Bump SDK packages (openhands-sdk, openhands-agent-server, openhands-tools), pin them to unreleased commits for testing, and cut an OpenHands release.

Quick Summary — How Many Files Change?

Activity	Manual edits	Auto-regenerated	Total
SDK bump (released PyPI version)	2	3	5
SDK pin (unreleased git commit)	3	3	6
Release commit (version bump)	3	0	3

The 3 auto-regenerated files are always: poetry.lock, uv.lock, enterprise/poetry.lock.

SDK Package Bump — 2 Files + 3 Lock Files

Land as a separate PR before the release. Examples: 929dcc3 (SDK 1.11.5), cd235cc (SDK 1.11.4).

File	What to change
pyproject.toml	openhands-sdk, openhands-agent-server, openhands-tools in two sections: the dependencies array (PEP 508) and [tool.poetry.dependencies]
openhands/app_server/sandbox/sandbox_spec_service.py	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE constant — set to ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server:<version>-python

Then regenerate lock files:

poetry lock && uv lock && cd enterprise && poetry lock && cd ..

Docker Image Locations — All Hardcoded References

For the complete inventory of every file containing a hardcoded Docker image tag or repository, see references/docker-image-locations.md. Key files that must stay in sync during an SDK bump:

File	Image reference	Updated during SDK bump?
openhands/app_server/sandbox/sandbox_spec_service.py	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE = 'ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server:<tag>-python'	✅ Yes
docker-compose.yml	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_TAG default	✅ Should be
containers/dev/compose.yml	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_REPOSITORY + _TAG defaults	✅ Should be

CI enforcement: .github/workflows/check-version-consistency.yml validates version consistency and compose file image references on every PR and push to main.

⚠️ Docker Image Tag Gotcha (merge-commit SHA)

The SDK CI in software-agent-sdk repo tags Docker images with the GitHub Actions merge-commit SHA, NOT the PR head-commit SHA. When pinning to an SDK PR branch:

1. Check the SDK PR description for the actual image tag (look for the AGENT_SERVER_IMAGES section)
2. Or query the CI logs: the "Consolidate Build Information" job prints "short_sha": "<tag>"
3. The merge-commit SHA differs from the head SHA shown in the PR

For released SDK versions, images use a version tag (e.g., 1.12.0-python) — no merge-commit ambiguity.

Cutting a Release — 3 Files

A release commit updates the version string across 3 files. Gold-standard examples: 1.3.0 (d063c8c), 1.4.0 (495f48b).

File	What to change
pyproject.toml	version = "X.Y.Z" under [tool.poetry]
frontend/package.json	"version": "X.Y.Z"
frontend/package-lock.json	"version": "X.Y.Z" in two places (root object and packages[""])

Note: openhands/version.py reads the version from pyproject.toml at runtime — no manual edit needed there.

Compose Files (2 files)

Both compose files should use ghcr.io/openhands/agent-server with the current SDK version tag.

File	What to verify
docker-compose.yml	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_REPOSITORY defaults to agent-server, AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_TAG is current
containers/dev/compose.yml	Same — must use agent-server, not runtime

Release Workflow

Step 1: Verify the SDK bump has landed

grep -n "openhands-sdk\|openhands-agent-server\|openhands-tools" pyproject.toml
grep -n "AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE" openhands/app_server/sandbox/sandbox_spec_service.py
grep "AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_TAG" docker-compose.yml containers/dev/compose.yml

Step 2: Bump version numbers

# Edit pyproject.toml, frontend/package.json, frontend/package-lock.json
git add pyproject.toml frontend/package.json frontend/package-lock.json
git commit -m "Release X.Y.Z"
git tag X.Y.Z

Create a saas-rel-X.Y.Z branch from the tagged commit for the SaaS deployment pipeline.

Step 3: CI builds Docker images automatically

The ghcr-build.yml workflow triggers on tag pushes and produces:

• ghcr.io/openhands/openhands:X.Y.Z, X.Y, X, latest
• ghcr.io/openhands/runtime:X.Y.Z-nikolaik, X.Y-nikolaik

The tagging logic lives in containers/build.sh — when GITHUB_REF_NAME matches a semver pattern (^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$), it auto-generates major, major.minor, and latest tags.

Development: Pin SDK to an Unreleased Commit

For detailed examples of all pinning formats (commit, branch, uv-only), see references/sdk-pinning-examples.md.

Files to change (3 manual + 3 lock files)

File	What to change
pyproject.toml	Pin all 3 SDK packages in both dependencies and [tool.poetry.dependencies]
openhands/app_server/sandbox/sandbox_spec_service.py	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE — use the merge-commit SHA tag, NOT the head-commit SHA
docker-compose.yml	AGENT_SERVER_IMAGE_TAG default (for local development)
poetry.lock	Auto-regenerated via poetry lock
uv.lock	Auto-regenerated via uv lock
enterprise/poetry.lock	Auto-regenerated via cd enterprise && poetry lock

CI guard

The check-package-versions.yml workflow blocks merging to main if [tool.poetry.dependencies] contains any rev fields. This ensures unreleased SDK pins do not accidentally ship in a release.