This is not a standalone kitten executable. You must update

Error message

This is not a standalone kitten executable. You must update all of kitty instead.

What it means

Error "This is not a standalone kitten executable. You must update all of kitty instead." thrown in kovidgoyal/kitty.

Source

Thrown at tools/cmd/update_self/main.go:37

var _ = fmt.Print

type Options struct {
	FetchVersion string
}

func update_self(version string) (err error) {
	exe := ""
	exe, err = os.Executable()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Failed to determine path to kitten: %w", err)
	}
	exe, err = filepath.EvalSymlinks(exe)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if kitty.IsStandaloneBuild == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("This is not a standalone kitten executable. You must update all of kitty instead.")
	}
	rv := "v" + version
	if version == "nightly" {
		rv = version
	}
	url_base := fmt.Sprintf("https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/download/%s", rv)
	if version == "latest" {
		url_base = "https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/latest/download"
	}
	url := fmt.Sprintf("%s/kitten-%s-%s", url_base, runtime.GOOS, runtime.GOARCH)
	dest, err := os.CreateTemp(filepath.Dir(exe), "kitten.")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer func() { os.Remove(dest.Name()) }()

	if !tty.IsTerminal(os.Stdout.Fd()) {
		fmt.Println("Downloading:", url)

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at tools/cmd/update_self/main.go:37 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/276df1c0f301bfd4. Report an issue: GitHub.