Applying Upstream Updates

After running composer create-project, your application is an independent Git repository with no connection to the starter. When the starter ships fixes or new features, you can optionally cherry-pick those commits into your project.

Knowing When Updates Are Available

Watch the starter’s repository on GitHub for releases (Watch → Custom → Releases) and GitHub notifies you of each one. Every release links to its section of the changelog.

The version your project started from is the newest one in the CHANGELOG.md that composer create-project gave you; note it before you replace that file with your own. To see everything the starter has changed since then, compare it with main, putting your version in place of v3.0.0:

https://github.com/NIT-Administrative-Systems/northwestern-laravel-starter/compare/v3.0.0...main

Setup

Add the starter as a Git remote (one-time):

git remote add starter https://github.com/NIT-Administrative-Systems/northwestern-laravel-starter.git
git fetch starter

Cherry-Picking Commits

Fetch the latest starter commits
Terminal window
```
git fetch starter
```
Review what’s changed

Browse the starter’s commit log to find the commits you want:
Terminal window
```
git log starter/main --oneline
```
Cherry-pick specific commits

Apply individual commits to your current branch:
Terminal window
```
git cherry-pick <commit-hash>
```
Or apply a range of commits:
Terminal window
```
git cherry-pick <oldest-hash>^..<newest-hash>
```
Resolve any conflicts

If the cherry-pick encounters conflicts (because your project has diverged), Git will pause and let you resolve them:
Terminal window
```
# Review conflicts
git status

# Fix conflicting files, then continue
git add .
git cherry-pick --continue
```
If a commit doesn’t apply cleanly and isn’t worth the effort, you can skip it and move on to the next one in the range:
Terminal window
```
git cherry-pick --skip
```
To give up on the whole cherry-pick instead, run git cherry-pick --abort. It returns the branch to where it was before you started, dropping any commits from the range that were already applied.

Tips

Review the release notes first. The comparison between your version and the latest release shows exactly what changed. Some commits may depend on others or require configuration changes.
Cherry-pick in order when applying multiple related commits. Applying them out of sequence increases the likelihood of conflicts.

Alternative: Patch Files

If you prefer not to add the starter as a remote, you can apply changes from patch files:

# In a clone of the starter repo, generate patches
git format-patch <from>..<to> --stdout > upstream-fix.patch

# In your project repo, apply the patch
git am upstream-fix.patch