embabel release [<release>] [--allow-downgrade] [--json]

Bare, which release this appliance follows and what is actually running: the release and the tag it resolves to, then the running container’s image — its version, revision and build time from the image’s own labels, and its digest. Read by the container’s image id, not its tag, so it is the build that is serving rather than wherever the tag has moved since.

Given a release, it follows that one from now on and upgrades onto it — the same move as embabel upgrade --release, with the same refusal to step back.

Release
stable	the release most people should run (the image tag latest)
beta	release candidates — try what is coming next
nightly	yesterday’s main, built once it passed CI
canary	every merge to main as it lands; it may break (edge is its old name)
X.Y.Z, X.Y.Z-rc.N, sha-xxxxxxx	one exact build, kept until you choose another

The choice is EMBABEL_RELEASE in .env, written at install (--release, or EMBABEL_RELEASE in the installer’s environment; stable when neither says) and by this verb — never by a later install or up, which say how to change it rather than changing it. Compose gets the tag through the environment the CLI runs it with, and the server is told the release it follows. A legacy EMBABEL_VERSION pin still outranks it; choosing a release here comments that line out.