Update the mihomo core without changing clients — Clash guide

Find out which version is actually running

Most clients show the core version somewhere in settings, and the first lines of the log carry a startup banner. Compare that number against the latest tag on the mihomo releases page. A large gap is your answer.

Keep "client version" and "core version" apart. Running Clash Verge Rev 2.x on a core built six months ago is entirely possible — the version in the title bar tells you nothing about the engine.

Using the built-in updater

Clash Verge Rev lists the current core under Settings, Clash Core, with an update button that fetches the latest build for your platform and restarts the engine. Mihomo Party and FlClash have equivalents in different places; look for the entry labelled Core.

Export your profile or note your edits first. Occasionally a newer core is stricter about a field an older one tolerated, and the profile fails to load.
After updating, restart the core (not the computer) and read the first screen of the log again, watching for warning-level field notices.
Some clients offer an Alpha core channel. Unless you are chasing a fix that landed last week, stay on stable.

Replacing the binary by hand

If there is no update button, or the download keeps failing — common when the core download goes out directly instead of through the proxy — do it manually:

Download the archive for your OS and architecture from the mihomo releases page. Watch the suffixes: windows-amd64, darwin-arm64, linux-amd64 are not interchangeable.
Quit the client completely from the tray icon, not by closing the window, and confirm the process is gone.
Locate the directory where the client keeps its core, and drop the extracted executable in. The filename must match the old one exactly or the client will not find it.
Start the client, check that the reported core version changed, and run a connection test.

On macOS and Linux you may need to restore the executable bit with chmod +x. On macOS the replacement can also be blocked by the quarantine attribute — the same fix as any downloaded binary applies.

Nothing changed after the upgrade

If the protocol still fails, first make sure the client actually restarted the engine rather than reusing the old process. Search Task Manager for mihomo or clash and check whether two processes are running at once. Then confirm the nodes in your subscription really use the new protocol: some providers keep their Clash subscription on older protocols for compatibility, in which case no core update will help and you need a different subscription format.

Take the core only from the mihomo project’s official release channel. The core is the program that actually handles all of your traffic, so its provenance matters even more than the interface around it.