Fetch current service worker version/hash

Which @angular/* package(s) are relevant/related to the feature request?

service-worker

Description

As you know debugging service worker in production can be a pain. Something that has made it easier for me is to display the hash version in the settings menu of my applications, it provides a way to view "version numbers" of deployed service workers and then I can prepare a safety-worker.js for the correct version.

So when I get a user who reports to me they are having issues, I ask them to go to settings and send me the version number there. Before I started using this method it was a pain to explain to users that they must clear cache or unregister.

Last I checked, the hash is only really emitted when update events are fired (and it is not type safe).

I would like an easier/official way of accessing the service workers hash/version to make it easier to debug and identify what version of deployed service worker is giving issues in deployed apps.

Proposed solution

A new method to get/expose the hash/version

e.g. this.swUpdate.getHash() or this.swUpdate.getCurrentVersion();

it would also be nice to perhaps have this.swUpdate.getPreviousHash();

Alternatives considered

Continue using a workaround for this value, perhaps add workaround to documentation.

Here is code I have written

 availableUpdate$: Observable<void> = this.swUpdate.available.pipe(
    map((event: UpdateAvailableEvent) => {
      const updateInfo = {
        current_version: event.current.hash,
        update_version: event.available.hash,
      };

     //  this.storage.set('pwaVersion', updateInfo.current_version).subscribe();

      this.swUpdate.activateUpdate();
    })
  );

  activatedUpdate$: Observable<void> = this.swUpdate.activated.pipe(
    map((event: UpdateActivatedEvent) => {
      const previousUpdate =
        event.previous?.hash !== undefined ? event.previous.hash : 'none';

      const successfulUpdateInfo = {
        previous_version: previousUpdate,
        current_version: event.current.hash,
      };

      // this.storage.set('pwaVersion', successfulUpdateInfo.current_version).subscribe();
    })
  );

Adding a method to get the current (and/or latest) version sounds reasonable to me.

BTW, a better work-around imo would be to fetch ngsw/state and parse it:

const debugInfo = await fetch('ngsw/state').then(res => res.text());
const swVersion = /Driver version: (.+)/.exec(debugInfo)[1];
const latestAppVersionHash = /Latest manifest hash: (.+)/.exec(debugInfo)[1];

@gkalpak

@gkalpak thanks that would be much appreciated and thanks for the tip as well, I'll give it a shot.

This is so weird - I came to the issues page to ask literally exactly this question and it was the top one here. How bizarre 😂.
(I'd already previously asked this on StackOverflow too).

I did a little bit of research into how the ngsw/state file is generated and it appears that the version is taken from the Service Worker Debugger object:

import {Debuggable, DebugLogger} from './api';
...

export class DebugHandler implements DebugLogger {
  ...
  constructor(readonly driver: Debuggable, readonly adapter: Adapter) {}

  async handleFetch(req: Request): Promise<Response> {
    const [state, versions, idle] = await Promise.all([
      this.driver.debugState(),
      this.driver.debugVersions(),
      this.driver.debugIdleState(),
    ]);

Driver version: ${SW_VERSION}
Driver state: ${state.state} (${state.why})
Latest manifest hash: ${state.latestHash || 'none'}
Last update check: ${this.since(state.lastUpdateCheck)}`;
...

As far as I can tell though this object isn't exported generally into Angular. Perhaps if it were then we could access that directly rather than having to parse the page it produces?

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@tayambamwanza

As far as I can tell though this object isn't exported generally into Angular. Perhaps if it were then we could access that directly rather than having to parse the page it produces?

You are right that's it's the DebugHandler that generates the ngsw/state, but it retrieves the info we are talking about from the main SW class (Driver). So, it is not possible to expose the instance directly to the page.

It is possible, though, to expose a way to retrieve this info from the SW (and hide it behind an SwUpdate method for consuming from the app. (This is what we were discussing with @tayambamwanza above 😉)

This is not something that is likely to be prioritized any time soon (if ever), but if anyone wants to work on a PR I would be happy to help/review.

@gkalpak

@gkalpak I don't mind taking it on but maybe since @peternixey has been looking into this for a while maybe he's better equipped to take it on. @peternixey let me know if you want to take it on otherwise I will put something together.

@tayambamwanza

@tayambamwanza I'd be delighted if you wanted to take it. I'm not yet familar with the comms structure of how the service worker communicates with the app so only on top of it to the extent of knowing what the problem is :)

BTW if you did get to tackle this it would be super to be able to surface the service woker AppData JSON to the app too. I'm writing that using the CI process but again there's no clear way to bubble it up into the app unless the version changes.

@peternixey

@peternixey @gkalpak Ok I'll take on this as a side project, I've never done a pull request to Angular repo so forgive me if I don't get it right first time round.

If there are no unforeseen complications, we'd likely accept a PR for this.

@gkalpak

hi @gkalpak , do you think adding an additional url like 'ngsw/state/latest-hash' that acts just like 'ngsw/state' but only returns the hash is acceptable? Or we rather better off adding a new method to SwUpdate that utilizes CacheDatabase?

I've opened #49474, let me know what you think !

@JeanMeche

@JeanMeche thank you, haven't had time to get around to this, is it in observable because you are waiting for the value to be retrieved or for some other reason? I thought the hash only changed whenever app is built so thought it would basically be instantly available.

The hash is generated by the service-worker (it's a sha1 of the manifest).

Since the value can be updated (when a new version is available), I made it an observable.

Is there any update on this? I saw the PR but it didn't get merged?

With #63364 we've announced that the service-worker package in now in maintenance mode and will not receive feature PRs and feature requests.

The message is also visible here: https://angular.dev/ecosystem/service-workers

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Fetch current service worker version/hash #45414

Which @angular/* package(s) are relevant/related to the feature request?

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Fetch current service worker version/hash #45414

Description

Which @angular/* package(s) are relevant/related to the feature request?

Description

Proposed solution

Alternatives considered

Activity

gkalpak commented on Mar 23, 2022

tayambamwanza commented on Mar 23, 2022

peternixey commented on Mar 23, 2022

angular-robot commented on Mar 23, 2022

gkalpak commented on Mar 23, 2022

tayambamwanza commented on Mar 24, 2022

peternixey commented on Mar 24, 2022

tayambamwanza commented on Mar 25, 2022

13 remaining items

dylhunn commented on Sep 29, 2022

artemv01 commented on Oct 23, 2022

JeanMeche commented on Mar 18, 2023

tayambamwanza commented on Mar 20, 2023

JeanMeche commented on Mar 20, 2023

SkyZeroZx commented on Aug 2, 2025

JeanMeche commented on Aug 29, 2025

angular-automatic-lock-bot commented on Sep 29, 2025

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