$PI Pi Node Protocol Upgrade Guide

All Mainnet Nodes🚨
Node operators, please note: The official roadmap for protocol v23 has been released.
This applies to every mainnet node.
No exceptions. 💻
Overview:
Pi will sequentially upgrade its protocol from v19 to v23.
All nodes must perform each upgrade step in order and wait for the entire network to complete the upgrade before proceeding to the next version.
Upgrade path (mandatory, step-by-step):
19.1 → 19.6 → 19.9 → 20.2 → 21.1 → 22.1 → 23.0
Currently, all nodes need to upgrade to version 19.6.
Key Dates:
February 12, 2026: Complete upgrade to v19.6 (upgrade in progress)
February 27, 2026: Fully upgraded to v19.9 (not started yet)
March 12, 2026: Complete upgrade to v20.2 (not started yet)
⚠️ Do not begin any upgrades before the official announcement that the upgrade is effective.
Upgrade Instructions (by node type):
Please follow the instructions below based on your installation type.
1. Pi Desktop (Windows or macOS)
No action required. When you start your Pi node with Pi Desktop, the protocol upgrade will be triggered automatically.
2. Pi Linux Node CLI (Linux - newly released in 2026)
This is the new way to run Pi nodes on Linux. It will automatically manage Docker containers.
If auto-update is enabled:
No action needed.
If auto-update is not enabled: