diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 0fe24ae..0de7f5d 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/charmbracelet/lipgloss v1.1.0
 	github.com/creack/pty v1.1.24
 	github.com/spf13/cobra v1.10.2
+	github.com/versenilvis/fuzzy v0.1.0-rc
 	golang.org/x/sys v0.42.0
 	golang.org/x/term v0.41.0
 )
@@ -26,7 +27,6 @@ require (
 	github.com/muesli/termenv v0.16.0 // indirect
 	github.com/rivo/uniseg v0.4.7 // indirect
 	github.com/spf13/pflag v1.0.10 // indirect
-	github.com/versenilvis/fuzzy v0.1.0-rc // indirect
 	github.com/xo/terminfo v0.0.0-20220910002029-abceb7e1c41e // indirect
 )
 
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index dec4950..2330e0e 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -47,4 +47,31 @@ analyze:
 # run linter 
 [group('dev')]
 lint:
-    @golangci-lint run ./...
\ No newline at end of file
+    @golangci-lint run ./...
+
+# test the update command (version check + comparison), no full iris session needed
+# usage: just debug-update v1.99.0
+[group('debug')]
+debug-update version="v1.99.0":
+    #!/bin/sh
+    tmp=$(mktemp -d)
+    printf '{"tag_name":"%s"}' "{{version}}" > "$tmp/response.json"
+    python3 -m http.server 19999 --directory "$tmp" 2>/dev/null &
+    SERVER_PID=$!
+    sleep 0.3
+    echo "--- testing iris update command ---"
+    IRIS_UPDATE_URL="http://localhost:19999/response.json" ./iris update
+    kill $SERVER_PID 2>/dev/null
+    rm -rf "$tmp"
+
+# test the in-session update notification banner (requires iris.zsh hook to be active)
+# usage: just debug-notify v1.99.0
+[group('debug')]
+debug-notify version="v1.99.0":
+    IRIS_PID="" IRIS_MOCK_LATEST_VERSION="{{version}}" ./iris
+
+# build a versioned release binary
+# usage: just build-release v1.2.0
+[group('debug')]
+build-release version:
+    @GOAMD64=v3 go build -pgo=auto -ldflags="-s -w -X github.com/versenilvis/iris/root.Version={{version}}" -trimpath -o iris main.go