diff --git a/scripts/pre_update.sh b/scripts/pre_update.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..96e0554
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/pre_update.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# place holder stub until we figure out how to do releases
+# this could 'git reset' to a safe commit where the updater is smart enough to do the right thing
diff --git a/scripts/update_birdnet.sh b/scripts/update_birdnet.sh
index 6795df3..340ecac 100755
--- a/scripts/update_birdnet.sh
+++ b/scripts/update_birdnet.sh
@@ -56,6 +56,8 @@ sudo_with_user git -C $HOME/BirdNET-Pi switch -C $branch --track $remote/$branch
 # Prints out changes
 sudo_with_user git -C $HOME/BirdNET-Pi diff --stat $commit_hash HEAD
 
+$my_dir/pre_update.sh
+
 sudo systemctl daemon-reload
 sudo ln -sf $my_dir/* /usr/local/bin/