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Demo

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What it solves

Every package manager already has an "update everything" command. Running them one by one is tedious, and on a rolling release the fast path is also the risky one: a half-finished system upgrade is exactly how an Arch install breaks.

ArchBooster sits above all of them and adds the parts none of them have.

One list across every source. pacman, AUR and Flatpak updates on a single screen instead of three terminals — plus apt, dnf, Snap and Homebrew wherever they're installed.

One command that never touches the system layer. archbooster --update (or Enter in the TUI) updates your apps and the libraries they need, while the kernel, drivers, firmware and bootloader are always held back through pacman's own --ignore mechanism. Moving the system layer takes an explicit full upgrade, with a snapshot taken first.

A guardrail, not just a filter. ArchBooster knows the difference between an app (Firefox, a Flatpak, an AUR -bin package) and the system (kernel, mesa/nvidia drivers, glibc, systemd). System packages can never be cherry-picked — they only ever move together, via a full -Syu.

Context around the list. Packages are sorted into plain vocabulary — Apps, CLI and libraries, Drivers and firmware, Kernel, Core system, Fonts and themes — filterable by type and by package manager. Every run is logged, changelogs and PKGBUILD diffs are one keystroke away, and a systemd timer can check on a schedule and notify you without updating anything.

Unification plus the app/system guardrail is the combination no single command gives you.

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Features

Unified scanning

• One scan across pacman, AUR (yay/paru), Flatpak, apt, dnf, Snap and Homebrew, grouped by source
• Never a blank list — up-to-date packages are shown too, in the TUI and in --scan, so "no updates" reads as a healthy inventory rather than an empty screen
• Graceful degrade: a backend that isn't installed reports itself unavailable, so a Fedora box with only Flatpak gets a clean Flatpak-only list

Apps-first updating

• archbooster --update / Enter updates the app layer via -Syu --ignore=<system packages> — a coherent sync where libraries ride along, but kernel, drivers, firmware and bootloader are always held back
• Critical / Normal / Optional categorization with configurable overrides and distro-specific system-package lists for apt and dnf
• Select individual packages — never forced, system packages always held
• Live streaming output during the update (real pacman/yay/flatpak/apt/dnf output, not a spinner)

Filters and inspection

• Type filter (Tab) — Apps, CLI and libraries, Drivers and firmware, Kernel, Core system, Fonts and themes. User-facing apps are detected from their .desktop launchers; Flatpak and Snap count automatically
• Source filter (M) — narrow to a single package manager
• Changelog and PKGBUILD diff viewer (C) — see what actually changed in an AUR package or a Flatpak (OSTree commit log) before updating

Safety and automation

• Snapshot and rollback — a full system upgrade (F) takes a snapper or timeshift snapshot first when one is installed; roll back anytime from the Snapshots screen (B)
• Update profiles (P) — cycle named groups of packages from config (for example "browsers"), auto-selecting just that group; also drives opt-in scheduled auto-update of a chosen safe subset, system packages always excluded
• Update history log
• Background daemon via systemd timer, with a desktop notification when updates are found

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Requirements

• Python 3.11 or newer
• At least one supported backend:

Platform	Needs
Arch and Arch-based	pacman, plus yay or paru for AUR. Strongly recommended: pacman-contrib for checkupdates — sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib. Without it ArchBooster reads the local sync database instead, so the official-repo list can lag until the next sync; install.sh offers to install it and --scan says so if it's absent.
Debian and Ubuntu	apt (present by default)
Fedora and RHEL	dnf (present by default)
Any distro	flatpak with at least one remote (e.g. Flathub), snap (snapd), or brew (Homebrew/Linuxbrew)

Optional extras:

Optional	Gives you
notify-send (libnotify)	Desktop notifications from the background daemon — already present on most desktop distros
snapper or timeshift	Pre-upgrade snapshots and rollback
systemd user services	The scheduled background check

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Install

Method	Command	Best for
pipx (PyPI)	pipx install archbooster	Any distro with Python 3.11+
Static binary	Download archbooster-linux-x86_64 from Releases	Zero-Python install, quick try
AUR	yay -S archbooster (source) or archbooster-bin (prebuilt)	Arch and Arch-based — pending, see note below

# pipx (recommended)
pipx install archbooster

# from source, with the bundled installer (also sets up the systemd timer)
git clone https://github.com/ansu555/archbooster
cd archbooster
bash install.sh

# static binary
curl -LO https://github.com/ansu555/archbooster/releases/latest/download/archbooster-linux-x86_64
chmod +x archbooster-linux-x86_64
./archbooster-linux-x86_64

Need pipx first? sudo pacman -S python-pipx / sudo apt install pipx / sudo dnf install pipx.

AUR status. The PKGBUILDs are ready in packaging/aur/, but new-account registration on aur.archlinux.org is closed on Arch's side, so the packages aren't pushed yet. Use pipx or the static binary until that reopens.

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Usage

Command	Action
archbooster	Open the full TUI dashboard
archbooster --update	The one command — update the app layer now; system layer always held back
archbooster --update --scope apps	Same, but user-facing apps only (default scope is safe)
archbooster --scan	Print pending updates and an inventory summary (never blank)
archbooster --scan --all	Also list every up-to-date package
archbooster --daemon	Run one background check (used by systemd)

Keybindings

Key	Action
↑ ↓ or j k	Move between packages
Space	Toggle the highlighted package
A	Select all packages
N	Deselect all
I	Invert selection
U	Select user-facing apps only
Tab	Cycle type filter (Apps / CLI / Drivers / Kernel / System / Fonts)
M	Cycle source filter (pacman / AUR / Flatpak / …)
Enter	Update selected — app layer; system always held back
F	Full system upgrade (snapshot first, if enabled)
R	Re-scan for updates
C	Changelog / PKGBUILD diff for the highlighted row
P	Cycle update profiles (see [profiles] in config)
H	Open history
S	Open settings
B	Open snapshots — R to arm a rollback, Y to confirm
Q	Quit

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Configuration

Auto-created at ~/.config/archbooster/config.toml on first run:

[general]
aur_helper     = "yay"   # or "paru"
check_interval = 4       # hours between background daemon scans
confirm        = false   # false: run pacman/yay/flatpak non-interactively
                         #        (your selection in the TUI is the
                         #        confirmation)
                         # true:  also show the package manager's own prompts
                         #        (best from a plain terminal)
notify         = true    # desktop notification (notify-send) when the
                         # background daemon finds updates; no-ops quietly if
                         # notify-send isn't installed

[categories]
extra_critical = []      # extra package name prefixes to force "critical"
extra_optional = []      # extra package name prefixes to force "optional"

[ignore]
packages = []            # packages to hide from the update list entirely

[update]
default_scope = "safe"   # scope of `archbooster --update` / [Enter]:
                         # "safe" = everything except the system layer
                         #          (libraries ride along — recommended)
                         # "apps" = user-facing apps only

[snapshot]
enabled = true           # snapshot (snapper/timeshift) before a full upgrade
backend = "auto"         # "auto" | "snapper" | "timeshift" | "none"

[profiles]
# named package-name pattern groups for the [P] filter, e.g.:
# browsers = ["firefox", "chromium", "*chrome*"]

[automation]
auto_update         = false  # opt-in: daemon auto-updates auto_update_profile
auto_update_profile = ""     # name of a [profiles] entry

See docs/config.md for a field-by-field reference.

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Project structure

archbooster/
├── main.py                     # Entry point + CLI flags
├── app.py                      # Textual app root + screen router
├── daemon.py                   # Background check loop (systemd) + notify
├── core/
│   ├── scanner.py              # Package dataclass + line parsing
│   ├── categorizer.py          # critical / normal / optional + guardrail
│   │                           #   (per-distro pattern lists: Arch/apt/dnf)
│   ├── updater.py              # runs yay/pacman, streams output
│   ├── procutil.py             # shared subprocess-streaming helper
│   ├── notify.py               # notify-send wrapper
│   ├── history.py              # read/write history.json
│   ├── config.py               # load/write config.toml
│   ├── snapshot.py             # snapper/timeshift snapshot + rollback
│   ├── profiles.py             # [profiles] pattern matching
│   └── backends/
│       ├── base.py             # Backend interface
│       ├── pacman.py           # official repos + AUR (+ PKGBUILD diff)
│       ├── flatpak.py          # Flatpak — the cross-distro path
│       ├── apt.py              # Debian/Ubuntu
│       ├── dnf.py              # Fedora/RHEL
│       ├── snap.py             # snapd
│       ├── brew.py             # Homebrew/Linuxbrew
│       └── registry.py         # auto-detects installed backends
├── screens/
│   ├── dashboard.py            # Main checklist UI, grouped by source
│   ├── progress.py             # Live update output (+ pre-upgrade snapshot)
│   ├── changelog.py            # Changelog / PKGBUILD diff viewer
│   ├── snapshots.py            # Snapshot list + rollback
│   ├── history.py              # Past updates log
│   └── settings.py             # Settings editor
├── systemd/
│   ├── archbooster.service     # Systemd user service
│   └── archbooster.timer       # Systemd timer (every N hours)
├── packaging/                  # PyInstaller binary + AUR PKGBUILDs
└── install.sh                  # One-shot pipx-based installer

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Contributing

Every phase on the original roadmap has shipped, so there's no active feature backlog. What is genuinely useful: new backend ports, real-world testing on distros the maintainer can't run locally, and AUR publishing once registration reopens. See CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a PR.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.