Claude Desktop for Linux

This project repackages Claude Desktop for Linux formats Anthropic doesn't ship themselves: .rpm (Fedora/RHEL), distribution-agnostic AppImages, and a Nix flake for NixOS.

On 2026-06-30 Anthropic shipped a first-party Claude Desktop for Linux beta, distributed as a .deb (amd64 and arm64) from their own APT repository. Since v3.0.0, this project repackages that official Linux .deb. It no longer repackages the Windows installer.

The official .deb covers one packaging target. What it leaves out is a long tail of distros, desktops, and session types — catalogued from this project's own issue history in the reported-environments survey. That long tail is what this project serves, plus a launcher and a --doctor for the Linux environment quirks. The Installation section lays out what's ours and what's upstream.

Note: This is an unofficial repackaging project. For official support, visit Anthropic's website. For issues with the packaging or the Linux launcher, please open an issue here.

Documentation: Full docs at docs/index.md. Release history in CHANGELOG.md. Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md. Security reports: SECURITY.md.

Maintainership

As of September 2026, @sabiut leads this project. I (@aaddrick) am stepping back to focus on other things. @sabiut has been the most consistent contributor here and has final say on direction, releases, and what lands.

The repo stays where it is — aaddrick/claude-desktop-debian, at @sabiut's request. No transfer, no new URLs: existing APT/DNF sources, issue links, and clone remotes all keep working. I still hold the signing keys and the Cloudflare Worker credentials, so publishing surfaces list both of us in CODEOWNERS.

A repository owned by a personal account has only two access levels — owner and collaborator — so a few things can't be handed over without moving the repo: settings, branch protection, Actions secrets, and security advisories. Those still land on me. Ping me and I'll press the button. Releases themselves are automatic, and the version variables are settable by any collaborator through gh variable set, so day-to-day work doesn't route through me.

I'll still be around for questions and the occasional PR — reachable on GitHub or LinkedIn.

Features

• Official app, extra formats: repackages Anthropic's official Linux .deb into .rpm and AppImage builds, plus a Nix flake.
• MCP support: full Model Context Protocol integration. Config lives at ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (see Configuration).
• Launcher for Linux quirks: opt-in native Wayland (CLAUDE_USE_WAYLAND=1), GPU-crash auto-recovery, XRDP detection, IM-module override, and autostart-entry healing.
• --doctor diagnostics: checks the display server, sandbox permissions, MCP config, stale locks, the KVM/Cowork stack, and official-version drift.
• Cowork on Linux: runs when KVM (hardware virtualization) is available. The doctor reports readiness.
• System integration: global hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Space) on X11 and Wayland, system tray, and desktop-environment integration.

Screenshots

Installation

Anthropic serves the .deb. We serve everything else. Since v3.0.0 our packages are named claude-desktop-unofficial, so they install side-by-side with Anthropic's official claude-desktop — but both share ~/.config/Claude, so only one can run at a time. Here's the split:

On top of packaging, every format we build carries:

• Our launcher. Opt-in native Wayland via CLAUDE_USE_WAYLAND=1, GPU-crash auto-recovery, XRDP detection, IM-module override, and autostart-entry healing.
• claude-desktop-unofficial --doctor. Diagnostics for the KVM/Cowork stack, official-version drift, name collisions, and config problems.
• Packaging fixes. The RPM firmware compat symlink Cowork needs, and the Ubuntu 24.04+ AppArmor profile.

The app itself is the official app.asar. A patch has to justify itself against the official bytes or get deleted — most of the pre-v3.0.0 suite was deleted when Anthropic shipped official Linux builds. Five Linux-gap patches survive:

• virtiofsd resolution. Upstream probes only /usr/libexec/virtiofsd and /usr/bin/virtiofsd, falling back to its bundled copy only when /etc/os-release reports Ubuntu 22.x. Arch installs virtiofsd at /usr/lib/virtiofsd and Debian at /usr/lib/qemu/virtiofsd, so Cowork reports "requires QEMU" on a complete KVM stack. Dropping the os-release gate fixes it; system paths stay preferred. Filed upstream.
• org-plugins path. Upstream's platform switch has cases for darwin and win32 only, and the default returns null, so the org-plugins feature is silently dead on Linux. Adds a linux case resolving /etc/claude/org-plugins. Filed upstream.
• Tray icon selection. Upstream's desktop-environment detector returns kde, gnome, or other, so Cinnamon — which can pair a dark panel with a light GTK colour scheme — gets the wrong glyph. Threads the launcher's CLAUDE_TRAY_USE_DARK_ICON into upstream's own selector without replacing its icons. Filed upstream.
• Quick Entry focus. Adds blur() before hide() on the pop-up window so the main window reappears after submit, working around an Electron focus bug on KDE.
• Cowork bubblewrap backend. Opt-in via COWORK_VM_BACKEND=bwrap for hosts without KVM/vhost-vsock. Every branch is gated on the flag, so an unflagged launch runs upstream's path unchanged.

Using APT Repository (Debian/Ubuntu - Recommended)

Add the repository for automatic updates via apt:

# Add the GPG key
curl -fsSL https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/claude-desktop-unofficial.gpg

# Add the repository
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/claude-desktop-unofficial.gpg arch=amd64,arm64] https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/claude-desktop-unofficial.list

# Update and install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install claude-desktop-unofficial

Future updates will be installed automatically with your regular system updates (sudo apt upgrade).

Using DNF Repository (Fedora/RHEL - Recommended)

Add the repository for automatic updates via dnf:

# Add the repository
sudo curl -fsSL https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev/rpm/claude-desktop-unofficial.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/claude-desktop-unofficial.repo

# Install
sudo dnf install claude-desktop-unofficial

Future updates will be installed automatically with your regular system updates (sudo dnf upgrade).

Arch Linux

This project no longer publishes to the AUR. Our claude-desktop-appimage package was deleted on 2026-08-01 under deletion request PRQ#85209 as a duplicate of aur/claude-desktop (#817). On Arch, pick one:

• aur/claude-desktop, a community package of Anthropic's official .deb. It is not maintained by this project and does not carry our launcher or --doctor.
• Our AppImage, which carries the launcher and --doctor.

If you still have claude-desktop-appimage installed, it no longer receives updates. Remove it with sudo pacman -R claude-desktop-appimage.

Using Nix Flake (NixOS)

Install directly from the flake:

# Basic install
nix profile install github:aaddrick/claude-desktop-debian

# With MCP server support (FHS environment)
nix profile install github:aaddrick/claude-desktop-debian#claude-desktop-fhs

Or add to your NixOS configuration:

# flake.nix
{
  inputs.claude-desktop.url = "github:aaddrick/claude-desktop-debian";

  outputs = { nixpkgs, claude-desktop, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        ({ pkgs, ... }: {
          nixpkgs.overlays = [ claude-desktop.overlays.default ];
          environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.claude-desktop ];
        })
      ];
    };
  };
}

Using Pre-built Releases

Download the latest .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage from the Releases page.

Building from Source

See docs/building.md for detailed build instructions.

Configuration

Model Context Protocol settings are stored in:

~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Quit Claude Desktop before you hand-edit this file, then reopen it. The app rewrites its own config while running, so edits you make with the app open get overwritten the next time it writes. Quit first, edit, then relaunch. Servers loaded at startup survive restarts fine — this only bites manual edits made against a running app.

For additional configuration options including environment variables and Wayland support, see docs/configuration.md.

Troubleshooting

Run claude-desktop-unofficial --doctor for built-in diagnostics. It checks the usual suspects: display server, sandbox permissions, MCP config, stale locks, and more. It also reports Cowork readiness. Cowork on Linux runs on a KVM-backed VM, so the doctor reports which of its dependencies (KVM, QEMU, OVMF firmware, vhost-vsock, virtiofsd) are installed or missing.

For additional troubleshooting, uninstallation instructions, and log locations, see docs/troubleshooting.md.

Acknowledgments

This project was inspired by k3d3's claude-desktop-linux-flake and their Reddit post about running Claude Desktop natively on Linux.

Special thanks to:

• k3d3
  • Original NixOS implementation
  • Native bindings insights
• emsi
  • Title bar fix
  • Alternative implementation approach
• leobuskin for the Playwright-based URL resolution approach

The full contributor credits list — everyone whose PR, fix, or analysis shaped this project, in chronological order — lives in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md.

Sponsorship

If this project is useful to you, consider sponsoring on GitHub.

License

The build scripts in this repository are dual-licensed under:

• MIT License (see LICENSE-MIT)
• Apache License 2.0 (see LICENSE-APACHE)

The Claude Desktop application itself is subject to Anthropic's Consumer Terms.

Privacy

This repository uses an automated triage bot that sends issue contents to Anthropic's API for classification and investigation when you file a bug report or feature request. The bot reads the issue body, title, and any referenced related issues; it does not follow URLs, execute code blocks, or read content outside the triggering issue.

Do not include credentials, tokens, personal data, or anything you wouldn't put on a public issue tracker. If you post sensitive content and then edit it out, the bot's original read is preserved as a run artifact for audit — GitHub's UI hides the edit, but the bot's view of what you wrote is recoverable by maintainers.

Full design and data inventory: docs/issue-triage/README.md.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! By submitting a contribution, you agree to license it under the same dual-license terms as this project.