A cross-distro GUI package manager built with Qt6.
Manage your system's native packages (DNF, APT, or Pacman), plus Flatpak and Snap apps, all from one window.
- 🖥️ One app, every major distro — automatically detects and drives DNF (Fedora/RHEL), APT (Debian/Ubuntu), or Pacman (Arch), plus Flatpak and Snap, side by side in the same window.
- ☑️ Checkbox multi-select, Synaptic-style — tick packages across a filtered list and install, reinstall, or uninstall them in a single batch.
- 🔍 See what a change actually does before it happens — install/uninstall confirmations show the real, dependency-resolved plan (what gets pulled in, what becomes unused and gets cleaned up), not just a name you already know.
- 📟 Live terminal output — every install, uninstall, and reinstall runs in a small terminal window showing the exact command and its output as it streams, so failures are never a mystery.
- 🧹 Uninstall really cleans up — removing a package also removes the dependencies it pulled in that nothing else needs, and a dedicated "Clean Left Behind Dependencies" button sweeps up anything left over from the past.
- 📂 Category browser — browse packages by group/meta-group (comps groups on Fedora, tasksel tasks on Debian, pacman groups on Arch) instead of only searching by name.
- 🌐 Repository management — enable/disable repos, add new ones, and refresh package metadata, for your native package manager and Flatpak remotes alike.
- ⬆️ Update checking — a dedicated Updates tab per backend, with one-click "Select All" to batch-upgrade everything at once.
- 🕘 History — see recent install/remove/update activity for each backend.
- 👋 First-run onboarding — detects your distro and offers to install Flatpak/Snap support on the spot if it's missing.
- ⚙️ Customizable — theme (light/dark/system), startup tab, compact list rows, and a full Preferences dialog organized into General, System, Layout, and Logging Options tabs.
- 🔔 Notifies you about new Athena releases — checks GitHub on startup (optional) and shows a dismissible banner when a newer version is out.
- 🖲️ System tray integration — a tray icon appears when updates are available, with a right-click menu for Settings, Update (installs everything pending in one go), and Quit. Polls on a configurable interval.
- 🔍 Advanced search — beyond a plain keyword search: a Dependency Query mode finds packages that provide or require a given capability (e.g. a library soname), plus Repository and Architecture filters to narrow results.
- ⬇️ Download without installing — grab a copy of a package (optionally plus its not-yet-installed dependencies) to a folder of your choice, instead of installing it.
- 📏 Architecture and size columns — optional columns in every package list (toggle from the table header), and a package's homepage link — when the backend reports one — shown right in its details panel.
- 📝 Optional file logging — enable logging to a folder of your choice with a configurable verbosity level, for troubleshooting.
| Distro family | Package manager | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Fedora / RHEL | dnf5 |
Fully tested |
| Debian / Ubuntu | apt |
Implemented, not yet field-tested |
| Arch Linux | pacman |
Implemented, not yet field-tested |
| Any of the above | flatpak |
Fully tested |
| Any of the above | snap |
Implemented, not yet field-tested |
Prebuilt packages are published on the GitHub Releases page for every tagged version:
| Distro | Format |
|---|---|
| Fedora / RHEL | .rpm |
| Debian / Ubuntu | .deb |
| Arch Linux | PKGBUILD |
| Any distro (portable) | .AppImage — no install needed, just run it |
Athena will also let you know inside the app when a new version is available — see Preferences → Check for Athena updates on startup.
Requirements
- CMake 3.16+
- A C++17 compiler (GCC or Clang)
- Qt6 development packages: Widgets, Concurrent, and Network
On Fedora:
sudo dnf install cmake gcc-c++ qt6-qtbase-develOn Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install cmake g++ qt6-base-devOn Arch:
sudo pacman -S cmake gcc qt6-basegit clone https://github.com/niruxx/Athena.git
cd Athena
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)The resulting binary is at build/athena:
./build/athenaPackaging (.rpm/.deb via CPack, .AppImage via linuxdeploy, Arch via packaging/arch/PKGBUILD) is what the CI workflow runs on every push — check there for the exact commands if you want to build a package yourself.
Installing, removing, and reinstalling packages is done through pkexec (Polkit), which prompts you for your password through your desktop's native authentication dialog — Athena never asks for or stores a password itself. Flatpak operations use Flatpak's own built-in Polkit integration the same way; Snap has no such integration of its own, so its operations go through pkexec too. Downloading packages (without installing them) is unprivileged on DNF, APT, and Snap; Pacman and Flatpak downloads still go through the same privilege model as a normal install.
See CHANGELOG.md for a version-by-version history of what's changed.
Athena is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.