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:
| Format | Who serves it |
|---|
.deb (Debian/Ubuntu, amd64 + arm64) | Anthropic's official APT repo. Ours mirrors it as claude-desktop-unofficial (launcher + doctor added), so it can sit beside the official package. |
.rpm (Fedora/RHEL) | This project. |
| AppImage (any distro) | This project. |
| AUR (Arch) | Not this project. See Arch Linux. |
| Nix flake (NixOS) | This project. |
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:
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
