Flatpak Applications

Shelly natively integrates Flatpak application management alongside official ALPM repositories and the Arch User Repository (AUR). With Shelly, you can discover applications across configured remotes, inspect sandbox permissions and download sizes, manage system- and user-level installations, and control running application processes:

shelly search flatpak - Query cached AppStream metadata with permissions, download sizes, and remote sources.
shelly install flatpak - Install applications from remotes, local .flatpakref files, or standalone .flatpak bundles.
shelly run flatpak - Launch applications, inspect running Flatpak instances, or terminate processes with --kill.
shelly purify flatpak - Prune unreferenced runtimes and extension dependencies to reclaim storage space.

Searching for Flatpaks (`shelly search flatpak`)

Shelly searches cached local AppStream catalogs across all configured system and user Flatpak remotes (such as Flathub):

shelly search flatpak spotify

You can paginate large result sets using --page and --limit:

shelly search flatpak editor --limit 5 --page 1

Installing Flatpaks (`shelly install flatpak`)

Shelly supports installing applications by Application ID (e.g. com.spotify.Client) or friendly AppStream name:

# Install system-wide (default)
shelly install flatpak com.spotify.Client

# Or install for the current user only
shelly install flatpak com.spotify.Client --user

Installation Sources & Modifiers

If multiple remotes provide the same application (e.g. flathub vs flathub-beta), specify the remote explicitly:

shelly install flatpak org.blender.Blender --remote flathub-beta

Install directly from a downloaded .flatpakref file:

shelly install flatpak ~/Downloads/app.flatpakref --ref-file

Install an offline .flatpak single-file bundle:

shelly install flatpak ~/Downloads/application.flatpak --bundle

Reinstall a corrupted Flatpak application and its runtime dependencies while preserving all user configuration and application data:

shelly install flatpak com.spotify.Client --repair

Running & Managing Processes (`shelly run flatpak`)

Shelly provides process management and inspection for installed Flatpaks.

Launching an Application

Launch any installed Flatpak application by its ID or friendly name:

shelly run flatpak com.spotify.Client
# Or with shortcode:
shelly -Xf com.spotify.Client

Tracking Running Instances

To view active Flatpak processes and their process identifiers (PIDs):

shelly run flatpak --list

┌───────────────────────┬───────────┬────────┬───────────┬────────┬────────┐
│ Application           │ Instance  │ PID    │ Child PID │ Arch   │ Branch │
├───────────────────────┼───────────┼────────┼───────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ org.gnome.font-viewer │ 654442786 │ 153522 │ 153535    │ x86_64 │ stable │
└───────────────────────┴───────────┴────────┴───────────┴────────┴────────┘
Total: 1 running Flatpak

Terminating Applications (`--kill`)

To safely stop a running Flatpak instance or terminate a hung process:

shelly run flatpak com.spotify.Client --kill
# Or with shortcode:
shelly -Xf com.spotify.Client -k

Upgrades & Maintenance

Update every installed Flatpak application and runtime across user and system scopes:

shelly upgrade flatpak
# Or with shortcode:
shelly -Uf

Update only a specific Flatpak without touching other applications:

shelly update flatpak com.spotify.Client

Cleaning Unused Runtimes (`shelly purify flatpak`)

When Flatpak applications are uninstalled, their shared base runtimes (e.g. GNOME or KDE Platform runtimes) may remain on disk.

Reclaim disk space by pruning unreferenced runtimes across both system and user installations:

shelly purify flatpak
# Or with shortcode:
shelly -Zf

Command Reference & Shortcodes

Action	Shortcode	Full Command Equivalent
Run Flatpak	`shelly -Xf <app>`	`shelly run flatpak <app>`
Stop Flatpak	`shelly -Xf <app> -k`	`shelly run flatpak <app> --kill`
List Running	`shelly -Xf -l`	`shelly run flatpak --list`
Upgrade Flatpaks	`shelly -Uf`	`shelly upgrade flatpak`
Purge Unused Runtimes	`shelly -Zf`	`shelly purify flatpak`

Flatpak Applications

Searching for Flatpaks (shelly search flatpak)

Installing Flatpaks (shelly install flatpak)