FossFetch

A launcher-style package search for Omarchy that hunts on three package ecosystems at once — Arch repos, Flathub and the AUR — and installs results with a quick arm-and-confirm, straight from your top bar.

Search anything FOSS: type a package name, or browse by what it does ("video editing", "browser", "chat"). Every result card shows real, live-scraped metadata: version, repository, architecture, license, homepage and last-updated date — with install buttons for each package source.

FossFetch — Browse open-source packages · Pacman + AUR + Flathub

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Features

Search three ecosystems in one panel

Three tabs, each backed by a live search (no stale curated lists):

Tab	Source	Live query
Pacman	Arch repos (core / extra / multilib)	pacman -Ss
Flatpak	Flathub	flatpak search + Flathub AppStream catalog
AUR	Arch User Repository	AUR RPC name-desc search

Both the Pacman and Flatpak tabs support natural-language category browsing — enter a phrase like video editing, browser, music, terminal or discord and matching AppStream-category members surface first, then ranked name matches. The keyword → category mapping lives in groups.keywords and is shared by the Arch and Flathub group matchers.

Real metadata on every card

Results are enriched on the fly:

• Version · Repo · Arch from pacman -Si (batched into one subprocess).
• License from pacman -Si / flatpak info --show-metadata.
• Homepage / GitHub link (opens externally).
• Last updated — pacman Build Date, AUR LastModified, or Flathub release timestamps — shown in the bottom-left of each card.
• App icons: Arch's published AppStream icon catalog, Flathub icons, plus a local fallback that extracts an icon from installed packages via pacman -Ql.

Arm-and-confirm install, per source

Each card shows install buttons for the matching sources (a Pacman result may offer Pacman and a Flathub/AUR equivalent). First click arms ("Confirm?"); a second click runs the real command in your terminal:

Button	Command
Pacman	sudo pacman -S --needed <pkg>
yay / paru	yay -S --needed <pkg> / paru -S --needed <pkg>
Flatpak	flatpak install --assumeyes flathub <appid>

The terminal is read from $TERMINAL / $TERMINAL_CMD and falls back to kitty. Pacman and Flatpak install attempts run independently, so arming one never conflicts with another.

Six toolbar icon designs

The "Find App" pill in the bar restyles itself live. Choose from the options panel: Current, Outline, Soft, Bold, Minimal, Icon (a bare magnifying-glass glyph). The setting is pushed to the bar widget in real time and persists.

Options panel (gear icon)

• Toggle the AUR and Flatpak tabs on/off.
• Choose the AUR install helper: yay or paru.
• Toolbar icon design picker.
• Compact "Buy Me a Coffee" button with a small tick-box to hide it.

All options persist to ~/.local/state/omarchy/settings/davedes.fossfetch.json.

Built for the Omarchy shell

• Keyboard-first: Tab cycles tabs, arrow keys move the selection, Enter arms the highlighted card's install (a second press runs it), Esc closes, / refocuses the search box.
• Theme-aware: per-ecosystem accents (green = Pacman, cyan = AUR, blue = Flatpak, yellow = confirm state) are read from the active theme's colors.toml, so the panel blends with whatever theme is running.
• Renders on Omarchy's frosted popup surface with the standard menu selected-row treatment.

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Requirements

• Omarchy 4.x (Quickshell-based shell) on Arch Linux
• pacman (base), python3 (datastore scripts)
• Optional / feature-gated:
  • flatpak — for the Flatpak tab and Flatpak installs
  • yay or paru — for AUR installs
  • a network connection for the first category/icon catalog download (cached locally; see Caches)

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Installation

1. Clone the plugin

omarchy plugin clone davedes.fossfetch

…or manually:

git clone https://github.com/Davedes83/fossfetch.git ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/davedes.fossfetch

2. Add it to your top bar

Add the FossFetch widget to your preferred bar section via the Omarchy widgets menu (or ~/.config/omarchy/shell.json). Default section: right.

3. Bind the hotkey

In ~/.config/hypr/bindings.lua:

o.bind("SUPER + ALT + F", "FossFetch", "omarchy-shell fossfetch toggle")

The panel can also be toggled over IPC with omarchy-shell fossfetch toggle from any launcher/hotkey.

A built-in optional Hyprland global shortcut (quickshell:toggle_alt_finder) is also available as an alternative to the IPC binding — bind it with bind = SUPER ALT, F, global, quickshell:toggle_alt_finder.

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Usage

1. Press SUPER + ALT + F (or click the magnifier pill in the bar).
2. Type a query:
   • a package / app name → exact, prefix and substring matches ranked first;
   • a natural-language phrase → category members listed, then name matches.
3. Tab to switch tab (Pacman / AUR / Flatpak), arrow keys to select, Enter to install: the first press arms the card's primary install ("Confirm?"), a second press runs the command.
4. Clicking an install button works the same way. The card's homepage ("Visit site") chip opens the project website externally.
5. Click the gear (top right) to reach the options.
6. Esc closes; / refocuses search.

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Configuration

The plugin ships sensible defaults; the shell's settings UI exposes the BarWidget schema:

Setting	Default	Description
panelWidth	560	Width of the search popup (360–900)
debounceMs	150	Delay after typing before searching (0–500)
buttonLabel	"Find App"	Text on the bar pill (hidden in Icon design)

Options chosen in the panel are persisted to ~/.local/state/omarchy/settings/davedes.fossfetch.json:

{
  "flatpak": true,
  "aur": true,
  "aurHelper": "yay",
  "design": "current",
  "showCoffee": true
}

Key	Values	Meaning
flatpak	true/false	show the Flatpak tab
aur	true/false	show the AUR tab
aurHelper	yay/paru	AUR install command
design	current, outline, soft, bold, minimal, icon	toolbar pill style
showCoffee	true/false	show the "Buy Me a Coffee" button

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Caches and privacy

• Datastore indices live under ~/.cache/fossfetch/:
  • catalog/<date>/groups.tsv + icons — built from Arch's published AppStream catalog and refreshed when it is over 32 days old;
  • flathub/groups.tsv + flathub/appids.tsv — built from Flathub's AppStream catalog (same staleness window).
• Everything is resolved against public, first-party sources (Arch's AppStream mirror, Flathub's AppStream feed, the AUR RPC). No accounts, no telemetry, no third-party trackers.
• Search results and enriched metadata are always fetched live; remove the cache directory at any time and it will be rebuilt on the next search.

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Repository layout

File	Purpose
BarWidget.qml	Top-bar pill widget + toolbar icon designs
Panel.qml	Main search panel UI, results model, install flow
aur_search.py	AUR RPC search (name/desc), emits 8-column TSV
flathub_groups.py	Flathub AppStream category matcher + release-date index
appstream_groups.sh	Arch AppStream category matcher (groups.tsv)
appstream_icons.sh	Arch AppStream icon catalog resolution
flatpak_icon.py	Name → Flathub app-id resolution for icons
groups.keywords	Natural-language keyword → AppStream category table
alternatives.json	Bundled curated metadata of FOSS alternatives to
proprietary apps
manifest.json	Omarchy plugin manifest (bar-widget)

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Known limitations

• AUR install buttons are no-ops until yay or paru is actually installed; pick the helper you have in Options.
• Flatpak results/installs require the flathub remote to be present.
• First search on a tab may be slower while the AppStream/icon catalogs are downloaded once; afterwards everything is served from the local cache.
• paru is not bundled — it must be installed via your preferred AUR helper.

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License

MIT. See manifest.json for plugin metadata.