THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL PACKAGE!

If you run into an issue with this flake, make an issue here. Don't bug Anthropic about it - they already have enough on their plates.

Claude Desktop for Linux (Nix)

A Nix flake packaging Anthropic's official native Linux build of Claude Desktop, straight from their apt repository, with proper NixOS/GNOME/Wayland desktop integration.

History: before July 2026 there was no official Linux release, and this flake worked by repackaging the macOS build with stub native bindings (patchy-cnb) and a stack of JS patches. Anthropic now ships a real Linux build (deb, amd64 + arm64) with native bindings, node-pty for Claude Code, and even the Cowork VM tooling — so all of that machinery is gone. This is now a straightforward deb repackage: extract, patch ELF rpaths for Nix, wrap.

Supports MCP, the Ctrl+Alt+Space Quick Entry popup (natively on Wayland via the XDG global-shortcuts portal on GNOME 48+/KDE), the tray menu, and Claude Code.

Usage

To run this once, make sure Nix is installed, then run

NIXPKGS_ALLOW_UNFREE=1 nix run github:k3d3/claude-desktop-linux-flake --impure

The "unfree" part is due to the fact that Claude Desktop is not an open source application, and thus, Nix's licensing rules are dictated by the application itself, not the build script used to build the application.

Installation on NixOS with Flakes

Add the following to your flake.nix:

inputs.claude-desktop.url = "github:k3d3/claude-desktop-linux-flake";
inputs.claude-desktop.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
inputs.claude-desktop.inputs.flake-utils.follows = "flake-utils";

And then the following package to your environment.systemPackages or home.packages:

inputs.claude-desktop.packages.${system}.claude-desktop

If you would like to run MCP servers with Claude Desktop on NixOS, use the claude-desktop-with-fhs package. This will allow running MCP servers with calls to npx, uvx, or docker (assuming docker is installed).

inputs.claude-desktop.packages.${system}.claude-desktop-with-fhs

Both x86_64-linux and aarch64-linux are supported — upstream publishes amd64 and arm64 debs.

Upgrading: the desktop file is upstream's, and upstream renamed it in 1.20186.1 — it is now com.anthropic.Claude.desktop (window class com.anthropic.Claude), previously claude-desktop.desktop, and before the native-build switch this flake's own Claude.desktop. If you had Claude pinned to your dock, re-pin it once after upgrading.

How it works

Anthropic publishes the Linux build to an apt repository at https://downloads.claude.ai/claude-desktop/apt/stable. This flake:

1. Fetches the versioned deb from the apt pool (hash-pinned from the repo's signed Packages index)
2. Extracts it and patches ELF interpreter/rpaths with autoPatchelfHook so every binary — the Electron app, chrome_crashpad_handler, the bundled virtiofsd, and the native Node modules (@ant/claude-native, node-pty) — finds its libraries in the Nix store
3. Ships upstream's own desktop file and hicolor icons, with Exec pointed at the wrapper
4. Wraps the binary with Wayland-friendly Chromium flags (see below)

The deb's Debian maintainer scripts (AppArmor profile, apt source registration) are intentionally not replicated — they don't apply on NixOS.

Updates are automated: the hourly update-claude-desktop workflow reads the apt Packages index, repins version + per-arch hashes, and opens an auto-merging PR gated on a real nix build of both x86_64 and aarch64.

Display backend & global shortcuts

The launcher defaults to native Wayland via --ozone-platform-hint=auto. On a Wayland session it runs natively on Wayland; on an X11 session it transparently falls back to X11, so the default is safe either way.

Quick Entry's global shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+Space) works under native Wayland by routing through the XDG GlobalShortcuts portal. That path requires xdg-desktop-portal with a GlobalShortcuts backend:

• GNOME 48+ and KDE Plasma ship one. On GNOME a one-time permission dialog appears the first time the shortcut is bound — approve it for the hotkey to work.
• Compositors whose portal has no GlobalShortcuts backend (e.g. most wlroots setups like Sway/Hyprland) silently make the feature a no-op — the global hotkey won't fire under native Wayland there.

If the portal route misbehaves on your compositor, set CLAUDE_USE_X11=1 to force XWayland. That restores the older X11 key-grab global shortcut and the more mature IME/HiDPI rendering path.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Effect
CLAUDE_USE_X11	unset	Set to 1 to force XWayland (--ozone-platform=x11) instead of native Wayland.
GTK_USE_PORTAL	1	Use the XDG portal for native file dialogs. Set to 0 to use Electron's built-in GTK dialogs.

Sandboxing on non-NixOS

The Nix store can't carry SUID binaries, so the package removes Chromium's chrome-sandbox helper and relies on the user-namespace sandbox instead.

• NixOS: unprivileged user namespaces are enabled by default — everything just works.

• Ubuntu 24.04+ (and other AppArmor-restricted distros): unconfined binaries can't create user namespaces (kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=1), so the app aborts at startup. Allowlist it the same way the official deb's postinst does — as root, create /etc/apparmor.d/claude-desktop-nix:

  abi <abi/4.0>,
  include <tunables/global>
  
  profile claude-desktop-nix /nix/store/*-claude-desktop-*/lib/claude-desktop/claude-desktop flags=(unconfined) {
    userns,
  
    include if exists <local/claude-desktop-nix>
  }
  

  then load it with sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/claude-desktop-nix. The glob keeps working across Nix store path changes. (flags=(unconfined) does not confine the app — it only allowlists it for userns creation.)

Do not run with --no-sandbox outside of throwaway testing.

GPU acceleration on non-NixOS

On NixOS, hardware GL resolves through /run/opengl-driver automatically. On other distros that path doesn't exist, so Chromium logs EGL errors at startup and falls back to software rendering — functional, just not accelerated. Use nixGL (nixGL claude-desktop) for hardware acceleration on non-NixOS hosts.

Other distributions

This repository only provides a Nix flake. On other distros you can simply install Anthropic's official deb, or see:

• https://github.com/aaddrick/claude-desktop-debian - A debian builder for Claude Desktop (predates the official deb)
• https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/claude-desktop-bin - An Arch package for Claude Desktop

Known limitations

• In-app auto-update is intentionally inert. On Nix the store path is read-only, so the app can't update itself (on regular distros, updates flow through apt). Updates are this repo's job instead: the hourly update-claude-desktop workflow repins the flake from the apt index. Bump your flake input to get the new version.
• Cowork's VM sandbox needs host virtualization. The deb Recommends qemu-system-x86, ovmf, and virtiofsd (a virtiofsd is bundled and patched, but qemu/OVMF must come from the host). Without them, Cowork VM features won't start.
• Native Wayland global shortcuts depend on your compositor's portal. See Display backend & global shortcuts — they work on GNOME 48+/KDE but are a no-op on portals without a GlobalShortcuts backend; use CLAUDE_USE_X11=1 there.
• Sandbox and GPU acceleration need one-time setup on non-NixOS hosts. See the two sections above.

License

The build scripts in this repository are dual-licensed under the terms of the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0).

See LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE for details.

The Claude Desktop application, not included in this repository, is likely covered by Anthropic's Consumer Terms.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.