Pacsea

Pacsea is a fast, friendly TUI for browsing and installing Arch and AUR packages — built for speed and minimal keystrokes.

Community

✨ Idea or bug? Open an issue or check out Idea Discussions
❤️ Thank you to the Pacsea community for your ideas, reports, and support!

Supported Platforms

Supported Distributions	Supported Languages

Main app view

Table of Contents

• Quick start
• Features
• Usage
• CLI Commands
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Roadmap
• Credits
• License

Quick start

• Install (stable):

paru -S pacsea-bin   # or: yay -S pacsea-bin

• Install (latest):

paru -S pacsea-git   # or: yay -S pacsea-git

• Install via Cargo:

cargo install pacsea

• Run:

pacsea

Prefer a dry run first? Add --dry-run.

Features

Feature	Description
Integrated Process Execution	All operations execute directly within the TUI with real-time output streaming, progress bars, and inline password prompts — no external terminals
Security Scan for AUR Packages	Comprehensive security scanning workflow with multiple tools (ClamAV, Trivy, Semgrep, ShellCheck, VirusTotal, custom patterns, aur-sleuth) and detailed scan summaries
Fuzzy Search	Toggle flexible fuzzy search mode to find packages even without exact names
Unified search	Fast results across official repos and the AUR
Package Update Availability	Automatic background checks with detailed version comparison view
Keyboard‑first	Minimal keystrokes, Vim‑friendly navigation
Queue & install	Add packages to queue and confirm installs. Run security scans for AUR packages before installing
Always‑visible details	Open package links with a click
PKGBUILD preview	Toggle viewer; copy PKGBUILD with one click
AUR Comments viewer	View community comments for AUR packages with markdown support, clickable URLs, and automatic updates when navigating packages
AUR status markings	Visual indicators for out-of-date [OOD] and orphaned [ORPHAN] packages
Persistent lists	Recent searches and Install list are saved
Installed‑only mode	Review and remove installed packages safely. Configure filter mode to show only leaf packages (default) or all explicitly installed packages
Package downgrade	Downgrade installed packages to previous versions using the downgrade tool
Distro-aware updates	Automatic detection and use of appropriate mirror tools for Manjaro, EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Artix, and standard Arch
Updates modal	View available updates with Preflight integration for safe installation
Helpful tools	System update dialog with Force Sync mode (-Syyu), AUR update confirmation when pacman fails, distro-aware mirror management, and Arch News popup
Announcements	Version-specific and remote announcements shown at startup with clickable URLs and persistent read status

Security-first approach for AUR Packages

• Security-first approach for installing AUR Packages.
• Security Coverage via automatic Scans and Optional Measures (e.g., converting AUR packages to Flatpak (in Planning)), and more

Security scans for AUR

Pacsea adds a security‑first workflow for AUR installs. Before building you can run one or more checks — ClamAV (antivirus), Trivy (filesystem), Semgrep (static analysis), ShellCheck for PKGBUILD/.install, VirusTotal hash lookups, custom suspicious pattern scanning, and aur-sleuth (LLM audit). Scans generate a comprehensive summary showing infections, vulnerabilities by severity, Semgrep findings count, and VirusTotal statistics.

VirusTotal API Setup: Configure your VirusTotal API key directly from the Optional Deps modal. The modal blocks main UI interactions to prevent accidental clicks/keys. For detailed setup instructions, see the How to use Pacsea wiki page.

System update dialog

TUI Optional Deps

• Install and verify recommended helper tools directly from a dedicated view with environment-aware defaults.
• Desktop-aware preferences include GNOME Terminal on GNOME, Klipper on KDE, and support for multiple editors (nvim, vim, helix, emacs/emacsclient, nano).
• The modal detects your:
  • environment (Wayland/X11, desktop environment, distro)
  • and shows relevant options.
  • Tools include editors, terminals, clipboard utilities (wl-clipboard for Wayland, xclip for X11),
  • mirror updaters (reflector, pacman-mirrors, eos-rankmirrors, cachyos-rate-mirrors),
  • AUR helpers (paru, yay), and
  • security utilities (ClamAV, Trivy, Semgrep, ShellCheck, VirusTotal API setup, aur-sleuth).
• Quickly see what's installed and install missing packages directly from the modal.

Usage

Pacsea provides a keyboard-first interface for searching, queueing, and installing packages. For detailed usage instructions, keyboard shortcuts, and workflows, see the How to use Pacsea wiki page.

Quick overview:

• Type to search packages across official repos and AUR
• Queue packages for installation
• Review packages before installing with the Preflight modal
• Run security scans for AUR packages
• Manage installed packages, including removal and downgrade
• All operations execute directly in the TUI with real-time output and progress indicators

For a complete reference of all keyboard shortcuts, see the Keyboard Shortcuts wiki page.

PKGBUILD preview

AUR Comments viewer

View community comments for AUR packages directly in Pacsea. Comments are automatically fetched and displayed with markdown formatting support, clickable URLs, and user profile links. The comments pane splits the Package Info area and updates automatically when navigating between packages. Toggle comments visibility with Ctrl+T or click the "Show comments" button in Package Info.

CLI Commands

Pacsea supports powerful command-line operations, allowing you to manage packages without launching the TUI. For a complete list of all CLI commands, options, and detailed usage instructions, see the CLI Commands section in the wiki.

You can also run pacsea --help to see all available commands and options.

Configuration

Pacsea uses three configuration files located in ~/.config/pacsea/:

• settings.conf — app behavior (layout, defaults, visibility, scans, news, etc.)
• theme.conf — colors and styling
• keybinds.conf — keyboard shortcuts

For complete configuration documentation, including all available settings, theme customization, and keybind configuration, see the Configuration wiki page.

Example configuration files are available in the config/ directory.

Preflight Modal

By default, Pacsea shows a Preflight review modal before installs/removals. This allows you to inspect dependencies, files, config conflicts, and optionally run AUR security scans.

For Install actions: Review dependencies that will be installed, files that will be added, and optionally run security scans for AUR packages.

For Remove actions: Review reverse dependencies (packages that depend on what you're removing), affected services, and files that will be removed. Meta-packages show warnings when they have no reverse dependencies, as removal may affect system state. Dependency reports are cached for faster tab switching.

The Install list shows all packages queued for installation. You can export your list to a file or import packages from a previously saved list. The blue refresh icon next to each package indicates the loading/update status.

For detailed information about the Preflight modal, including how to configure it, see the How to use Pacsea wiki page.

Panels hidden

Optional: build from source

sudo pacman -S rustup && rustup default stable
git clone https://github.com/Firstp1ck/Pacsea
cd Pacsea
cargo run

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common issues, solutions, and diagnostic information, see the Troubleshooting wiki page.

Roadmap

• Vote or suggest features: Feature discussion

• Check out what's next and what I am working on What's Next...?

Potential future Features

Community Suggestions: Priority Features

• Vote for AUR packages via SSH connection
• Adjustable Height of the "Results", "Package Info" and "Search" panes
• Add possibility to switch locations of Top/Center/Bottom panes

Other Potential Features

• Show with Hover over button, what the button does
• Mirror Search and extensive Mirror Selection
• Add Chaotic AUR setup and add Garuda Repository Support
• Multi Package Manager Support for: Debian-Based (apt), Fedora-Based (dnf) and Flatpak Support
• Add custom Repository Support (e.g Make Cachy/Manjaro/EOS Repositories available to other Arch based Systems)
• Ability to resolve dependency conflicts
• Add accessability themes for visual impairments
• Add PKGBUILD Preview shellcheck and namcap
• Add custom upgrade commands
• Add possibility to view News for the respectiv Distro: EndeavourOS, Manjaro, Garuda and CachyOS
• Add possibility to view News based on installed Packages (Including AUR comments)
• Available Update button. Opens a Preview with old and new version. -> done;
  • grouped by system critical updates like Kernel, systemd and other CORE packages that need restart and other packages (pacman and aur, incl. search/filter)
• Commandline Flags -u and --update use set "Update System" from the TUI settings.
• Ability to maintain your AUR packages
• Implement rebuild-detector that checks if a package needs to be rebuild
• Implement Wiki into the TUI

Credits

• Inspired by the following yay commandline: yay -Slq | fzf --multi --preview 'yay -Sii {}' --preview-window=down:75% --layout=default | xargs -ro yay -S
• Built with Ratatui + Crossterm
• Powered by Arch + AUR

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Wiki

Check out the Wiki for more information.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the CONTRIBUTING