NX AppHub and AppBoxes

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NX AppHub is not a store or a package manager; it is a software manufacturing system for the user. It forms the foundation of Nitrux’s user-level software management, employing a reproducible, declarative, and rootless model tailored to the distribution’s immutable architecture.

An AppBox is an AppImage-format bundle (runtime + filesystem/AppDir model), policy-curated for Nitrux. However, an AppBox intentionally does not follow the upstream AppImage portability-oriented best-practice profile (old-base build target, cross-distro universality, etc.). Operationally, in the NX AppHub ecosystem, a file is considered an AppBox only when all of the following are true:

Sourced from a curated YAML definition in NX AppHub Apps.
That YAML targets the same Nitrux packaging baseline, rather than an arbitrary downgrade baseline for cross-distro universality.
It uses trusted distribution repositories allowed by project policy (no third-party PPAs in curated definitions).
It follows the AppBox runtime/sandbox policy documented for curated submissions.

Features

Local, Deterministic Builds: NX AppHub CLI builds the AppBoxes locally using curated YAML recipes. It does not download pre-compiled AppImages. Instead, it pulls verifiable .deb packages from trusted upstream repositories (Debian, Ubuntu, Devuan, Neon, and Nitrux). It assembles them into a self-contained binary, which ensures a verifiable chain of trust: you know exactly what is inside the box because your system built it.
Declarative Management: We define applications by code (YAML) in the NX AppHub Apps repository. The system state is predictable because the recipe dictates the result.
FUSE 3 and Sandboxing: All AppBoxes are built for modern FUSE 3 runtimes and enforce sandboxing by default. They leverage Firejail, AppArmor, or Bubblewrap to isolate the application from the host system, ensuring that user-space software cannot compromise the immutable core.
System Integration: The NX AppHub Daemon watches the applications directory. When a new AppBox is built or installed, the daemon automatically integrates it into the desktop environment (menus, icons, and MIME type associations) without requiring root access or manual configuration.
Lifecycle Management: AppBoxes intentionally do not support internal self-updates (e.g., AppImageUpdate). Instead, updates are handled centrally by the CLI, which “re-bakes” the AppBox using the latest upstream packages defined in the YAML recipe.
Flexibility: Allows users to create custom local bundle builds.
64-bit Multi-Arch. Support: NX AppHub CLI supports creating bundles for x86_64 and aarch64 (ARM).

Usage

Check the commands below to use nx-apphub-cli.

Commands

Commands                        Description
  
install                         Install one or more applications.
remove                          Remove one or more installed applications.
update                          Update one or more installed applications.
downgrade                       Downgrade one or more installed applications.
search                          Search for specific applications.
show                            Show installed applications.
build                           Build a bundle from a local YAML file.
      --appdir-lint             Optionally debug missing shared libraries in a bundle.
generate                        Generate YAML template from package metadata.
      --package                 Specify package name.
      --distro                  Choose the distribution from which to get metadata.
      --release                 The release of the selected distribution.
      --arch                    Specify the target architecture.
      --output                  The file name of the generated YAML file.
      --description-output      The file name of the generated metadata file.

Options

Options         Description
  
-h, --help      show this help message and exit

Documentation

NX Apphub Wiki: https://github.com/Nitrux/nx-apphub/wiki

NX AppHub Apps Wiki: https://github.com/Nitrux/nx-apphub-apps/wiki

NX Apphub Daemon Wiki: https://github.com/Nitrux/nx-apphubd/wiki