CachyOS has released its new August 2026 installation images, the fifth ISO update this year. This new version introduces a major overhaul of Shelly , the distribution's default graphical package manager, which has been completely rewritten using the Zig programming language. It also includes improvements to the update tools, new settings for different desktop environments, and the first experimental profiles for the upcoming server edition.
CachyOS rewrites Shelly in Zig and prepares a server edition
One of the most significant changes in this CachyOS update is the complete rewrite of Shelly, which abandons C# in favor of Zig . In addition to this technological shift, the application receives a redesigned interface and features a new welcome screen that appears on first launch. Packages can now be viewed using list or grid views, while AUR users can preview PKGBUILD files and view the output generated during the compilation process directly from the interface.
Shelly's command-line interface has also been expanded. The tool allows for integrated searches across both the official repositories and the AUR, and offers a combined update check that includes packages from the repositories, AUR packages, AppImages, and Flatpaks. A backup system has also been added, using TOML-based import and export functions. Flatpak integration is no longer included directly in Shelly and is now provided through the optional shelly-flatpak-backend package.
Another notable change is the first appearance of experimental installation profiles for the upcoming CachyOS Server Edition . These profiles have been incorporated into the command-line installer, which also receives various bug fixes and internal reorganization. Although the server edition is still in development, the inclusion of these profiles allows developers to begin laying the groundwork for a CachyOS variant geared towards this type of system.
Improvements to Cachy-Update and desktop environments
The Cachy-Update tool has also received a significant overhaul. The project has re-based it on Arch-Update 4.x, and its system tray application has been rewritten using Rust. Furthermore, the new `--check -enable` option has been added , which allows you to activate automatic update checks and run the tray applet with a single command.
The number of updates displayed per page in the tray can be configured using the TrayUpdatesPerPage option , while the default interval between automatic checks has been extended to six hours. These changes aim to reduce unnecessarily frequent checks without eliminating the ability to configure different behavior.
The CachyOS installer also includes various specific settings for the available desktop environments. Hyprland installations that use Noctalia will now use noctalia-greeter instead of SDDM, while Cinnamon will replace lightdm-gtk-greeter with lightdm-slick-greeter . GNOME installations will now include gvfs-dnssd , and the COSMIC desktop environment will add cosmic-monitor.
CachyOS also adds new Noctalia variants for Mango and Niri, incorporates Noctalia 5 support in its Hyprland configurations, and updates the Nord KDE theme for Plasma 6.7. Furthermore, CachyOS-Welcome improves its DNS management so that speed tests can correctly select the fastest DNS server.
The cachyos-rate-mirrors tool has also changed its behavior to use the CachyOS mirror list API for ranking. According to the project, this should improve the management of outdated mirrors and give more weight to geographic location when selecting servers. Finally, the CachyOS games documentation has been updated to remove several outdated launch options that are no longer needed with current versions of proton-cachyos-slr.
The update does not require manual changes.
Users who already have CachyOS installed do not need to make any manual modifications to benefit from the changes included in this update. As is typical for the distribution, simply updating the system with `sudo pacman -Syu` will receive the new package versions.
The new installation images for the Desktop and Handheld editions are now available through the CachyOS mirrors. This means that those performing a fresh installation can directly access the new version of Shelly, the installer changes, and all the other improvements included in the August update.