Amp for Linux
The Linux app is experimental. It runs Amp in its own window, with notifications, a tray icon, and a built-in runner, and it does less than the Mac app. Expect missing features and rough edges. If you hit a bug, send a bug report from the app.
Install
Pick your distribution above and run its command in a terminal. On Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora, it
adds Amp’s signed package repository and installs the amp-desktop package. On Arch and Omarchy,
it installs amp-desktop-bin from the AUR. Packages are built for x86-64 and ARM64.
Amp updates with the rest of your system, such as when you run sudo apt upgrade or sudo dnf upgrade. There is no AppImage or tarball: signing in returns to the app through a link
that only the installed package registers.
To sign in, click Sign In. Amp opens ampcode.com in your browser, and returns to the app when you finish.
What Works
- Threads and orbs. Everything you can do on ampcode.com works in the app. Start threads that run in orbs or on your runners. Amp pages open in the app’s window. Links to these docs and other sites open in your browser.
- Notifications. The app shows a desktop notification when a thread is ready for your next message, and when someone mentions you or asks for access to one of your threads. It needs a notification service, such as mako, dunst, or the one your desktop includes. Without one, Amp sends the notification to your other devices instead.
- Unread count on the launcher. Like the Mac app’s Dock badge, the Amp launcher icon shows how many threads have an unread dot in the sidebar. KDE Plasma, Ubuntu Dock, Dash to Dock, and Plank show the count. Other desktops do not.
- Omarchy themes. On Omarchy, the app takes its colors from your Omarchy theme and follows it when you switch themes.
- Zoom. Press Ctrl+= and Ctrl+- to zoom in and out, and Ctrl+0 to reset. The app remembers your zoom.
- Runners on this computer. When you choose where a thread runs, runners on this computer are marked This Computer. That includes the built-in runner and runners you start in a terminal.
Open Threads from Links
Thread links that you click in another app, such as Slack, or in your browser open in your browser first. The first time a thread link from outside Amp reaches your browser on a Linux computer, the thread page asks whether to open threads in the Linux app:
- Open in Linux App sends this thread to the app, keeps the browser tab, and asks again next time.
- Always Open in Linux App sends this thread and every later thread link straight to the app.
- Dismissing the question keeps threads in the browser.
The choice is saved on your account for Linux computers only, so it does not change what happens on a Mac or on your other computers. Change it any time with Open Threads in the Linux App in Settings > Appearance, in the browser or in the app.
With it on, a thread link from outside Amp never shows the thread in the browser. The tab shows Opening in the Amp App instead and closes once the app, signed in to the same account, shows the thread. If the browser asks whether to allow opening Amp, answer it first. When the app does not open within a few seconds, the page says so and offers Open in Browser, Download Amp for Linux, and Stop Opening in App, which turns the setting off. Links you open inside Amp, reloads, and threads the app sends back to the browser stay in the browser.
To send one thread to the app without changing the setting, click Open in Linux App in the thread header, or choose it in the command palette, and let the browser open Amp. The browser tab keeps the thread. If the app does not open, Amp offers to install it.
Links in the app that leave it, such as Open in New Tab in a thread’s share dialog, open in your default browser. Thread links do too, instead of coming back to the app.
Built-In Runner
The app can run threads you start from any device, such as your phone, on this computer, like the Mac app’s runner. Open App Settings from your account menu (or File > App Settings… in the menu bar, which you show with Alt), go to Runner, and turn on Run Threads on This Computer. The app runs the Amp CLI as a runner for the account you are signed in to, and offers to install the CLI if it cannot find it.
The runner works only in the folders you add, the same list that amp runner dirs add changes.
Turn on Serve Home Folder to let it work anywhere in your home folder too. Turn on Allow
Terminal Access to let threads on this runner open a shell on this computer from the Terminal
tab.
With systemd, the runner runs as the user service amp-desktop-runner.service, so it keeps running
after you close the app and starts when you log in. Check it with systemctl --user status amp-desktop-runner. Its logs are in ~/.config/amp-desktop/logs/.
Tray and Open at Login
The tray icon lists your recent threads, with a dot for each one that is working, unread, waiting for you, or failed. Its menu also has New Thread, Puck, Mark All as Read, Run Threads on This Computer, and Settings. The tray needs a desktop that shows tray icons (StatusNotifierItem), such as KDE, Waybar’s tray module, or GNOME with the AppIndicator extension.
When the tray icon is showing, closing the window hides Amp in the tray, so notifications and the runner keep working. Click the tray icon or start Amp again to bring it back. To quit instead, turn off Show in Tray on the General page of App Settings. On the same page, turn on Open at Login to start Amp in the tray when you log in.
Shortcuts and Launch Arguments
The web app’s keyboard shortcuts work in the app. The menu bar, which you show with Alt, adds these:
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+W | Closes the active tab in the page. |
| Ctrl+Shift+W | Closes the window. |
| Ctrl+R | Reloads the portal tab. |
| Ctrl+Shift+R | Reloads the window. |
Run amp-desktop --new-thread, amp-desktop --puck, or amp-desktop --call-puck to open the app
on a new thread, on Puck, or on a call with Puck. Your launcher also lists these as
actions on the Amp icon. On Hyprland or sway, bind a key to one:
bind = SUPER ALT, N, exec, amp-desktop --new-threadKnown Limitations
These Mac app features are not in the Linux app yet:
- Opening Puck in a window of its own, and the dictation shortcuts for Puck.
- More than one window.