PyArsenal

Personal tool distribution & update launcher — like Steam for your own tools.

Browse, install, update, and launch your personal tools from a single app. Tools are published as GitHub Releases and discovered via a centralized catalog.

Features

• Store — Browse all available tools with search and category filters
• Library — Manage installed tools, launch them, check for updates
• Auto-update check — Compares installed versions against GitHub Releases on startup
• Download & install — Downloads the correct binary for your platform automatically
• Bug report — Opens the tool's GitHub Issues page directly from the app
• Desktop integration — Add the AppImage to your Linux application menu
• Settings — Optional GitHub PAT for higher API rate limits, stored in system keychain
• Self-update — The launcher updates itself via GitHub Releases

Screenshots

Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	Tauri v2 (Rust)
Frontend	SolidJS + TypeScript
Styling	Custom CSS (Steam-inspired dark theme)
Packaging	AppImage, .deb, .rpm (Linux) / .msi, .exe (Windows)
Auto-update	tauri-plugin-updater
Keychain	system keyring (GNOME Keyring / Windows Credential Manager)

How it works

1. A centralized catalog lists all available tools as a JSON file
2. Each tool publishes compiled binaries via GitHub Releases following the naming convention:

   ToolName-{version}-linux-x86_64.AppImage
   ToolName-{version}-windows-x86_64.exe
   

3. PyArsenal fetches the catalog, shows available tools, and handles download/install/update

Build from source

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable)
• Node.js 20+
• Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, librsvg2-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libssl-dev, pkg-config

Build

# Linux
./build_linux.sh

# Windows
build_windows.bat

Or manually:

npm install
npm run tauri build

Output:

• Linux: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage/PyArsenal_*.AppImage
• Windows: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/PyArsenal_*.exe

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

Catalog

Tools are listed in pyarsenal-catalog. To add a tool, add an entry to catalog.json:

{
  "id": "my-tool",
  "name": "My Tool",
  "description": "What it does.",
  "category": "Utilities",
  "icon": "my-tool.png",
  "repo": "username/my-tool",
  "platforms": ["linux", "windows"],
  "asset_patterns": {
    "linux": "MyTool-{version}-linux-x86_64.AppImage",
    "windows": "MyTool-{version}-windows-x86_64.exe"
  },
  "binary_name": {
    "linux": "MyTool.AppImage",
    "windows": "MyTool.exe"
  }
}

License

MIT