Principles

Every rule in these docs comes from one of these. When a case isn’t covered, decide it by them, and by the goal: an efficient remote that is easy to take part in, where speed matters most.

1. The developer’s own build, nothing else. Apps come from the developer’s official release, which your Flatpak downloads from the developer’s own servers at install time (extra-data). FlatPark doesn’t build apps from source and doesn’t host their files. An app that people want but that has no official Linux release may get one from a public flatpark/<app>-release repository, built exactly the way upstream builds it and within its licence; that release is then used like any other download.
2. Open-source apps run unmodified. Nothing is injected into their process and none of their files is changed. If one can’t work in the sandbox without that, the fix belongs upstream and the app isn’t listed until then.
3. Closed-source changes are reviewed and disclosed. A closed-source app may need a change to work in the sandbox; the change is reviewed, and the app’s page says exactly what it is and why.
4. Every package says what it does. Each one declares its packaging level (Unmodified, Adapted, Modified, Reduced isolation), and CI checks the declaration against what the package actually does.
5. Least privilege by default. A package grants what the app’s main job needs; anything more is the user’s choice, documented as a command. A broad grant (home, host commands) is made by default only after review, when the app needs it or leaving it out would take more overrides than a user can be expected to manage.
6. The developer has the final word on their app: whether it’s listed, how it’s packaged, what is said about it. No say over other apps.
7. Judge the package, not how it was written. An app is listed or not on what it does and how it’s packaged, not on whether it was written with AI.
8. The current runtime, for every app. When a new version of the freedesktop, GNOME or KDE runtime comes out, every app on it moves together and is tested, so no app keeps an old runtime on your disk.
9. Test before shipping, fix fast after. Our own changes are tested before they ship (testing playbook); upstream releases ship at once and are fixed quickly when they break.
10. Decisions in public. Rules, packages, reviews, incidents and removals are all in the open repository.