Rime 2026.10.19What's new in this release

A Linux systemthat moves as one.

One signed image that updates in one step and can always go back. A desktop that grows from its own notches. Agents that work for you, fenced in.

Download RimeWhy Rime
The real Rime Shell, recorded at 3840 × 2400 and played back as you use it. ClickTap the centre notch, the Wi-Fi icon or the bell. rime-shell@9161e30c

One operating system, not a pile of parts.

Many distributions hand you a base and leave the rest to you. Rime builds the system, the desktop, the agent runtime and the gaming stack as one image, tests them together, signs the result, and updates it in one step.

One image, updated live or staged

When it can, an update switches parts that can change in place, such as Rime Shell and Rime's own services, over while you work, and puts them back if a check fails. The kernel and system libraries wait for your next reboot. The previous image stays, one command away.

Checked before it's installed

rime update refuses an image that Rime's own build workflow did not sign. rime trust --gate says why before you commit.

Agents, built in and fenced in

Claude Code, Codex and others run as sessions the system tracks: sandboxed, root only with your password, using credentials they can never read.

Software that doesn't block updates

Packages from Fedora, COPR, .deb files and AppImages go into an extension beside the image. Flathub and dev capsules cover the rest.

Gaming, set up in the image

Rime builds its own CachyOS kernel with the BORE scheduler and NTSYNC for Windows games. The NVIDIA driver ships signed for GTX 16, RTX 20 and newer; AMD and Intel run on Mesa.

One desktop, designed as a whole

The same Shell, palette and motion on tiling, scrolling and floating sessions, from the login screen to the lock screen.

How Rime compares with other distributions

A new system is staged beside the one you are using.

Rime is one signed image. An update puts the next image next to the running one. Rime Shell and Rime's own services can switch over at once; the rest moves when you reboot. If it's wrong, the previous one is still there.

  1. 1

    Running

    Rime 2026.10.16running
    empty slot

    One signed image: the system and Rime Shell together.

  2. 2

    Staged

    Rime 2026.10.16running
    Rime 2026.10.19staged for next boot

    The new image is verified, then written beside the running one. Nothing you are using changes.

    sudo rime update
  3. 3

    Rebooted

    Rime 2026.10.16kept to go back to
    Rime 2026.10.19running

    The next boot starts the new image. The one before stays on disk and in the boot menu.

    sudo systemctl reboot
  4. 4

    Rolled back

    Rime 2026.10.16running
    Rime 2026.10.19kept to go back to

    The previous image becomes the default again. Your home folder and /etc stay as the newer system left them.

    sudo rime rollback
How the system works

Agents that answer to you.

Rime runs coding agents as sessions the system keeps track of. Type a and Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini or Kimi starts in a sandbox that holds your project and nothing else. The Agent Center puts every session that needs you at the top. When an agent needs the system changed, it asks, and you approve it at the machine.

  • Root only when you say so. A closed list of eight requests, each approved with your password, never from inside the agent's terminal. Lifting a session's sandbox takes your administrator password too, and has a time limit.
  • Credentials it can use, never read. Git pushes and deploys run through a root broker that does the work itself and returns only the result, never the credential.
  • Close the lid, keep working. A laptop with live sessions stays awake with the lid shut, VPN included, and still suspends if it gets too hot or too low.
  • Rime Remote puts the sessions on your Android phone: watch, reply, pause, stop, start. It is end-to-end encrypted; the relay carries only ciphertext. Get it for Android

Everything about agents on Rime

Everything grows from where it belongs.

The Dashboard is the centre notch, grown. Wi-Fi and notifications pour out of the right notch and share one surface, so switching between them reshapes it instead of closing and reopening it. Close either and it folds back into the notch it came from.

Every surface, on the Shell page

Your wallpaper becomes the palette.

Rime reads your wallpaper with matugen and derives every surface, text and accent role from it. Change the wallpaper and the desktop retunes: bar, panels, lock screen, window borders, terminal prompt.

Wallpaper

Roles from Rime default, dark

  • surfaceBase#121315
  • surfaceRaised#1c1d1f
  • surfaceSelected#2c3037
  • accentContainer#3c424d
  • accent#b2c8ec
  • textPrimary#e3e2e5
Pick a wallpaper: the stage switches to the real shell recorded in its palette, and this page follows. rime-shell@9161e30c

Motion has an origin.

Nothing fades up out of the middle of the screen. A surface starts as the notch or edge it grows from, and its outline is rebuilt every frame from a few named measurements — width, depth, shoulder, corner — each carried by its own spring.

WD
Replay
width
900
depth
560
shoulder
28
corner
24
edge bow
0
lead → widthbody → depthtrail → shoulders, corners

Computing the same open at 60 Hz and 144 Hz…

For work, and for play.

Three ways to arrange windows

Rime Tiling (Hyprland) is the default. Rime Scrolling (niri) and Rime Floating (labwc) are one choice away at the login screen, with the same Shell on top.

Packages that don't block updates

Extra packages go into a system extension beside the image, not into it, so updates and rollback keep working. Flathub apps install by their ID.

sudo rime install htop

Development capsules

Rootless containers for other distributions and toolchains, with GPU access when you ask for it.

rime env create fedora

Gaming Mode

Steam's big-screen interface in gamescope, on Rime's own build of the CachyOS kernel with the BORE scheduler and NTSYNC. Steam and gamescope install on demand; Gaming Mode appears at the login screen once they're there.

sudo rime install steam gamescope mangohud gamemode

Ready when you log in

Firefox, Thunar, mpv and the codecs, printing, input methods and the Orca screen reader are in the image. Toolchains come per project from rime env. The Claude and ChatGPT desktop apps install with one command, checked against their makers' signing keys pinned in Rime.

sudo rime install claude-desktop

A firewall with named doors

Incoming connections are dropped by default, apart from replies, ping, DHCP, local discovery and SSH. You open one named service at a time, and sudo rime firewall status lists what you have opened.

sudo rime firewall allow sunshine

The system in detail

Latest update · 19 October 2026

Rime 2026.10.19Faster boot: the desktop no longer waits for Wi-Fi

Startup now finishes up to about 8 seconds sooner on laptops: Rime no longer waits for Wi-Fi to finish connecting before it counts the boot as done.

See what changed
  • SystemFaster boot: the desktop no longer waits for Wi-Fi

Get Rime.

A network installer for 64-bit PCs. It downloads the signed system image while it installs.

Download · 2.0 GBInstall guide
Computer
64-bit PC with UEFI (legacy BIOS can boot the stick)
Disk
12 GB minimum, 20 GB recommended
Network
Needed during the install
Encryption
Whole-disk encryption is on by default, with a recovery key