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title Installation
sidebarTitle Installation
description Install Otter Shell with pikman. Add otter-shell-extras for speech and Assistant, or otter-gaming-utils for Otter Bench and HUD.

Otter Shell ships as native packages on PikaOS. They are built and versioned together in otter-zenith. Gaming tools ship from otter-gaming-utils. Install with pikman.

Current packaging train in zenith pins is 0.11.104. A few apps pin higher. otter-clip is at 0.11.107.

System requirements

  • PikaOS: Otter Shell packages target PikaOS repositories.
  • Wayland compositor: Otter Shell is Wayland-only. Pick a compositor that supports the protocols your apps need. The bar, launcher, and most overlays want zwlr_layer_shell_v1.
  • No Zig runtime needed: Apps ship as native binaries. You do not need Zig.
Otter Shell does **not** install a compositor. You pick and configure your own Wayland session. Hyprland, Sway, and Niri are common on PikaOS. The display manager (`otter-greeter`) uses Hyprland only for the login screen. Your user session compositor is separate.

Screenshot and color-picker tools (otter-screenshot, otter-pick, otter-shot) need the compositor to expose ext_image_copy_capture_v1.

Install with pikman

Refresh available packages: 
```bash
pikman update
```
Install the desktop metapackage: 
```bash
pikman install otter-shell
```

That pulls every component on the same packaging train. See the package table below.

For speech tools and Otter Assistant:

```bash
pikman install otter-shell-extras
```

`otter-shell` **recommends** `otter-shell-extras` but does not require it. Transcription, voice synthesis, Assistant, and their model packages stay out of the base metapackage.

For Otter Bench and the in-game HUD:

```bash
pikman install otter-gaming-utils
```

Separate from `otter-shell`. See [otter-bench](/apps/otter-bench).
For specific tools only: 
```bash
pikman install otter-term otter-bar otter-launcher
```

Metapackages

Metapackage Contents
otter-shell Full desktop shell: bar, launcher, dock, taskbar, file manager, package manager, workspace overview, keybind help, night light, notifications, wallpaper, theme generator, OSD, logout, settings, polkit, lock, idle, greeter, terminal, system monitor, Jade pet, screenshot tools, clipboard, notes, timer, weather, example plugins, plugin factory, and other core helpers. Includes otter-shell-fonts.
otter-shell-extras Speech tools (otter-transcribe, otter-vox), Otter Assistant (otter-assist, otter-assistant, otter-assist-data), and model packages (otter-assist-model, otter-transcribe-model, otter-vox-model).
otter-gaming-utils Otter Bench suite: otter-bench, otter-benchd, otter-benchctl, otter-hud, otter-bench-hardwared.

Packages in otter-shell

Installed by pikman install otter-shell:

Package Description
otter-bar Status bar with widgets, system tray, and MPRIS
otter-launcher Application launcher overlay
otter-files File manager (local, SFTP, SMB)
otter-dock Application dock with magnification
otter-taskbar Windows-style taskbar with Start and tray
otter-overview Workspace overview overlay. Also ships otter-switcher
otter-keybindhelp Searchable compositor shortcut overlay
otter-search Desktop search daemon (launcher file / grep modes)
otter-notifications Notification daemon (freedesktop.org spec)
otter-wallpaper Wallpaper daemon
otter-theme-gen Wallpaper-reactive theme generator
otter-osd On-screen display for volume, brightness, and lock keys
otter-logout Power menu overlay
otter-settings Graphical settings editor
otter-pkg Graphical apt package manager
otter-polkit Polkit authentication agent
otter-lock Session lockscreen
otter-idle Idle management daemon
otter-nightlight Color-temperature / night-light daemon
otter-greeter Display manager (login screen)
otter-term Terminal emulator
otter-monitor System monitor with process tables and resource graphs
otter-jade Desktop pet
otter-screenshot Region and fullscreen screenshots with annotation
otter-shot Product-shot composer
otter-rec Screen recorder
otter-clip Clipboard manager (otter-copy / otter-paste, shadows wl-copy / wl-paste)
otter-note Sticky notes
otter-cal Calendar helper for the bar
otter-calc Calculator helper
otter-emoji Emoji picker helper
otter-timer Countdown timer
otter-pick Color picker
otter-clicker Auto-clicker with point selection
otter-weather Weather fetcher and bar widget
otter-shell-fonts Bundled fallback fonts
otter-shell-plugins Example bar and launcher .so plugins
otter-bluetooth-plugin Bluetooth applet for the bar (pulled by otter-shell-plugins)
otter-plugin-factory opf CLI to scaffold and pack plugins

Not in the base metapackage (install via otter-shell-extras): otter-transcribe, otter-vox, otter-assist, otter-assistant, otter-assist-data, otter-assist-model, otter-transcribe-model, and otter-vox-model.

Packages in otter-gaming-utils

Installed by pikman install otter-gaming-utils. Built from otter-gaming-utils, not otter-zenith.

Package Description
otter-bench Desktop app for HUD layouts, sessions, and benchmarks
otter-benchd Metrics and session daemon
otter-benchctl CLI
otter-hud Vulkan / OpenGL overlay and launcher
otter-bench-hardwared Privileged hardware helper (polkit)

See otter-bench and otter-hud.

Verify the installation

otter-term

A terminal window should open on your Wayland session. Then follow Quick Start and Session setup to autostart shell daemons.