lens

lens is the lensOS package manager. It installs from the Arch repositories, the lensOS repository, the AUR and Flathub with one command, and takes a Btrfs snapshot before every update so a bad update can be rolled back. It's written in Rust on libalpm, the library pacman itself is built on: it uses the same configuration, mirrors, keyring, hooks and package database, so pacman and AUR helpers keep working next to it.

What it does

One command, three sources. Repos first, then the AUR, then Flatpak app IDs.
A snapshot before every update. On Btrfs (the installer's default). One lens rollback and a restart undo a bad update.
Arch news first. New manual-intervention notices from archlinux.org are shown before updating.
Safe to interrupt. Downloads come first and can be cancelled; the install step ignores Ctrl+C.
Careful with the AUR. It offers the PKGBUILD for review and builds as your user, never as root.

Example

$ lens update
 lens · update
 · no new arch news since your last update
 arch     firefox        157.0-1 → 157.0.1-1
 lensos   lens           0.1.2-1 → 0.1.3-1
 aur      yay-bin        12.5.1-1 → 12.5.2-1
 · 3 updates · 58.2 MiB to download
 ? update now? [Y/n] y
 ✓ snapshot lens-2026-10-07_19-02-11-pre-update (lens rollback can restore it)
 ✓ downloaded 2 (58.2 MiB)
 ✓ updated
 ✓ built and installed yay-bin 12.5.2-1 from the AUR

Commands

`lens install <name>`	install from the Arch and lensOS repos, falling back to the AUR; Flatpak app IDs work too
`lens remove <name>`	remove a package and the dependencies nothing else needs
`lens update`	check Arch news, take a snapshot, update repo packages, AUR packages and Flatpaks
`lens search <term>`	search the repos, the AUR and Flathub at once
`lens info <name>`	show details about a package
`lens list`	list what you installed (--all for everything, --aur for AUR packages)
`lens autoremove`	remove dependencies nothing needs anymore
`lens clean`	remove old package files, and systems a rollback replaced
`lens news`	show the latest Arch Linux news
`lens snapshot [label]`	take a Btrfs snapshot now
`lens snapshots`	list snapshots
`lens rollback <snapshot>`	restore a snapshot (after a restart)
`lens channel [stable\|testing]`	show or switch the lensOS repository channel

Commands that change the system ask for your password through sudo. -y takes the default answer to every question.

Configuration

Settings are in /etc/lens/lens.conf (channel, AUR, Flatpak, news check, snapshots). Repositories, mirrors and ignored packages stay in /etc/pacman.conf, shared with pacman. The full reference is in the lens documentation.