CachyOS August 2026 release features Shelly rewrite in Zig and Rust components
The CachyOS August 2026 release introduces a major rewrite of the Shelly package manager from C# to Zig and migrates several backend components to Rust.
Summary
CachyOS has released its fifth update of 2026, focusing on performance and language migrations. The flagship Shelly GUI package manager was rewritten in Zig to reduce memory usage and improve startup speeds, while the kernel-manager backend and Cachy-Update systray were rewritten in Rust. The release also includes experimental support for Server Edition installation profiles and various desktop environment refinements.
Technical shifts in CachyOS
- Shelly package manager: Rewritten from C# to Zig, removing the managed runtime for native binaries.
- chwd: The kernel-manager backend was migrated from C++ to Rust and integrated into chwd-kernel.
- Cachy-Update: The systray applet was rewritten in Rust following a rebase onto Arch-Update v4.x.
- Installer: Added experimental support for Server Edition profiles and updated greeters for Hyprland (noctalia-greeter) and Cinnamon (lightdm-slick-greeter).
- Mirror ranking: cachyos-rate-mirrors now utilizes the CachyOS mirrorlist API for improved ranking accuracy.
Why it matters
The move toward memory-safe languages like Rust and high-performance languages like Zig demonstrates a commitment to system efficiency and modernizing the distribution's core tooling.
Original reference: cachyos.org →