Qt Application Manager

Overview

The application manager binary (appman) is a headless daemon by itself. You need to supply a suitable QML file via the command-line or via a config file at startup, which then acts as a compositing window manager using the APIs that are exported from the C++ side.

For a high-level overview, see Introduction to the Qt Application Manager.

Important topics

Tools

Controller	A command-line utility to remote control the application manager on a target device.
Package-Server	A command-line utility for serve packages for dynamic installation.
Packager	A command-line utility to create and sign application packages.

Reference

Examples

Animated Windows System UI Example	Learn how to animate windows to appear and disappear.
Application Features Example	Showcases client applications with various features and QML modularization.
Bubblewrap Container Example	Learn how to use Bubblewrap Containers with the Application Manager.
Desktop System UI Example	Illustrates a minimal Desktop System UI in pure QML.
Display Frame Rate for the System UI and Applications Example	How to use the FrameTimer to display information about the frame rate.
Display Information about Application Processes Example	How to use ProcessStatus to display application process information.
Implement a Custom Application Manager Example	Provides the basic structure and starting point for a custom application manager executable.
Intents System UI and Applications Example	Three applications and a System UI communicating over Intents.
Launch Applications Using Intents System UI Example	Learn how to use Intents to start applications from the System UI.
Multiple Views per Window System UI Example	Learn how to render a WindowObject using multiple WindowItems.
Package Installation Example	Learn how to implement dynamic package installations and removals.
System UI Example: "Hello World!"	Learn how to write your first System UI.

Licenses and Attributions

Qt ApplicationManager is available under commercial licenses from The Qt Company. In addition, it is available under the GNU General Public License, version 3. See Qt Licensing for further details.

Executables on Windows potentially link against The QtEntryPoint Library. This library is available under commercial licenses and also under the BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License.

Furthermore, Qt ApplicationManager potentially contains third party modules under following permissive licenses:

StackWalker, version 2025-08-04	BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License
libarchive, version 3.8.1	BSD 2-clause "Simplified" License
libbacktrace, version 2025-04-10	BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License
libdbus, version 1.15.9	Academic Free License v2.1, or GNU General Public License v2.0 or later
libyaml, version 2024-05-20	MIT License

© 2026 The Qt Company Ltd. Documentation contributions included herein are the copyrights of their respective owners. The documentation provided herein is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software Foundation. Qt and respective logos are trademarks of The Qt Company Ltd. in Finland and/or other countries worldwide. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.