App eligibility rubric #185
Description
Did you make an app and want it added to Pi-Apps? Read these guidelines.
- The app needs to be useful for people who use their Raspberry Pi as an everyday, desktop computer.
- Apps that are meant to run on a headless Pi will not be accepted. (Rosetta@home, pihole, etc)
- Apps that are not designed for everyday GUI users won't be accepted. (command-line file servers, webservers, etc)
- The app needs to be legal to download and use. (No piracy allowed)
- Paid apps are allowed. If your app has a free demo mode (like Doom 3), please ask the user if they want the demo mode or the full version.
- The app should be appropriate for all ages. After all, Raspberry Pi is designed with children in mind.
- Update 2026: ARM64-only apps are perfectly fine. If the app runs on 32-bit ARM that's fine, but not required anymore.
- The app may not have any malicious content. Any attempt to upload viruses, zip bombs, or any sort of software will result in a swift ban from all pi-apps repos and a report of such malicious activity to GitHub.
- Even if your app follows all of these guidelines, there still may be a reason we decide not to add it to the official Pi-Apps repository. If that happens, you can still take advantage of Pi-Apps's features by telling your users to import the zip file for your app.
Note about Package Apps (including Flatpak Apps):
Pi-Apps was never intended to be a GUI for apt. The only reason we have package-apps is to avoid limiting the options for a given task. For example, if you need an image editor, the best option may be an apt package, so it's best to include them for comparison rather than giving script-apps an unfair advantage.
In other words, package apps need to compliment preexisting script-apps. A proposed package-app in a completely new category will not be accepted.
