Tray app for Windows, macOS and Linux · Beta
Globlin is a free, open-source tray app that checks your globally installed packages across
every package manager you have, plus your skills.sh agent skills, and updates what has fallen
behind in one click. Global CLIs rot silently: nothing tells you @salesforce/cli
is six versions behind until a command breaks in a way that turns out to be “oh,
I’m ancient.” Globlin sits in the Windows tray, the macOS menu bar or the Linux
system tray, checks on a schedule, and puts what has fallen behind first.
globlin-setup-x64.exe · latest · checksums and signatures · every download
Globlin is in beta. The Windows builds are in daily use; the installer, the ARM64 builds and the macOS and Linux builds are new. Report anything that breaks.
What you actually see
What has fallen behind sits at the top, grouped by package manager, with one button for all of it. Everything that is current folds into a tile per package manager. Even a hundred updates stay readable: groups collapse, a long group shows its first rows and a “show more”.
Features
Globlin never touches anything on its own unless you turn that on.
npm, bun, pnpm, yarn, pipx, uv, cargo, go, dotnet, gem and Homebrew are checked out of the box, plus scoop on Windows; the PowerShell Gallery, winget and choco can be switched on. The same package installed under two of them stays distinguishable — each row names its source. Agent skills installed globally with skills.sh are checked too, against the GitHub repository each one came from, and update with the same click.
Outdated packages lead, grouped by package manager, each group with its own Update button. Everything current folds into a tile per package manager. Chips filter by status and search narrows every list by name.
Update all runs the outdated packages as one queue with a progress bar and a result on each row; Homebrew and scoop go last, after the tools that run on them. winget and choco update too: a machine-wide winget installer and every choco update ask for an administrator through the standard Windows prompt, and a setting folds each into one prompt for the whole queue.
Ignored packages still show their version but are never checked, flagged or notified about. Untick one and it is re-checked immediately.
Every row offers Uninstall — go tools included, whose binary Globlin deletes itself — which arms into a Confirm button. The two clicks are the confirmation.
A toast fires when the set of outdated packages changes, not every six hours about the same three packages.
Globlin checks its own releases on the same schedule. A new build must carry a valid signature from the Globlin release key built into the app and match its SHA-256 sum, or it is discarded without touching the running app.
Icon states
The tray goblin is drawn from code, not loaded from an image file, so what it shows always matches what it found.
Idle — emerald Everything installed is current.
Updates — amber One or more packages are behind.
Error — red A check, a source or a registry failed, and the goblin sweats. A failure never renders as “everything is fine”.
Busy — sky blue A check or an update is running: the goblin fills like a glass and twitches its ears.
Install
The same app for every platform, all of it beta. Checksums and minisign signatures for every file are on the release page.
Installs for your user with no administrator prompt, adds Globlin to the Start menu and to Settings → Apps, and can start it at sign-in.
Also: ARM64 · portable · portable ARM64
Lives in the menu bar; in the Dock only while its window is open.
Install the package with apt or dnf, or run the AppImage, which updates itself. GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension to show the tray icon; packages do not update themselves.
Latest: latest
FAQ
It is in beta on every platform. The Windows builds are in daily use; the installer, the ARM64 builds and the macOS and Linux builds are new. Please report anything that misbehaves.
Yes. Globlin is free and open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0. There is no paid tier, no account, and no telemetry.
Both, in beta. macOS yes, in beta: every release includes an Apple Silicon build of Globlin.app that lives in the menu bar. It is signed ad hoc rather than notarised, so the first launch has to be allowed under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Linux gets a deb for Debian and Ubuntu, an rpm for Fedora and openSUSE and an AppImage that updates itself, for x64 and ARM64; GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension to show the tray icon.
Globlin itself has no runtime dependencies, but it drives the package managers already on your machine — npm, pnpm, cargo, pipx, Homebrew, winget and the rest. If none is installed there is nothing for it to check. On Windows the window is drawn by WebView2, which ships with Windows 11 and with any up-to-date Windows 10; on macOS by the system's WebKit; on Linux by WebKitGTK, which the package installs.
No. Packages are only ever updated when you click. Globlin can update itself unattended, but that setting is off by default and applies to Globlin alone.
npm-check-updates is a command you run by hand against a project's package.json. Globlin is a background tray app for the tools you installed globally — across fifteen package managers, not just npm — and it tells you they are outdated without you remembering to ask.
Every six hours by default, and immediately whenever you pick Check now. The interval is configurable in globlin.json.
If you used the installer, uninstall Globlin from Settings → Apps. For the portable exe, quit from the tray menu, delete the .exe and its .json, then delete the globlin folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%. On macOS, quit, move Globlin.app to the Trash, and delete ~/Library/Application Support/globlin and ~/Library/LaunchAgents/dev.globlin.app.plist. On Linux, remove the package (sudo apt remove globlin or sudo dnf remove globlin) and delete ~/.local/share/globlin.