shepherd-launcher

A child-friendly, parent-guided desktop environment alternative for Wayland, allowing supervised access to applications and content that you define.

Its primary goal is to return control of child-focused computing to parents, not software or hardware vendors, by providing:

• the ease-of-use of game consoles
• access to any application that can be run, emulated, or virtualized in desktop Linux
• with granular access controls inspired by and exceeding those in iOS Screen Time

While this repository provides some examples for existing software packages (including non-free software and abandonware), shepherd-launcher is non-prescriptive: as the end user, you are free to use them, not use them, or write your own.

Screenshots

Home screen

shepherd-launcher presents a list of activities for the user to pick from.

The flow of manually opening and closing activities should be familiar.

Activities can be made selectively available at certain times of day.

This example, shown at 9 PM, has limited activities as a result.

Time limits

Activities can have configurable time limits, including:

• individual session length
• total usage per day
• cooldown periods before that particular activity can be restarted (skipped when the activity only ran for a moment, so a crash on launch costs nothing)

Anything on Linux

If it can run on Linux in any way, shape, or form, it can be supervised by shepherd-launcher.

Big Buck Bunny playing locally via mpv

For collections of media files (local or YouTube), the bundled shepherd-media launcher reads a declarative .toml library file and presents either a single direct-play activity or a browseable poster grid.

Putt Putt Joins the Circus running via ScummVM

The Secret of Monkey Island running via ScummVM

Minecraft running via the Prism Launcher Flatpak

Celeste running via Steam

A Short Hike running via Steam

Local management

shepherd-launcher optionally runs a management UI and API that can be used to apply temporary overrides.

Core concepts

• Launcher-first: only one foreground activity at a time
• Time-scoped execution: applications are granted time slices, not unlimited sessions
• Parent-defined policy: rules live outside the application being run
• Wrappers, not patches: existing software is sandboxed, not modified
• Revocable access: sessions end predictably and enforceably

Non-goals

1. Modifying or patching third-party applications
2. Circumventing DRM or platform protections
3. Replacing parental involvement with automation or third-party content moderation
4. Remotely monitoring users with telemetry
5. Collecting, storing, or reporting personally identifying information (PII)

Regarding age verification

shepherd-launcher may be considered "operating system software" under the Digital Age Assurance Act and similar legislation, and therefore subject to an age verification requirement.

As legislated, such requirements are fundamentally incompatible with non-goals 3, 4, and 5.

shepherd-launcher will never collect telemetry or PII, and as such, it will never implement this type of age verification.

As a result, shepherd-launcher is not licensed for use in any region that requires OS-level age verification by law. If you reside in any such region, you may not download, install, or redistribute shepherd-launcher.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• California
• Brazil

The US as a whole and individual states are considering similar legislation.

If you disagree with this assessment and you reside in an affected region, please contact your representatives.

Installation

shepherd-launcher is pre-alpha and in active development. The helper at ./scripts/shepherd can be used to build and install a fully functional local kiosk setup from source:

Check out this repository and run ./scripts/shepherd --help or see INSTALL.md for more.

Example configuration

All behavior shown above is driven entirely by declarative configuration.

For the Minecraft example shown above:

# Prism Launcher - Minecraft launcher (Flatpak)
# Install: flatpak install flathub org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher
[[entries]]
id = "prism-launcher"
label = "Prism Launcher"
icon = "org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher"

[entries.kind]
type = "flatpak"
app_id = "org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher"

[entries.availability]
[[entries.availability.windows]]
days = "weekdays"
start = "15:00"
end = "18:00"

[[entries.availability.windows]]
days = "weekends"
start = "10:00"
end = "20:00"

[entries.limits]
max_run_seconds = 1800  # 30 minutes (roughly 3 in-game days)
daily_quota_seconds = 3600  # 1 hour per day
cooldown_seconds = 600  # 10 minute cooldown

[[entries.warnings]]
seconds_before = 120
severity = "warn"
message = "2 minutes remaining - save your game!"

[[entries.warnings]]
seconds_before = 30
severity = "critical"
message = "30 seconds! Save NOW!"

See config.example.toml and the Wiki for more.

Development

Build instructions and contribution guidelines are described in CONTRIBUTING.md.

If you'd like to help out, you can find potential work items on the Issues page. You may email me patch sets at shepherd-launcher-patch@albertarmea.com.

Written in 2025, responsibly

This project stands on the shoulders of giants in systems software and compatibility infrastructure:

• Wayland and Sway
• Rust
• Flatpak and Snap
• Proton and WINE

This project was written with the assistance of generative AI-based coding agents. Substantial prompts and design docs provided to agents are disclosed in docs/ai.