Flat backs up the settings, data and permissions of the Flatpak apps you choose into a single portable file, and puts them back on a different machine or a different distribution. It was written to move a desktop from one distribution to another without losing browser profiles, logins, extensions and app settings.
It is selective on purpose. Browsers, mail clients, chat apps, notes, password managers and media tools with project files arrive already ticked; converters, calculators and viewers do not, because nothing in them is worth carrying. Caches are left out unless you ask for them.
Restoring does the steps in the order that actually works:
Everything restores to user scope, so no password is needed and the result behaves the same on any distribution. Nothing needs a terminal.
Flat now lives on Buildmorphic. Updates, the source, the bug tracker and the website all come from flat.lightmorphic.com rather than GitHub.
Ready for release: tooltips are the house light speech bubble, the menu has the usual shortcuts (F1 for help, Ctrl+1 to 3 for the tabs, Ctrl+Q to quit) and no longer offers Reload or the developer tools, Help shows one topic at a time with its picture beside it, the software centre listing has screenshots, and unused code is gone.
Removing an app from My apps now clears its tick on All apps straight away, without restarting Flat.
Backups leave out what apps rebuild by themselves — caches, and in browsers the websites' offline copies and downloaded parts — unless Full is ticked for that app. A Help page, beside the version number, explains everything with pictures.
My apps and Restore show how much each app's settings take, with anything over 250 MB in amber, and the total says roughly how big the backup comes out.
The Restore tab says, before you press Restore, that apps install at their newest version and that a newer version can occasionally ask you to set something up again.
Keep settings starts switched on for every app that has settings on this machine. Switching one off is remembered.
Three tabs: All apps, My apps and Restore. Back up on My apps saves the ticked apps and the settings of the Keep settings ones. Restore opens a backup, shows the same list with the switch on for every app whose settings came along, and puts them on. The bar that appeared when ticking apps is gone.
Apps join My apps only from All apps or from the search box, which finds a name or a pasted ID. The blank row is gone, and app IDs and remotes are shown rather than typed, so a list cannot hold a misspelt one. Plugins no longer appear in search as if they were apps.
An app on this machine that has saved nothing says "No settings" in place of a Keep settings switch, so there is nothing to switch on by mistake.
Updates now come from Flat's GitHub releases. The version number links to flat.lightmorphic.com.
Two tabs. All apps lists everything on the machine, and All ticks every one, for sending to My apps. My apps is where each app is marked Fresh or Keep settings, where the backup is made, and where it refuses to start while a Keep settings app is open. A quiet tick replaces the coloured labels.
The update dot is on screen from the moment Flat opens, pulsing while it checks, and the version number links to flat.lightmorphic.com. A backup file's contents are checked before any of it is used.
The update dot now follows the house spec: version number only, a 16px dot at the top right, a slow one-per-second pulse while it checks and while it restarts, and a white progress ring while downloading.
The warning about open apps now looks again: a Refresh button, and a fresh look whenever the window comes back into focus and every few seconds while the warning is showing.
Renamed from Flatmorphic to Flat. Each app on your list is marked Fresh or Keep settings. On a new machine one Install press puts every app on, and brings back the settings of the Keep settings ones from a backup file.
The icon is now the two brand colours only, with no tinted fill.
A system tray icon with a menu to each tab and a running job's progress in its tooltip. Closing the window during a job now hides it to the tray rather than ending the job. New icon: brand yellow with dark artwork.
The ticked apps on the Back up and Restore tabs can be pushed straight onto the standing list. Rows removed on purpose are remembered so a batch add does not put them back. Messages now appear in the panel rather than floating over the buttons.
Installing now shows a row for every app on the list. Apps already present are named and passed over rather than left out, and a failure no longer ends the run.
A remote added at user scope no longer takes a name already in use system-wide, so hand-typed flatpak commands keep working unchanged.
A standing list of the apps you always want, editable in the app and carried between machines as a small file. On a fresh install, one button puts them all on.
First release. Backing up and restoring selected Flatpak apps, with smart defaults, running-app detection, per-app checksums and permission overrides.