Built Your Own Linux Distro With AI - Claude Design + Claude Code
People constantly complain that Linux isn't laid out the way they want, that they can't get the desktop they're after, that no distro fits exactly how they work. So build your own. In this video I walk through how I'm building a…
People constantly complain that Linux isn't laid out the way they want, that they can't get the desktop they're after, that no distro fits exactly how they work. So build your own. In this video I walk through how I'm building a completely custom Linux distribution using AI — Claude design and Claude Code doing the heavy lifting — without spending weeks wiring up dotfiles by hand.
Check out Chris Titus' book if you want the deep detail on distro components and packaging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVmXcRwIobA
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You can download Omarchy here https://omarchy.org
Amazing premade Omarchy themes here and other cool stuff
https://github.com/HANCORE-linux
This isn't a step-by-step install guide. It's the methodology — how to break the project into logical stages, what components you need, and how to use two machines plus AI to iterate fast.
THE COMPONENTS
Every distro is the same building blocks. You pick a base — I'm using Arch because it's a rolling release, unrestrictive, heavily modifiable, and it's what Steam, Omarchy, CachyOS, and Manjaro are all built on. Then you decide your install configuration, your desktop environment, your tools and utilities, your update mechanism, and your branding. Bind it into an ISO, build the installer, test, and you've got a distribution.
STAGE 1 — THE HEADLESS BASE ISO
First job for the AI is building a standalone headless Arch ISO. You tell it what you want baked in — UK locale, network capability, headless base. It builds the ISO, you test it in a VM, reject it, it rebuilds. No GUI means it installs on almost any hardware. Once this works, the foundation is done.
STAGE 2 — DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT
Hyprland comes blank out of the box, so I use Celestia Sharp as the framework — open source, with all the plumbing already mapped out for wifi, launchers, the lot. Tell the AI to layer Hyprland and Celestia on top of your ISO and it does it. Now it boots into a working desktop with a hundred-plus widgets.
STAGE 3 — MAKE IT YOURS
Fork the framework on GitHub so upstream changes don't break your build. Then use Claude design to redesign the entire interface — feed it your setup, describe how you want it to look, iterate visually, then hand off to Claude Code. Claude Code overlays the design, working in a VM, moving the bar, repositioning widgets, bit by bit. Critically — break this into chunks. AI gets less reliable as context grows, so do the top bar, save to notes, do the next screen, save again. I keep a running notes file documenting every phase.
STAGE 4 — HARDWARE DETECTION
Fold in CachyOS's seaward installer for hardware detection so it loads the right packages for AMD, Nvidia, or Intel. You can't test this in a VM, so this is where the second machine comes in.
THE TWO-MACHINE WORKFLOW
You need a builder machine and a test machine. The AI writes handover notes to a USB, you boot the test machine which has Claude Code on it, it reads the notes, runs hardware tests, and writes a report back for the builder. The two AIs pass work back and forth until everything certifies.
WHY DO THIS
It's not as hard as it looks. It's the same thing you already do — install Mint, slap a loader on top to make it look like Mac. You're just building it in properly. And you'll learn an enormous amount about how Linux actually works without hand-writing dotfiles. I started on machine code as a kid and at some point I stopped wanting to make the tools and started wanting to make things with them. This is that — I want to design the interface, not learn every config syntax to do it.
The whole thing is feasible in a couple of days on a normal Claude account. I only hit context limits during VM testing.
WHAT'S NEXT
I'll finish the Arch base version and may push the ISO out for people to play with. Then I'll likely rebase onto CachyOS — same approach, download the CachyOS ISO, let the AI work it out. This sidesteps all the stress people hit forcing Omarchy over CachyOS manually.
And Omarchy 4 is coming with Quickshell — which is what kicked this whole project off in the first place.
ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
I make videos about Linux, Omarchy, AI workflows, self-hosting, and creative tools. Subscribe if that's your thing.
00:00 - Start
00:13 - A MASSIVE PRAMBLE
09:07 - CUSTOM OS
24:31 - HOW TO BUILD IT
35:52 - FINAL WORDS