---
title: Getting Started
weight: 20
---

Amethyst is a fast, efficient and lightweight AUR helper and Pacman wrapper. Made for Crystal, compatible with any Arch-based Linux distribution.

![Amethyst demo](/demos/ame.png)

## Installation

### Crystal Linux

Amethyst is installed on Crystal Linux automatically

### Non-Crystal Distros

1. `sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel pacman-contrib cargo`
2. `git clone https://github.com/crystal-linux/pkgbuild.amethyst`
3. `cd pkgbuild.amethyst && makepkg -si`

It is also in the AUR as [`ame`](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ame).

## Usage

Amethyst supports subcommands and Pacman-style flags. Read [Detailed Usage](usage) for more.

## Configuring

You can configure Amethyst using the `~/.config/ame/config.toml` file, which is automatically created. Each key is explained in [Config Keys](config).

```toml
# ~/.config/ame/config.toml

[base]
pacdiff_warn = true
paccache_keep = 0
paccache_keep_ins_pkgs = true

[bin]
sudo = 'sudo'
```
