# Flatseal

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/flatseal/

12 people recommended Flatseal in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Lets people view and change Flatpak app permissions with fine granularity, a common first step before running new apps. Not installed by default and hard for some users.

Summary written by Claude from 15 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Fine-grained control over app permissions (6 comments in the sample): "With Flatseal you can view and manage application-system permissions with a level of granularity I have not seen in other systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151628)) "I have vscode running in flatpak with directory permissions handled by flatseal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48980221)) "you can use flatseal to limit the access that the application has" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49475821))
- Blocks network and file access for apps (2 comments in the sample): "blocking access to anything except my notes folder (and denying internet, among other things) is my very first step when installing Obsidian…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48117225)) "I simply disable its network capabilities via com.github.tchx84.Flatseal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49561429))
- Set permissions before first launch (1 comment in the sample): "which is why I make it a habit of first launching Flatseal to modify permissions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49475481))

## What people warn about

- Cannot set defaults for future apps (2 comments in the sample): "The defacto app for flatpak permissions, flatseal, doesn't have this capability yet to my knowledge." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292426)) "If only flatseal could set defaults for all future installed apps too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479482))
- Apps fail without permissions set first (1 comment in the sample): "you'll run into an issue where .dll's aren't found because you didn't install flatseal first to configure permissions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48630747))

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Flatseal", https://hackerapproved.com/p/flatseal/ (12 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.