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Warning
Back up your device before applying tweaks. GoldenNugget can cause data loss, boot loops, or other unexpected device problems. Use this project at your own risk; the authors are not responsible for damage to your device or data. See the full disclaimer.
Unlock your device's full potential, with experimental iOS 27 support!
Customize your device with animated wallpapers, disable pesky daemons, and more!
Make sure you have installed the requirements if you are on Windows or Linux.
For a packaged app, download the archive for your platform from the latest release. See the installation guide for setup help.
Requirements Python 3.10+ Qt 6.12.0+ Rust (Mobile companion)
- Install the device connection tools listed in Requirements.
- Create and activate a virtual environment:
python -m venv .venv
# Windows PowerShell
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
# macOS/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate- Install the pinned dependencies and start GoldenNugget:
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python main_app.pyMake a full device backup before applying tweaks. Use python main_app.py --test-mode
to open the interface with mock devices and no iPhone connected.
| Component | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iOS | 26.2–27.x | Older versions are blocked by the app. |
| Windows | Apple Devices or iTunes | Install one before connecting an iPhone. |
| Linux | usbmuxd and libimobiledevice |
Both are required for USB access. |
| Linux (release) | glibc 2.34+ (x86_64) | The frozen build runs where PySide6 itself runs. Debian 12, Ubuntu 22.04, RHEL 9, Mint 21+. Source runs on Python 3.10+ on any distro (release builds use 3.15). |
| Python | 3.10+ | Use the pinned packages in requirements.txt. |
Why does GoldenNugget make its own backup if I already have one?
On iOS 27, GoldenNugget restores your data from the protective backup it makes right before applying, not from your own backup, so don't skip this step. If there isn't enough disk space for that backup, the apply stops before the phone is changed. The phone is usually not wiped, but in rare cases it reboots into a recovery mode that erases its data, and then that backup is the only way back. iOS 26 never wipes, and it does not make this backup. Keep your own backup as well, in case something goes wrong. Make sure the computer has enough free space, and never delete the protective backup or cache while an apply or recovery is in progress. You can move it in Settings → Backup → Backup/Cache Location.
How do I install the macOS app?
Download GoldenNugget-macOS-Universal2.dmg from the latest release, open it and copy GoldenNugget to Applications. It needs macOS 14.4 or newer. The app isn't notarized, so on first launch go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.
Apply is stuck. What should I do?
Keep the phone connected and unlocked, and don't close GoldenNugget. While the phone reboots, the app waits up to 20 minutes for it to come back and then offers Abort or Resume. Choose Resume if the phone is still restarting. If nothing moves, recover your data with Settings → Backup → Restore Data From Backup, then report the bug with Settings → Support → App Log → Export Diagnostics attached. The same export is available from Open application log on the apply result card.
Need support? Join our Discord Server.
GoldenNugget Mobile runs on your device without a computer.
Batter Builder
is a visual editor for .batter templates with community tweaks: switches,
sliders, text boxes and choice lists, no JSON by hand. It checks the template
with GoldenNugget's rules, previews it on a virtual iPhone and submits it to the
community catalog.
iOS 26.2 - 27.0+
- PosterBoard: Animated wallpapers and descriptors.
- Community wallpapers can be found here or here
- Customizing community-made wallpapers via batter files
- Device-Specific wallpapers in MercuryPoster can be installed
- See documentation on the structure of tendies and batter files in documentation.md
- Templates: Custom Operations and file editing
- Make your own with Batter Builder, a visual editor for templates with community tweaks
- See documentation on the structure of batter files in documentation.md
- Status Bar
- Live preview of the Lock Screen and Home Screen status bar before applying
- iOS 26 and below: full override set
- Change carrier name
- Change secondary carrier name
- Enable/Disable the primary or secondary carriers
- Change the number of WiFi/Cellular bars
- Change the battery capacity
- Change battery display detail
- Change time text
- Change date text (iPad only)
- Change breadcrumb text
- Show numeric WiFi/Cellular strength
- Hide or show many icons in the status bar
- iOS 27 and above: cellular entry only (the rest of the overrides have no
equivalent in the new status bar format and are hidden on that page)
- Change primary and secondary carrier name
- Change primary and secondary service badge
- Change primary and secondary signal bars
- Not yet verified on physical hardware, only on the iOS 27 simulator
- Springboard Options
- Set Lock Screen Footnote
- Set Lock Screen Idle Auto-Lock Time
- Disable Lock After Respring
- Disable Screen Dimming While Charging
- Disable Low Battery Alerts
- Hide AC Power on Lock Screen
- Show Supervision Text on Lock Screen
- Show Dynamic Island in Screenshots
- Enable AirPlay support for Stage Manager
- Show Red/Green Authentication Line on Lock Screen (See this issue for what it looks like)
- Disable Floating Tab Bar on iPads
- Disable AirDrop Time Limit for Everyone Option
- Disable Breadcrumbs
- Disable Dynamic Island
- Disable Icon Parallax
- Hide Search Button on Home Screen
- Allow pairing with any watchOS version (iPad only)
- Internal Options
- Build Version in Status Bar
- Force Right to Left / Left to Right
- Show Hidden Icons on Home Screen
- iMessage, Continuity and FaceTime Debugging
- Show Accessory Developer Settings
- Disable Clock Icon Seconds Hand
- Disable Spotlight Searching in Websites
- Show Hardware Button Hints in Screenshots
- Vibrate on Raise-to-Wake
- App Store Debug Gesture
- Notes App Debug Mode
- Show Touches With Debug Info
- Hide Respring Icon
- Play Sound on Paste
- Show Notifications for System Pastes
- Liquid Glass (iOS 26.0+): 98 options, searchable in the app
- Disable or tone down Liquid Glass: Solarium fallback (iOS 26 only), linked-on, hardware and opt-out checks
- Turn off specular highlights, refraction, HDR and shadows for the Dock, folders, widgets and Lock Screen clock
- Flat icons everywhere
- iOS 27: experimental glass flags (Calistoga, floating and stacked-image effects, debug overlays)
- Disable Daemons (with a one-tap Recommended set):
- System services: thermalmonitord, OTA updates, UsageTrackingAgent, Game Center, Screen Time Agent, ATWAKEUP, Tips, VPN icon, Chinese WLAN service, HealthKit, AirPrint, Assistive Touch, iCloud, Internet Tethering (Personal Hotspot), Passbook, Spotlight, Voice Control, NanoTimeKit, Apple Ads, News, Family Sharing, Video Subscriptions, Web Bookmarks, Apple Watch (Nano) services, Siri backend services, Wi-Fi logging, Maps (geod), Safari Suggestions, Reminders, AirPlay, GameKit, Sidecar, Speech Recognition, Translate, Mock Location, DeviceCheck
- Analytics & diagnostics: crash reporting, Wi-Fi, system, audio, ecosystem, call and media analytics, CoreDuet, Insight, Metrics, symptom, statistical and wireless diagnostics, Duet heuristics, decisiond, triald, sociald
- Icon Themes: custom Home Screen icons and labels as WebClips, plus downloadable icon packs
- Passcode Themes: custom passcode keypads from
.passthmpackages, written over USB/Wi-Fi with AirLift (no reboot) - Presets: save, switch, export and import whole tweak setups (
.gnpreset); see Portable presets - Share a preset as a QR code or a one-line code, and import someone else's setup from a screenshot or pasted text
- Preset catalog: browse community presets reviewed by the team, check their risk, preview and import them, or submit your own
- Risk check before every apply: a Low / Medium / High verdict with reasons, and an explicit confirmation for high-risk setups
- Preview on iPhone: see the Lock Screen and Home Screen with your tweaks, drawn for your model, before applying (also for presets and shared codes)
- Command line: everything above is scriptable through
python nugget_cli.py --help, with--jsonoutput and--dry-runapplies
Open the English interface screenshots
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Thanks to everyone who contributes to the project! 🎉
Want to see your name here? Open a Pull Request!
Windows
- Either the Apple Devices (from Microsoft Store) App or iTunes (from Apple website)
Linux
If they are missing, GoldenNugget offers to install them (Arch, Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Alpine and Void families); the system asks for your administrator password through polkit, so the app never sees it.
For Running Python
- pymobiledevice3
- PySide6 (PySide6-Essentials on non-Linux, selected automatically)
- ffmpeg-python (video wallpapers)
- opencv-python (video wallpapers)
- Python 3.10 or newer
All pinned deps are in
requirements.txt(incl. PyInstaller for building).
- Wiki: installation, tweaks, presets, wallpapers and troubleshooting.
- Portable presets and diagnostics:
.gnpresetfiles, diagnostic archives, JSON CLI output and offline wallpaper checks. - Architecture: device connections, background operations and backup/restore internals.
- Contributing: contribution guidelines and offline checks.
Follow Quick Start to install the dependencies first.
The generated src/qt/mainwindow_ui.py is committed; no Designer UI generation
step is required for the current interface.
When changing Qt resources, regenerate the resource module:
pyside6-rcc --compress-algo zlib src/qt/resources.qrc -o src/qt/resources_rc.pyTranslations live in the gNugget-i18n repository and are synced into
src/qt/translations/ automatically, so do not edit the Nugget_*.ts files here.
See I18N_SETUP.md for the sync, the local Russian catalog and the
pitfalls of regenerating catalogs with pyside6-lupdate.
Build the application for your current platform:
python compile.pyBuild output is written to dist/.
The macOS CI build downloads Qt/PySide6 6.12.0 Universal2 wheels for Python 3.15 from QTBuildMacOS. Qt compilation, wheel normalization, and shared releases are maintained there; this repository builds the application using the published wheels. The current runtime requires macOS 14.4 or newer. See the shared repository for local Qt build instructions and reuse in other GoldenNugget-Team projects.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for contributions and FORKING.md for forks.
- awesomenull Lead developer
- Wind0ws11Aero Co-developer
- kik4311 Co-developer
- mekabrine for icons artwork in new ui.
- oma for interface improvements.
- Lucide contributors for some of the interface icons.
- Rasmus Andersson for the Inter font.
- Translations crowdsourced using gNugget-i18n repository
- Prognosticate-X for Status Bar research on iOS 27
- LeminLimez for creating Nugget.
- 0xjohnnydev for AirLift
- [LEGACY] Old translations were crowdsourced using Nugget POEditor. Thank you everyone who assisted in the translation effort!
- PosterRestore for their help with PosterBoard
- SerStars for the wallpaper website.
- iTechExpert for various Springboard/Internal Options
- Mikasa-san for Quiet Daemon
- MiniVoidyy for the additional system and analytics daemon lists.
- doronz88 for pymobiledevice3's restoring and device algorithms.
- Qt Company for the PySide6 GUI library.
- FFmpeg contributors and Karl Kroening for video processing and the ffmpeg-python bindings.
- OpenCV contributors for image and video decoding.
- pillow-heif contributors for HEIF image decoding on Linux.
- mattisklein for the Siri AI eligibility archives from Project Linwood.