How can I create a launcher for an AppImage with a changing version number?

Creating a launcher with a wildcard in a simple script is super easy. Just place your script in /usr/bin and make it executable, then call it from your cursor.desktop launcher. For example: #!/bin/bash exec "$HOME/Applications/cursor*" & exit 0. This will handle launching it for you.

You might want to check out Gear Lever. It can help manage this kind of situation. If that doesn't work for you, consider scripting something in bash. Remember, .desktop files are just plain text, so you could write a script that re-launches the AppImage whenever it changes. If you set up systemd to monitor your Applications folder, it could trigger your script on changes.

There are a few AppImage manager tools that automate launching AppImages. I haven't checked them recently, but sites like It's FOSS list some tools you could explore. Worst case, you could create a shell script that renames the file to remove the version number and then copies the executable to your Applications directory. Alternatively, making a symbolic link to the non-versioned name could also work.