How to pre-add repositories to F-Droid in Android ROMs (Important changes in 2.0)
Posted on Mar 28, 2026 by
grote
If you are publishing an Android ROM, you can add some extra pre-installed repositories to the F-Droid app which otherwise only includes the official F-Droid repository.
If you wanted to add the repository of the Guardian Project for example, you could add the following JSON file to one of the following locations of your choice:
/system_ext/etc/fdroid/additional_repos.json/product/etc/fdroid/additional_repos.json/vendor/etc/fdroid/additional_repos.json
[
{
"name": "Guardian Project",
"address": "https://guardianproject.info/fdroid/repo",
"description": "The official app repository of The Guardian Project. Applications in this repository are official binaries build by the original application developers and signed by the same key as the APKs that are released in the Google Play store.",
"certificate": "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",
"enabled": true
}
]
Important warning
The old method of adding repositories using an XML file will not work in F-Droid 2.0. We suggest to ship both, the JSON and the XML file as soon as possible until F-Droid 2.0 has stabilized.
App specific repositories
If you want to add repositories only to a specific app instead of all F-Droid clients, you can add a JSON file to a location including the app’s package name:
/system_ext/etc/[packageName]/additional_repos.json/product/etc/[packageName]/additional_repos.json/vendor/etc/[packageName]/additional_repos.json
The official variants of the F-Droid app have these package names
that could replace [packageName] in the paths above:
org.fdroid.fdroidorg.fdroid.basic
