Proton Drive gets a command-line client, with a Linux desktop app to follow

Proton has released an official command-line client for Proton Drive, bringing its end-to-end encrypted cloud storage to the terminal on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The CLI landed on 10 June 2026 and is available from Proton’s Drive download page.

The tool ships as a single binary — including both x64 and arm64 builds on Linux — and is built on the Proton Drive SDK, the same foundation that powers Proton’s desktop and mobile apps. It handles the common storage actions from the command line: uploading, downloading, and browsing files, managing the trash, and overseeing shares and invitations. Output is plain text by default, with a --json flag for machine-readable results. There is no always-on sync engine, so backups and scheduled jobs are wired up through cron or systemd timers.

Proton also confirmed it is building a graphical desktop client for Linux, expected before the end of the year. That would close a long-standing gap: the Proton Drive desktop apps have so far shipped for Windows and macOS only, leaving Linux users dependent on the web client or third-party tools.

For the European-alternatives angle, Proton Drive stands as a Swiss, end-to-end-encrypted alternative to Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Scriptable access and first-class Linux support speak directly to the sovereign-stack and self-hosting audience that Proton’s encryption pitch already targets — and chip away at one of the practical reasons technical teams stay on the US incumbents.