Distributors of projects with AppStream metadata perform an important role by making the software available to more people. There are a few guidelines distributors should follow in order for software centers to present the correct information to users.

A binary package that contains AppStream desktop metadata (Section 2.2, “Desktop Applications”) must also contain both the .desktop file for the application and the application itself.

A binary package must not contain more than one AppStream metadata file. The one exception is that it is permissable for a binary package that is extended by addons to include those addons (Section 2.6, “Addons”) and their AppStream metadata files. Note that users will be unable to remove those addons separately.

Except for the extended package, no other package may contain more than one Appstream addon metadata file.