orzbrowser

orzbrowser runs inside an orzma pane and loads a remote URL in an embedded webview below a two-row toolbar. You drive it from the keyboard like a Vim-style pager — scrolling, following links by typing hint labels, and stepping through history — and type addresses or search terms into the toolbar’s address bar.

Features

• Vim-style scrolling — j / k move by line, Ctrl+d / Ctrl+u by half a page, Ctrl+f / Ctrl+b by a full page, and gg / G jump to the top / bottom. Holding a key keeps scrolling smoothly until you let go. When a frame embedded in the page (a code demo, a video player) has keyboard focus, the keys scroll that frame, and scroll the page around it once the frame can scroll no further that way.
• Link hints — press f to overlay labels on every link and form field, then type a label to follow it. Landing on a text field switches to Insert mode automatically.
• History — H and L step back and forward through the session history.
• Address bar with search — o (or :, or a click on the address) opens the address bar. Type an address to open it, or any other words to search for them. The caret moves with the arrow keys, and input methods work, so you can search in any language.
• Modal input — Normal, Insert, Address, Hint, and Help modes. In Normal mode the page holds keyboard focus and the scroll keys scroll it; i enters Insert mode, where every key but Escape types into the page, and Escape returns to Normal.
• In-app help — ? shows the full shortcut list.

Usage

orzbrowser [address or search terms]

orzbrowser github.com opens a site, and orzbrowser rust async searches for the words. With no argument, orzbrowser opens the search engine’s front page with the address bar ready for typing.

The toolbar shows the mode, the address with its host in bold, and the main keys of the mode. An http address shows Not secure before its host.

Address bar

The address bar decides what Enter does as you type, and shows it on the right (↵ Open github.com or ↵ Search DuckDuckGo):

Pressing Enter on the current address reloads the page. Escape closes the address bar without navigating. While the address bar is open, Ctrl+c does not quit; press Escape and then q.

Searches go to DuckDuckGo. To use another engine, set ORZBROWSER_SEARCH_URL to its search URL with {} where the search terms go:

export ORZBROWSER_SEARCH_URL='https://www.google.com/search?q={}'

The URL must be http or https and contain exactly one {}, in its path, query, or fragment; otherwise orzbrowser exits with an error.

Keyboard shortcuts

Normal

In Normal mode the page holds keyboard focus, so Ctrl+c copies the page’s selection instead of quitting (on macOS, copy with Cmd+c); quit with q. Ctrl+c quits only while the pane is too short to show the page.

Address bar

Hint

Insert

In Insert mode every other key goes to the page, so you can type into focused inputs. orzma’s own shortcuts still run first (see Key Bindings).

Help

Acknowledgements

orzbrowser’s keyboard model and link-hint workflow are inspired by Vimium, the keyboard-driven browser extension. The hint alphabet (sadfjklewcmpgh) is Vimium’s default. Vimium is distributed under the MIT License; the scrolling of orzbrowser and orzmd is ported from Vimium’s content_scripts/scroller.js (commit e34b529328), and its license notice is reproduced in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md; the rest of orzbrowser is an independent implementation.