1# Dumber, fully unfeatured unbloated browser for tiling WMs
2
3<p align="center">
4  <img src="assets/logo.svg" alt="Dumber Logo" width="256" height="256" />
5</p>
6
7Dumber is a minimalist browser and launcher companion focused on speed and simplicity. It ships a built‑in WebKitGTK (GTK4) window for navigation and a CLI with dmenu‑style launcher integration (rofi, fuzzel).
8
9- Native GUI via WebKitGTK 6 (GTK4, CGO) with an embedded homepage UI.
10- CLI that parses URLs, supports search shortcuts (e.g., `g:query`), and integrates with rofi/dmenu.
11- Persistent history and per‑domain zoom levels (SQLite, XDG locations).
12- Configurable via `config.json` and environment variables, with live reload.
13
14## Wayland‑First
15- Dumb on purpose, designed for Wayland window managers (Sway, Hyprland, River, Niri, etc..) it's a tiny companion that interact nicely with your launcher.
16- Uses a native WebKitGTKdo i window; no external browser required and no X11/XWayland dependency.
17- Optimized for dmenu‑style launchers (rofi, fuzzel, wofi) and keyboard‑driven workflows.
18
19## Status
20- Very early stage, expect sharp edges and breaking changes, but it works well enough to browse and play with the launcher flows.
21
22## Features
23- Built‑in browser window (no external browser needed)
24- Custom `dumb://` scheme serving embedded frontend assets
25- Keyboard and mouse controls: comprehensive shortcuts and gestures
26- Persistent history with search and stats
27- Per‑domain zoom persistence
28- dmenu‑style launcher integration (rofi, fuzzel) with history and shortcut suggestions
29
30## Controls & Shortcuts
31
32### Keyboard Shortcuts
33| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
34|----------|--------|-------|
35| **F12** | Open Developer Tools | WebKit inspector |
36| **Ctrl/Cmd+L** | Open Omnibox | URL/search input with history |
37| **Ctrl/Cmd+F** | Find in Page | Search text within current page |
38| **Ctrl/Cmd+=** | Zoom In | Firefox-compatible zoom levels |
39| **Ctrl/Cmd++** | Zoom In | Alternative plus key |
40| **Ctrl/Cmd+-** | Zoom Out | Works across keyboard layouts |
41| **Ctrl/Cmd+0** | Reset Zoom | Return to 100% zoom |
42| **Alt+←** | Navigate Back | Go to previous page |
43| **Alt+→** | Navigate Forward | Go to next page |
44
45### Mouse Controls
46| Action | Result | Notes |
47|--------|---------|-------|
48| **Ctrl+Scroll Up** | Zoom In | Smooth zoom control |
49| **Ctrl+Scroll Down** | Zoom Out | Smooth zoom control |
50| **Mouse Button 8** | Navigate Back | Side button (back) |
51| **Mouse Button 9** | Navigate Forward | Side button (forward) |
52| **Two-finger Swipe** | Back/Forward | When supported by touchpad |
53
54### Omnibox/Find Mode (when active)
55| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
56|----------|--------|-------|
57| **Escape** | Close overlay | Exit omnibox or find mode |
58| **Enter** | Execute/Navigate | Navigate to URL or jump to match |
59| **Shift+Enter** | Previous Match | Find mode: go to previous match |
60| **Alt+Enter** | Center Match | Find mode: center on match, keep open |
61| **↑/↓ Arrow** | Navigate Results | Browse suggestions/matches |
62
63All zoom changes are automatically persisted per-domain and restored on next visit.
64
65## Quick Start
66Prerequisites:
67- Go 1.25+
68- Node.js 20+ and npm (for building the embedded TypeScript frontend)
69- For GUI build: WebKitGTK 6 and GTK4 dev packages (examples)
70  - Debian/Ubuntu: `libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev libgtk-4-dev build-essential`
71  - Arch: `webkitgtk-6.0 gtk4 base-devel`
72
73Build options:
74- GUI (default, recommended):
75  - `make build`          # builds frontend + Go with `-tags=webkit_cgo`
76  - Run: `./dist/dumber`  # opens the embedded homepage
77- CLI‑only (no GUI, CGO disabled):
78  - `make build-no-gui`
79  - Run: `./dist/dumber-no-gui version`
80
81Development:
82- `make dev` runs `go run .` (non‑CGO; GUI stubs log to console)
83- `make test` runs tests; `make lint` runs golangci‑lint
84
85## Install
86**Note**: `go install` will not work for this project because the frontend assets must be built first and embedded into the binary. Use the build commands instead:
87
88- GUI build (default, recommended):
89  - Ensure WebKit2GTK/GTK dev packages are installed (see prerequisites)
90  - Clone the repo and run `make build` (builds frontend first, then Go with GUI support)
91  - The resulting `./dist/dumber` binary includes the native GUI window
92- CLI‑only (no native window):
93  - Clone the repo and run `make build-no-gui`
94  - The resulting `./dist/dumber-no-gui` binary runs CLI flows with GUI code stubbed
95
96## Usage
97- Open a URL or search:
98  - `dumber browse https://example.com`
99  - `dumber browse example.com`        # scheme auto‑added
100  - `dumber browse g:golang`           # Google search via shortcut
101- Launch the GUI directly:
102  - `dumber`                           # no args → opens GUI homepage
103- Launcher integration (dmenu‑style examples):
104  - rofi:   `dumber dmenu | rofi -dmenu -p "Browse: " | dumber dmenu --select`
105  - fuzzel: `dumber dmenu | fuzzel --dmenu -p "Browse: " | dumber dmenu --select`
106
107### Dmenu mode invocation
108You can invoke dmenu mode in two ways:
109- Subcommand (recommended): `dumber dmenu` … and `dumber dmenu --select`
110- Root flag (generate options only): `dumber --dmenu`
111
112Note: The root flag path only generates options; for processing a selection (`--select`), use the `dmenu` subcommand as the receiving command.
113
114In GUI mode the app serves an embedded homepage via `dumb://homepage`, and frontend assets under `dumb://app/...`.
115
116## Configuration
117
118Dumber follows the XDG Base Directory spec:
119- Config: `~/.config/dumber/config.json`
120- Data:   `~/.local/share/dumber`
121- State:  `~/.local/state/dumber` (default DB lives here)
122
123A default `config.json` is created on first run. Config changes are watched and applied at runtime when possible.
124
125### Complete Configuration Reference
126
127#### Database Configuration
128```json
129"database": {
130  "path": "~/.local/state/dumber/history.db",
131  "max_connections": 1,
132  "max_idle_time": "5m0s",
133  "query_timeout": "30s"
134}
135```
136
137#### History Management
138```json
139"history": {
140  "max_entries": 10000,
141  "retention_period_days": 365,
142  "cleanup_interval_days": 1
143}
144```
145
146#### Search Shortcuts
147```json
148"search_shortcuts": {
149  "g":   { "url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=%s", "description": "Google search" },
150  "gh":  { "url": "https://github.com/search?q=%s", "description": "GitHub search" },
151  "yt":  { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s", "description": "YouTube search" },
152  "w":   { "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s", "description": "Wikipedia search" },
153  "ddg": { "url": "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s", "description": "DuckDuckGo search" },
154  "so":  { "url": "https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%s", "description": "Stack Overflow search" },
155  "r":   { "url": "https://www.reddit.com/search?q=%s", "description": "Reddit search" },
156  "npm": { "url": "https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=%s", "description": "npm package search" },
157  "go":  { "url": "https://pkg.go.dev/search?q=%s", "description": "Go package search" },
158  "mdn": { "url": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=%s", "description": "MDN Web Docs search" }
159}
160```
161
162#### Dmenu Integration
163```json
164"dmenu": {
165  "max_history_items": 20,
166  "show_visit_count": true,
167  "show_last_visited": true,
168  "history_prefix": "🕒",
169  "shortcut_prefix": "🔍",
170  "url_prefix": "🌐",
171  "date_format": "2006-01-02 15:04",
172  "sort_by_visit_count": true
173}
174```
175
176#### Logging Configuration
177```json
178"logging": {
179  "level": "info",
180  "format": "text",
181  "filename": "",
182  "max_size": 100,
183  "max_backups": 3,
184  "max_age": 7,
185  "compress": true
186}
187```
188
189#### Appearance Settings
190```json
191"appearance": {
192  "sans_font": "Fira Sans",
193  "serif_font": "Fira Sans", 
194  "monospace_font": "Fira Code",
195  "default_font_size": 16
196}
197```
198
199#### Rendering Mode (GPU/CPU)
200```json
201"rendering_mode": "auto"
202```
203- `auto`: Detect GPU availability and use GPU when available (default)
204- `gpu`: Force GPU acceleration (Vulkan/OpenGL via GTK4)
205- `cpu`: Force software rendering
206
207### Environment Variables
208All config values can be overridden with environment variables using the `DUMB_BROWSER_` prefix:
209
210```bash
211# Database
212DUMB_BROWSER_DATABASE_PATH="./browser.db"
213DUMB_BROWSER_DATABASE_MAX_CONNECTIONS=5
214
215# Rendering mode (special variable name)
216DUMBER_RENDERING_MODE="gpu"
217
218# Dmenu settings
219DUMB_BROWSER_DMENU_MAX_HISTORY_ITEMS=50
220DUMB_BROWSER_DMENU_SHOW_VISIT_COUNT=false
221
222# Logging
223DUMB_BROWSER_LOGGING_LEVEL="debug"
224DUMB_BROWSER_LOGGING_FORMAT="json"
225```
226
227### CLI Flags
228The browse command supports additional runtime flags:
229```bash
230dumber browse --rendering-mode=gpu https://example.com
231```
232
233
234## Building With WebKitGTK 6 (GTK4)
235- The GUI requires building with `-tags=webkit_cgo` and CGO enabled.
236- Ensure WebKitGTK 6 and GTK4 dev headers are installed (see prerequisites).
237- Make targets handle both frontend and Go build steps:
238  - `make build-gui` (CGO enabled)
239  - `make build` (CGO enabled by default in the Makefile’s main build)
240
241Without the native tag, a stub backend is used: you can still run CLI flows and see logs, but no native window is displayed.
242
243## Media (GStreamer) Requirements
244
245WebKitGTK uses GStreamer for media playback. Install the following packages to ensure audio/video work correctly.
246
247- Arch Linux:
248  - `sudo pacman -S gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav gst-plugin-pipewire pipewire pipewire-pulse`
249  - Optional hardware accel: `gstreamer-vaapi`
250- Debian/Ubuntu:
251  - `sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-pipewire`
252  - Optional hardware accel: `gstreamer1.0-vaapi`
253
254## Theme and Runtime Updates
255- The homepage and pages respect your system’s light/dark preference.
256- The app updates color‑scheme live when your GTK theme changes (no relaunch needed).
257
258## Project Structure
259- `main.go`: CLI/GUI entrypoint, `dumb://` scheme, service wiring
260- `internal/cli`: Cobra commands (`browse`, `dmenu`, `version`)
261- `internal/config`: Viper‑backed config, XDG helpers, defaults
262- `internal/db`: SQLite schema init and sqlc‑generated queries
263- `services`: app services (parser/history/config/browser)
264- `pkg/webkit`: WebKit2GTK bindings (CGO and stub implementations)
265- `frontend`: TypeScript homepage UI bundled into the binary
266
267## Security & Privacy
268- History and zoom settings are stored locally in SQLite under XDG state.
269- The `tmp/` directory is ignored by Git and kept out of history.
270
271## Roadmap
272- ✅ WebKitGTK 6 (GTK4) migration (GPU/Vulkan path complete)
273- ✅ GPU rendering (Vulkan via GTK4 renderer) with graceful CPU fallback
274- Full Vim-style motion and keyboard navigation across pages and UI
275- Performance work: faster startup, lower memory, snappier UI
276- Basic ad-block extension — because fuck ads
277- Other shiny things I'm not yet aware of
278
279## License
280This project is licensed under the MIT License. See `LICENSE` for details.