dumber

Dumber, fully unfeatured unbloated browser for tiling WMs

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/394f5f7e-a475-42da-b483-5a58b2ea2f51

A dumb browser that works like your favorite terminal multiplexer.

Features

• Wayland native: No X11/XWayland dependency, works with Sway, Hyprland, River, Niri, etc.
• Tabs and workspaces: Each tab holds a workspace with split or stacked panes.
• Keyboard-driven: Keyboard workflow inspired by Zellij.
• Smart popup handling: OAuth flows, window.open(), and popup deduplication for tiling WMs.
• GPU rendering: Hardware video acceleration with automatic VA-API/VDPAU detection.
• Built-in ad blocking: UBlock-based network + cosmetic filtering.
• Launcher integration: dmenu-style with rofi/fuzzel support, shows favicons and history.
• Search shortcuts: Quick search via bangs (e.g., !g golang for Google, !gi cats for Google Images).
• Customizable themes: Light and dark palettes with semantic color tokens.
• Persistent storage: SQLite for history, zoom levels, and settings.
• Live configuration: Single config file with hot reload when possible.

Status

Dumber recently completed a full rewrite in pure Go using the puregotk and puregotk-webkit libraries.

The project is now structured around clean architecture, which makes it much easier to iterate on features and improve testability.

Early development with regular releases. Core features work well for daily use but expect some rough edges.

Controls & Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Browser Controls

Tab Management

Pane Management

Mouse Controls

Omnibox/Find Mode (when active)

All zoom changes are automatically persisted per-domain and restored on next visit.

Quick Start

Option 1: Use Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Download the latest release from the releases page:

wget https://github.com/bnema/dumber/releases/latest/download/dumber_<version>_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf dumber_<version>_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 755 dumber /usr/local/bin/

Then install runtime dependencies (see Install section for details).

Option 2: Build From Source

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.25+
• Node.js 20+ and npm (for building the embedded TypeScript frontend)
• For GUI build: WebKitGTK 6 and GTK4 dev packages (examples)
  • Minimum runtime versions: WebKitGTK 6.0 >= 2.50, GTK4 >= 4.20, GLib >= 2.84
  • Debian/Ubuntu: libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev libgtk-4-dev build-essential
  • Arch: webkitgtk-6.0 gtk4 base-devel
  • Verify your system with: dumber doctor (or configure runtime.prefix for /opt installs)

Build options:

• Default (recommended):
  • make build # builds frontend + Go (pure Go; CGO off)
  • Run: ./dist/dumber # run the app
• Quick (no frontend rebuild):
  • make build-quick
  • Run: ./dist/dumber

Development:

• make dev runs go run ./cmd/dumber
• make test runs tests; make lint runs golangci‑lint

Install

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

Pre-built binaries are available for Linux (x86_64/amd64) in the releases page. These include all frontend assets and are ready to use:

# Download and install latest release
wget https://github.com/bnema/dumber/releases/latest/download/dumber_<version>_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf dumber_<version>_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 755 dumber /usr/local/bin/

Replace <version> with the desired version (e.g., 0.14.1), or use the direct link from the releases page.

Dependencies (required for both pre-built binaries and source builds):

Arch Linux:

# Core WebKitGTK 6.0 and GTK4
sudo pacman -S webkitgtk-6.0 gtk4

# GStreamer for media playback
sudo pacman -S gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav gst-plugin-pipewire pipewire pipewire-pulse

# Hardware video decoding (required for YouTube, Twitch, etc.)
sudo pacman -S gst-plugin-va

# VA-API drivers (choose based on your GPU)
# AMD: sudo pacman -S libva-mesa-driver mesa
# NVIDIA: sudo pacman -S libva-nvidia-driver
# Intel: sudo pacman -S libva-intel-driver intel-media-driver

Debian/Ubuntu:

⚠️ Note: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ships with GLib 2.80, but this project requires GLib 2.84+ due to newer GTK/WebKitGTK runtime requirements. Use Arch Linux, Fedora 41+, or another distribution with recent GLib packages.

# Core WebKitGTK and GTK4
sudo apt install libwebkitgtk-6.0-4 libgtk-4-1

# GStreamer for media playback
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

# Hardware video decoding (gst-plugins-bad includes VA stateless decoders)
# VA-API drivers
sudo apt install va-driver-all

Build From Source

Note: go install will not work for this project because the frontend assets must be built first and embedded into the binary.

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.25+
• Node.js 20+ and npm (for building the embedded TypeScript frontend)
• WebKitGTK 6 and GTK4 dev packages:
  • Minimum runtime versions: WebKitGTK 6.0 >= 2.50, GTK4 >= 4.20, GLib >= 2.84
  • Debian/Ubuntu: libwebkitgtk-6.0-dev libgtk-4-dev build-essential
  • Arch: webkitgtk-6.0 gtk4 base-devel
  • Verify your system with: dumber doctor (or configure runtime.prefix for /opt installs)

Build options:

• GUI build (default, recommended):
  • Clone the repo and run make build (builds frontend first, then Go with GUI support)
  • The resulting ./dist/dumber binary includes the native GUI window
• CLI‑only (no native window):
  • Clone the repo and run make build-no-gui
  • The resulting ./dist/dumber-no-gui binary runs CLI flows with GUI code stubbed

Usage

• Open a URL or search:
  • dumber browse https://example.com
  • dumber browse example.com # scheme auto‑added
  • dumber browse dumb://home # built-in home page (stats, shortcuts, etc.)
  • dumber browse "!g golang" # Google search via bang shortcut
• Show version information:
  • dumber about # display version, commit, and build date
• Launcher integration (dmenu‑style examples with favicon support):
  • rofi: dumber dmenu | rofi -dmenu -show-icons -p "🔍 " | dumber dmenu --select
  • fuzzel: dumber dmenu | fuzzel --dmenu -p "🔍 " | dumber dmenu --select
• Manage browsing history:
  • dumber history # interactive history browser (timeline tabs + fuzzy search)
  • dumber history --json # output recent entries as JSON
  • dumber history --json --max 50 # limit JSON output to N entries
  • dumber history stats # show history statistics
  • dumber history clear # interactive cleanup (select time range)
• Clean up data and cache:
  • dumber purge # purge all data (with confirmation)
  • dumber purge --force # purge all data (no confirmation)
  • dumber purge -d -H -c # purge database and both caches
  • dumber purge --browser-data # purge WebKit data (cookies, etc.)
• Manage logs:
  • dumber logs list # list available log files
  • dumber logs tail # tail current log file
  • dumber logs clean # clean up old log files

Dmenu mode invocation

You can invoke dmenu mode in two ways:

• Subcommand (recommended): dumber dmenu … and dumber dmenu --select
• Root flag (generate options only): dumber --dmenu

Note: The root flag path only generates options; for processing a selection (--select), use the dmenu subcommand as the receiving command.

In GUI mode the app serves an embedded home page via dumb://home, and frontend assets under dumb://app/....

There is also a WIP config UI at dumb://config for viewing/applying settings with live reload.

Tab Management

Each tab holds its own workspace. Each workspace can contain multiple panes (split or stacked). Switch between tabs to switch between independent workspaces.

How it Works

1. Enter Tab Mode: Press Ctrl+T to enter tab mode (modal interface with timeout)
2. Create/Close Tabs: Use keyboard shortcuts:
   • N or C - New tab
   • X - Close current tab
3. Navigate: Use Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab for quick tab switching, or L/H in tab mode
4. Exit: Press Escape to exit tab mode or wait for timeout

Tab mode provides visual feedback with an orange border indicator.

Pane Management

Split your browser window into multiple panes, each running independent web sessions.

How it Works

1. Enter Pane Mode: Press Ctrl+P to enter pane mode (modal interface with timeout)
2. Split or Stack Panes: Use arrow keys or letter shortcuts:
   • → or R - Split right
   • ← or L - Split left
   • ↑ or U - Split up
   • ↓ or D - Split down
   • S - Stack panes (Zellij-style, shows title bars for collapsed panes)
3. Navigate: Use Alt+Arrow Keys to move focus between split panes, or Alt+Up/Down to navigate within stacked panes
4. Close: Press X in pane mode to close the current pane

Configuration

Configuration file: ~/.config/dumber/config.toml (supports TOML, JSON, YAML)

A default config is created on first run. Changes are applied automatically (hot reload). Override any setting with DUMB_BROWSER_* or DUMBER_* environment variables.

Full documentation: docs/CONFIG.md - Complete reference for all settings, workspace controls, shortcuts, styling, and more.

Building With WebKitGTK 6 (GTK4)

• Dumber uses pure-Go bindings (no CGO).
• You still need the system GTK4/WebKitGTK runtime libraries installed to run the GUI.
• Build targets:
  • make build (builds frontend + binary)
  • make build-quick (binary only; skips frontend build)

Media (GStreamer) & Hardware Acceleration

WebKitGTK uses GStreamer for media playback. Dumber includes automatic hardware video acceleration support that detects your GPU and configures the appropriate drivers.

Hardware Acceleration Features:

• Automatic GPU detection (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel)
• VA-API and VDPAU driver configuration
• Support for H.264, HEVC, VP9, and AV1 codecs
• Significantly reduced CPU usage during video streaming

Required packages:

• Arch Linux:
  • sudo pacman -S gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav gst-plugin-pipewire pipewire pipewire-pulse
  • Hardware decoding: gst-plugin-va (stateless VA decoders - required for WebKitGTK)
  • VA-API drivers: libva-mesa-driver mesa (AMD), libva-nvidia-driver (NVIDIA), libva-intel-driver intel-media-driver (Intel)
• Debian/Ubuntu:
  • 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
  • Hardware decoding: gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad includes VA stateless decoders
  • VA-API drivers: va-driver-all (covers most GPUs)

References

• puregotk: https://github.com/jwijenbergh/puregotk
• puregotk-webkit: https://github.com/bnema/puregotk-webkit
• ublock-webkit-filters (filter list releases): https://github.com/bnema/ublock-webkit-filters

Contribute

I will gladly accept contributions, especially related to UI/UX enhancements. Feel free to open an issue and let's discuss it!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.