Dumber

Minimal Keyboard-driven web browser for tiling WMs, inspired by Zellij, built in Go.

Website · Documentation · Keybindings

dumber-h264.mp4

Overview

Dumber uses three layout levels:

• Tabs group separate browser contexts.
• Workspaces hold a layout of panes.
• Panes display web pages and can be split, stacked, moved, resized, or closed.

Most browser-management actions are exposed through modal keybindings. Enter a mode, run one or more commands, then leave the mode. The default modes cover pane management, tabs, Vim-style scrolling, resizing, and session commands.

The browser chrome stays out of the way by default. Open the omnibox when you want to navigate; otherwise the pane is just the page or web app you are using. This makes Dumber work well as a side pane next to an editor, terminal, or another desktop application.

Features

Content-first browsing

• No permanent tab bar, bookmark bar, or toolbar around the page
• Omnibox and browser commands appear through keyboard shortcuts
• Web apps can feel closer to desktop applications because the browser frame is not always visible
• Works well as a narrow side pane next to an editor, terminal, or other application

Pane-based browsing

• Split panes horizontally or vertically
• Stack panes in the same area
• Move, resize, and close panes with modal keybindings
• Keep related pages together in a workspace

Keyboard workflow

• Pane, tab, Vim, resize, and session modes
• Vim/Zellij-style navigation patterns
• Search bangs such as !g, !gi, and !ddg
• Launcher integration for rofi, fuzzel, and dmenu

Desktop integration

• Wayland-native on Sway, Hyprland, River, Niri, and similar compositors
• Floating pane with configurable profile shortcuts
• Single config.toml file with hot reload

Browser features

• Chromium Embedded Framework backend by default
• WebKit backend available as a fallback
• Built-in ad blocking based on uBlock filter lists
• GPU-accelerated video through VA-API/VDPAU where supported
• Snapshot-based restoration of tabs, workspaces, and pane layout

Installation

Install script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bnema/dumber/v0.31.0/install.sh | DUMBER_VERSION=v0.31.0 bash
dumber browse

Arch Linux

yay -S dumber-browser-bin   # Pre-built binary
yay -S dumber-browser-git   # Build from source

Flatpak

wget https://github.com/bnema/dumber/releases/latest/download/dumber.flatpak
flatpak install --user dumber.flatpak
flatpak run dev.bnema.Dumber browse

For dependencies, distribution notes, and troubleshooting, see the installation documentation.

Keyboard modes

Dumber uses modal keybindings for browser management.

Mode	Default key	Used for
Pane	Ctrl+P	Split, stack, close, and move panes
Tab	Ctrl+T	Create, close, switch, and rename tabs
Vim Mode	Ctrl+Y	Navigate the active webpage with configurable Vim-style sequences; arrow keys stay native and other app shortcuts wait until exit
Resize	Ctrl+N	Resize panes with hjkl or arrow keys
Session	Ctrl+O	Snapshot, restore, and browse sessions

Floating pane

The floating pane is a temporary browser pane that can be toggled without changing the main workspace layout.

• Alt+F toggles the floating pane and preserves its state while hidden.
• Ctrl+W closes the active pane; if the floating pane is active, it is fully released for a fresh next open.
• Profile shortcuts such as Alt+G are optional and configured under workspace.floating_pane.profiles.
• Some Alt+<key> bindings may conflict with browser-engine shortcuts or desktop-level handlers.

See the floating pane reference for setup and behavior details.

Configuration

Dumber is configured with a single TOML file.

[engine]
type = "cef"

[workspace.floating_pane]
enabled = true

The config reloads while Dumber is running. See the configuration documentation for all options.

Extensions and ad blocking

CEF does not expose the Extensions API, so browser extensions are not supported. While WebKitGTK can use injected filter lists, this approach is not available with CEF.

For consistent ad and tracker blocking across applications and devices, use network-level DNS filtering such as AdGuard or Pi-hole. DNS filtering is more reliable than treating ad blocking as a browser extension, and it protects every device that uses your network.

Browser engine

Dumber uses Chromium Embedded Framework by default. WebKitGTK is available as a second option but I don't use it daily so it is more prone to bugs.

On Arch Linux, install the CEF runtime with:

sudo pacman -S cef libwebp

For hardware video decoding, cef-vaapi is also available from the AUR as an optional CEF build.

CEF runtime lookup order:

1. CEF_DIR
2. engine.cef.cef_dir
3. /usr/lib/cef
4. ~/.local/share/cef

Set engine.cef.cef_dir in config when CEF_DIR is unset:

[engine.cef]
cef_dir = "/custom/path"

Or set the higher-precedence CEF_DIR environment variable:

CEF_DIR=/custom/path dumber browse

WebKit can be selected explicitly:

[engine]
type = "webkit"

Rendering

CEF uses Dumber's GPU-first Wayland render stack by default: GDK DMABUF presentation with ANGLE/GSK Vulkan. For driver compatibility, switch to the EGL/OpenGL stack with engine.cef.render_stack = "egl"; the default is "vulkan".

CEF OSR frame rate adapts to the active Wayland monitor refresh rate when both engine.cef.adaptive_windowless_frame_rate = true and engine.cef.windowless_frame_rate = 0 are set, which are the defaults. Adaptive mode is capped by engine.cef.windowless_frame_rate_max = 240. Setting engine.cef.windowless_frame_rate to a positive value forces a fixed rate instead. This adaptive polling path is Wayland-specific; other platforms fall back to the configured fixed/default CEF behavior.

Platform notes

Dependencies

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S cef webkitgtk-6.0 gtk4 libwebp gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad gst-plugin-va

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install libwebkitgtk-6.0-4 libgtk-4-1 gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad

Ubuntu 24.04 ships GLib 2.80, but Dumber requires GLib 2.84+. Use Arch, Fedora 41+, or the Flatpak.

Development

Dumber uses pure-Go bindings. The GUI uses GTK4, runs on CEF by default, and can use WebKitGTK as a fallback backend.

Set ENV=dev to isolate the development process under .dev/dumber/. Dumber sets HOME plus XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, and XDG_CACHE_HOME there before GTK or the browser engine starts, so development runs do not use production profiles, cookies, caches, or logs.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.26+
• GTK4 development packages
• CEF runtime (default backend)
• WebKitGTK 6.0 development/runtime packages (fallback backend and runtime checks)
• Brotli for compressed systemviews assets
• libwebp runtime for WebP favicon decoding (for example libwebp on Arch)

Systemviews assets are generated with go tool templ and Go's js/wasm toolchain; no root Node toolchain is required.

git clone https://github.com/bnema/dumber
cd dumber
make build
./dist/dumber browse

Make targets

Target	Description
make build	Build systemviews assets and binary
make build-quick	Build binary only, skipping systemviews assets
make check	Run local all-clear checks for tools, build, generated assets, tests, and constraints
make dev	Run with go run
make test	Run tests
make lint	Run the pinned golangci-lint version
make staticcheck	Run Staticcheck with the pinned tool version
make verify-generated	Verify generated systemviews artifacts are committed
make flatpak-build	Build Flatpak bundle

Development tool versions are pinned in Makefile (GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION, STATICCHECK_VERSION). Bump those values intentionally when refreshing lint/static analysis tooling.

Contributing

Dumber is currently focused on stability, performance, browser-engine behavior, and core UI/UX polish.

Bug fixes, documentation improvements, packaging fixes, and targeted UX improvements are welcome. Larger feature ideas should start as issues before PRs.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Community

• Report bugs
• Releases

License

MIT - See LICENSE for details.