Tridactyl by Colin Caine, Oliver Blanthorn
Vim, but in your browser. Replace Firefox's control mechanism with one modelled on Vim.
This addon is very usable, but is in an early stage of development. We intend to implement the majority of Vimperator's features.
You’ll need Firefox to use this extension
Extension Metadata
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About this extension
Control your browser with your keyboard only.
Replace Firefox’s control mechanism with one modelled on VIM. This is a “Firefox Quantum” replacement for VimFX, Vimperator and Pentadactyl. Most common tasks you want your browser to perform are bound to a single key press:
Highlighted features:
You can get beta builds from our website.
Permissions:
Since Tridactyl aims to provide all the features Vimperator and Pentadactyl had, it requires quite a few permissions. Here we describe the specific permissions and why we need them.
Replace Firefox’s control mechanism with one modelled on VIM. This is a “Firefox Quantum” replacement for VimFX, Vimperator and Pentadactyl. Most common tasks you want your browser to perform are bound to a single key press:
- You want to open a new tab? Hit
t
. - You want to follow that link? Hit
f
and type the displayed label. (Note: hint characters should be typed in lowercase.) - You want to go to the bottom of the page? Hit
G
. Or the top?gg
. - You want to focus the text field on Wikipedia to search for another term?
gi
. - Switch to the next tab?
gt
. - Go back in time?
H
. - Notice that this tab is rubbish and you want to close it?
d
. - Regret that decision?
u
restores it. - Want to write something in Vim?
Ctrl-i
in a text box opens it in Vim, if you have:native
working. - Temporarily disable all that magic because you can’t stand it?
Shift-Insert
orCtrl-Alt-Escape
. - But how do you use your browser now?
Shift-Insert
orCtrl-Alt-Escape
again and we’re back on.
:help
might help you a lot, and there’s always :tutor
.Highlighted features:
- Follow any link on the site with just 2-3 key presses.
- Switch to any open tab by searching for its URL or title or entering its ID.
- Easy customizable search settings.
- Bind any supported command or commands to the key (sequence) of your liking.
- Great default bindings (if you’re used to Pentadactyl or Vimperator).
You can get beta builds from our website.
Permissions:
Since Tridactyl aims to provide all the features Vimperator and Pentadactyl had, it requires quite a few permissions. Here we describe the specific permissions and why we need them.
- Access your data for all websites:
- This is Mozilla’s way of saying that Tridactyl can read the content of web pages. This is necessary in order to e.g. find the links you can follow with the
:hint
command (bound tof
by default).
- This is Mozilla’s way of saying that Tridactyl can read the content of web pages. This is necessary in order to e.g. find the links you can follow with the
- Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox:
- This permission is required for Tridactyl to interact with your operating system (opening your editor to edit text areas, sending links to your video player, reading a configuration file from your disk…). This is possible thanks to an external executable we provide. If you feel this gives Tridactyl too much power you can chose not to install the external executable: Tridactyl will still work but won’t be able to start external programs.
- Read and modify bookmarks:
- Tridactyl’s command line has a powerful autocompletion mechanism. In order to be able to autocomplete your bookmarks, Tridactyl needs to read them.
- Clear recent browsing history, cookies, and related data:
- Tridactyl implements the
:sanitise
command Vimperator and Pentadactyl had. It works a bit like the “Clear All History” dialog you can access by pressingCtrl+Shift+Del
on default Firefox.
- Tridactyl implements the
- Get data from the clipboard:
- If your clipboard contains a URL, pressing
p
will make Tridactyl follow this URL in the current tab.
- If your clipboard contains a URL, pressing
- Input data to the clipboard:
- Tridactyl lets you copy various elements to the clipboard such as a page’s URL with
yy
, a link’s URL with;y
or the content of an HTML element with;p
.
- Tridactyl lets you copy various elements to the clipboard such as a page’s URL with
- Download files and read and modify the browser’s download history:
- By pressing
;s
,;S
,;a
and;A
you can save documents and pictures from a page to your download folder.
- By pressing
- Access browsing history:
- The URLs of websites you’ve visited previously can be suggested as arguments for
:tabopen
and similar commands.
- The URLs of websites you’ve visited previously can be suggested as arguments for
- Access recently closed tabs:
- If you’ve accidentally closed a tab or window, Tridactyl will let you open it again with the
:undo
command which is bound tou
by default.
- If you’ve accidentally closed a tab or window, Tridactyl will let you open it again with the
- Access browser tabs:
- Tridactyl provides a quick tab-switching menu/command with the
:buffer
command (bound tob
). This permission is also required to close, move, and pin tabs, amongst other things.
- Tridactyl provides a quick tab-switching menu/command with the
- Access browser activity during navigation:
- This is needed for Tridactyl to be able to go back to normal mode every time you open a new page. In the future we may use it for autocommands.
- Read the text of all open tabs:
- This allows us to use Firefox’s built-in find-in-page API, for, for example, allowing you to bind find-next and find-previous to
n
andN
.
- This allows us to use Firefox’s built-in find-in-page API, for, for example, allowing you to bind find-next and find-previous to
- Monitor extension usage and manage themes:
- Tridactyl needs this to integrate with and avoid conflicts with other extensions. For example, Tridactyl’s contextual identity features use this to cooperate with the Multi-Account Containers extension.
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PermissionsLearn more
This add-on needs to:
- Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox
- Read and modify bookmarks
- Clear recent browsing history, cookies, and related data
- Get data from the clipboard
- Input data to the clipboard
- Download files and read and modify the browser’s download history
- Read the text of all open tabs
- Access browsing history
- Monitor extension usage and manage themes
- Control browser proxy settings
- Access recently closed tabs
- Hide and show browser tabs
- Access browser tabs
- Access browsing history
- Access browser activity during navigation
- Access your data for all websites
More information
- Add-on Links
- Version
- 1.24.1
- Size
- 3.17 MB
- Last updated
- 7 months ago (Apr 7, 2024)
- Related Categories
- License
- Apache v2
- Version History
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