Dumber

Dumber is a keyboard-driven web browser, built around panes, workspaces, and modal controls.

Tabs contain workspaces. Workspaces contain panes. Panes can be split, stacked, moved, resized, and closed from the keyboard.

The layout model is inspired by terminal multiplexers such as Zellij and tmux, but applied to web browsing this is particularly suited for Wayland compositors such as Niri or Hyprland.

Website · Documentation · Keybindings

Demo

dumber-h264.mp4

The demo shows split panes, stacked panes, modal navigation, and workspace switching.

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, 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, 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://dumber.bnema.dev/install | sh
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
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 WebKit 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.

Browser engine

Dumber uses Chromium Embedded Framework by default. WebKitGTK is available as a fallback backend.

On Arch Linux, install the CEF runtime with:

sudo pacman -S cef

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 notes

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 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.

Status

Dumber is usable for regular web browsing on Wayland compositors, with the main focus on panes, keyboard control, floating workflows, and desktop integration.

It is not a drop-in replacement for every mainstream browser workflow. Extension compatibility, engine behavior, and media support depend on the selected backend and system libraries.

Bug reports and reproducible Wayland/backend issues are welcome.

Development

Dumber uses pure-Go bindings and requires GTK4/WebKitGTK runtime libraries for the GUI.

Set ENV=dev to use .dev/dumber/ for config and data instead of XDG paths.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Go 1.25+
• Node.js 20+ for frontend assets
• WebKitGTK 6.0 and GTK4 development packages

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

Make targets

Target	Description
make build	Build frontend and binary
make build-quick	Build binary only, skipping frontend
make dev	Run with go run
make test	Run tests
make lint	Run golangci-lint
make flatpak-build	Build Flatpak bundle

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.