Getting started

Getting Started with Finicky

1. What is Finicky?

Finicky is a macOS application that allows you to customize how URLs are opened on your system. It acts as a URL handler, letting you define rules for which browser or application should open specific URLs, and even modify URLs before they're opened.

2. Configuration

Setting Up Your Config File

Finicky looks for its configuration file in several locations (in order of preference):

• ~/.finicky.js or ~/.finicky.ts
• ~/.config/finicky.js or ~/.config/finicky.ts
• ~/.config/finicky/finicky.js or ~/.config/finicky/finicky.ts

The simplest approach is to create a .finicky.js file in your home directory:

touch ~/.finicky.js

Basic Configuration

Here's a minimal configuration to get you started:

export default {
  defaultBrowser: "Firefox",
  handlers: [
    {
      // Open these urls in Chrome
      match: ["example.com/*", "github.com/*"],
      browser: "Google Chrome"
    }
  ]
}

This basic configuration:

1. Sets Firefox as the default browser for all URLs
2. Opens Github and example.com links in Chrome (not subdomains though)

3. Next Steps

Once you have the basic configuration working, you can explore more advanced features:

1. URL Rewriting: Transform URLs before they're opened
2. Complex Matching: Use regular expressions or functions for sophisticated URL matching
3. Browser Options: Pass specific options to browsers when opening URLs
4. Context-Based Rules: Create rules based on the application the URL is coming from
5. Troubleshooting & Graphical User Interface: If you want to access Finickys logs or open the Finicky window, open the Finicky app directly (through spotlight, for example)

You can find more examples and detailed documentation in the Wiki.

Remember that Finicky needs to be set as your default browser in macOS System Preferences for the rules to work correctly.