Vimma
A keyboard-first browser for people who live in Vim and tmux. You already have the muscle
memory; Vimma puts it to work on the web. Bare keys drive the page, ctrl+b drives tabs, panes
and workspaces, and your hands never leave the keyboard.
- Vim on the page:
j/k to scroll, f for link hints, / to find, : for commands, and
Esc to get back to normal mode. Copy a paragraph, list item or code block in three keys: F,
its label, then y (or v to adjust it first).
- tmux for the window:
ctrl+b, tmux's default prefix, then c for a new tab, v to split,
w to switch workspace. If your fingers know tmux, they already know Vimma.
- Every key is yours: every binding, the prefix and the leader can be remapped in
config.toml, Firefox's own keys too: every Firefox shortcut is a Vimma binding with
Firefox's meaning, listed in ctrl+b ?, and :firefox <id> runs any other Firefox command.
- Local AI agents, kept apart: Claude Code, Codex, opencode and Copilot reach Vimma through
MCP (
vimma-ctl mcp), only in an agent workspace with its own cookies. An agent asks you
first, and one answer (a) lets an agent work through its task until it quits. There
they read and open pages, scroll, search and follow links with Vimma's own keys, click buttons
and fill forms by hint label (never a password or payment card field), see a page as a
screenshot, read its errors, and show you a page when they want you to look at it. Sending a
form and paying are checkpoints, asked every time under any grant: the question shows what the
form sends, or the button, the site and the total the page states.
Install
Vimma runs on Linux x86_64 and on macOS 15 or later with Apple Silicon. Download the files from the
latest release.
Arch Linux: run this as your normal user (not root), from any directory. It builds in
~/.cache/vimma-build, and the same command updates Vimma.
mkdir -p ~/.cache/vimma-build && cd ~/.cache/vimma-build && curl -fLO https://github.com/vimma-browser/vimma/releases/latest/download/PKGBUILD && makepkg -si
macOS, with Homebrew: install from Vimma's own tap; brew upgrade --cask vimma updates it.
brew install --cask vimma-browser/tap/vimma
A release that is not notarised (the guide says how to tell) makes macOS block the first open
("Apple could not verify “Vimma”"): choose Done, then in System Settings → Privacy & Security
choose Open Anyway next to Vimma. Without Homebrew, open vimma-X.Y.Z-macos-aarch64.dmg and drag Vimma to Applications.
The guide's macOS section has the steps and a one-line terminal
alternative.
Debian 12+, Ubuntu 22.04+: download vimma_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb, then
sudo apt install ./vimma_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb.
Fedora, openSUSE: download vimma-X.Y.Z-1.x86_64.rpm, then
sudo dnf install ./vimma-X.Y.Z-1.x86_64.rpm on Fedora, or
sudo zypper install --allow-unsigned-rpm ./vimma-X.Y.Z-1.x86_64.rpm on openSUSE. The package
carries no OpenPGP signature; check it with SHA256SUMS and cosign instead, as the guide shows.
Any other distribution: download vimma-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage, then
chmod +x vimma-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage && ./vimma-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage.
X.Y.Z is the Vimma version. To update, install the newer release the same way. From 0.1.2 on,
the status bar says when a new release is out and :update shows the command for your install;
Vimma 0.1.1 does not, so update it once by hand
(Updates). The guide's Installing section has the tarball
and how to verify a download with sha256sum and cosign.
Why
The browser is the one daily tool that ignores Vim and tmux habits. Vimma brings them to a Firefox
base you can trust: sites and add-ons work as they do in Firefox, with quieter privacy defaults.
Each workspace is a container of its own, so work logins stay out of personal ones, and the
window can follow your desktop theme. See everything it does.
The name
Vimma is Finnish for a burst of eager, focused energy, as in työvimma, a spell of work where
the hours slip by. It also happens to start with Vim.
Status
Early, for Linux x86_64 and macOS on Apple Silicon. Releases are on
GitHub Releases, with a tarball, an AppImage, a
.deb, an .rpm for Fedora and openSUSE and an Arch Linux PKGBUILD, and a macOS .dmg that also installs as a Homebrew cask
(Install). Each carries vimma-ctl, the client for scripts and agents, so it updates
with the browser (where it is); you can also
build Vimma from source. Update notices are live: Vimma 0.1.2 and
later check a signed update file every 12 hours and show a newer release in the status bar. The
AppImage, from the first release that includes its self-update, then replaces its own file with
the newer release once its size and SHA-512 match the signed file, and the next start runs it.
The other packages notify only; installing the update is up to you.
Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/vimma-browser/projects/1
AI coding agents working on this repository follow AGENTS.md; contributors read
CONTRIBUTING.md before opening issues or pull requests.
Licence
MPL-2.0, like Firefox; the vendored smol-toml parser is BSD-3-Clause (ADR-012).
Acknowledgements
Vim and tmux, the models; Firefox, underneath; Surfer and Zen Browser, the toolchain; Herdr, the [keys] syntax; Omarchy, the themes; Tridactyl and Vimium, prior art.
