Tridactyl
A Vim-like interface for Firefox, inspired by Vimperator/Pentadactyl.
Install / Use
/learn @tridactyl/TridactylREADME
Installation
[Click this link in Firefox to install our latest "beta" build][riskyclick]. If it doesn't install automatically, you may need to 1) rename the extension from .zip to .xpi and 2) open it with Firefox; a fool-proof method is to go to about:addons, click the extensions tab, click the cog in the top right, then click "Install Add-on From File...". If you want more options, read on.
Stable
Our "stable" builds are essentially just frozen versions of our beta builds. Our beta builds themselves are not much less stable; all our developers and about half of our users use the beta builds. Stable builds, however, do get new features documented in the changelog, whereas beta builds get new features before they are documented there.
Arch Linux
Run pacman -S firefox-tridactyl in a terminal and then restart Firefox twice.
All other operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Linux etc.)
Tridactyl stable can be installed from the [Mozilla add-ons website (the AMO)][amo].
Beta
[Click this in Firefox to install our "beta" builds][riskyclick]. These [betas][betas] used to be updated with each commit to master on this repo but are now built manually when bovine3dom remembers - see issue #3605. Your browser will automatically update from there once a day. If you want more frequent updates, you can change extensions.update.interval in about:config to whatever time you want, say, 15 minutes (900 seconds). There is also another beta build that comes without a new tab page. You can get it from [here][nonewtablink].
Extra features through Native Messaging
If you want to use advanced features such as edit-in-Vim, you'll also need to install the native messenger or executable, instructions for which can be found by typing :installnative and hitting enter once you are in Tridactyl. Arch users can install the AUR package firefox-tridactyl-native instead.
Containerized/sandboxed Firefox Installations
Snap and Flatpak: Native Messaging support here is fairly recent and may require:
- Upgrading to a beta version of Firefox (
>= 106.0b6) - Enabling webextension permissions:
flatpak permission-set webextensions tridactyl snap.firefox yes - Rebooting your system (and likely nothing short of it)
See this call for testing thread and this PR for more details and troubleshooting tips.
Firejail will require explicit path whitelisting, but should be feasible based on https://github.com/netblue30/firejail/issues/2109.
For other containerized installs, see troubleshooting steps in https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl/issues/2406 and the links above. With packaging that does support Native Messaging, the trick is usually ensuring the containerized app has permission to run the executable and can find the manifest json file.
Migrating between beta and stable builds
Our beta and stable versions store their configurations in separate places. To migrate between the two, see the wiki.
Changelog
The changelog for the stable versions can be found here.
First look
Type :help or press <F1> for online help once you're in, or :tutor for a friendly introduction. You might also find the unofficial Tridactyl Memrise course (requires login) useful for memorising keybinds.
Remember that Tridactyl cannot run on any page on about:*, data:*, view-source:* and file:*. We're sorry about that and we're working with Firefox to improve this situation by removing restrictions on existing APIs and developing a new API.
If you're enjoying Tridactyl, or not, please leave a review on the AMO.
Highlighted features
Like Vim, Tridactyl is modal, with the default mode being "normal mode". In "normal mode", many functions are available using keybindings. In "command mode" (when the command line is shown), you can execute more complex commands, known as "ex-commands". All Tridactyl functionality can be accessed by ex-commands. You can bind any ex-command to a normal-mode shortcut. We also support a .tridactylrc file, of which there is an example in the root of this repository.
Default normal-mode bindings
This is a (non-exhaustive) list of the most common normal-mode bindings. Type :help to open the online help for more details.
:— activate the command lineShift+Insert— enter "ignore mode". PressShift+Insertagain to return to "normal mode".ZZ— close all tabs and windows, but only "save" them if your about:preferences are set to "show your tabs and windows from last time".— repeat the last command<C-v>– send a single keystroke to the current website, bypassing bindings
You can try :help key to know more about key. If it is an existing binding, it will take you to the help section of the command that will be executed when pressing key. For example :help . will take you to the help section of the repeat command.
Navigating with the current page
j/k— scroll down/uph/l— scroll left/right^/$— scroll to left/right margingg/G— scroll to start/end of pagef/F/gF— enter "hint mode" to select a link to follow.Fto open in a background tab (note: hint characters should be typed in lowercase).gFto repeatedly open links until you hit<Escape>.gi— scroll to and focus the last-used input on the pager/R— reload page or hard reload pageyy— copy the current page URL to the clipboard[[/]]— navigate forward/backward though paginated pages, for example comics, multi-part articles, search result pages, etc.]c/[c— increment/decrement the current URL by 1gu— go to the parent of the current URLgU— go to the root domain of the current URLgr— open Firefox reader mode (note: Tridactyl will not work in this mode)zi/zo/zz— zoom in/out/reset zoom<C-f>/<C-b>— jump to the next/previous part of the pageg?— Apply Caesar cipher to page (rung?again to switch back)g!— Jumble words on page
Find mode
Find mode is still incomplete and uses the Firefox feature "Quick Find". This will be improved eventually.
/— open the Quick Find search box/then<C-f>— open the Find in page search box<C-g>/<C-G>— find the next/previous instance of the last find operation (note: these are the standard Firefox shortcuts)
Please note that Tridactyl overrides Firefox's <C-f> search, replacing it with a binding to go to the next part of the page. If you want to be able to use <C-f> to search for things, use <C-f> after opening the Quick Find box (/), or any input field such as the address bar or search bar (use default browser shortcuts to activate these). To allow usage of <C-f> at any time, use unbind <C-f> to unset the scrollpage binding.
Bookmarks and quickmarks
A— bookmark the current pagea— bookmark the current page, but allow the URL to be modified firstM<key>— bind a quickmark to the given keygo<key>/gn<key>/gw<key>— open a given quickmark in current tab/new tab/new window
If you want to use Firefox's default <C-b> binding to open the bookmarks sidebar, make sure to run unbind <C-b> because Tridactyl replaces this setting with one to go to the previous part of the page.
Marks
m a-zA-Z— set a local mark (lowercase letter), or a global mark (uppercase letter)` a-zA-Z— jump to a local mark (lowercase letter), or a global mark (uppercase letter)``— jump to the location before the last mark jump
Navigating to new pages:
o/O— open a URL (or default search) in this tab (Oto pre-load current URL)t/T— open a URL (or default search) in a new tab (Tto pre-load current URL)w/W— open a URL (or default search) in a new window
