OpenIn

A fast, native macOS URL router and browser picker.

Features

• Native macOS app -- SwiftUI + AppKit, no Electron, no web views
• Browser picker -- popup appears near your mouse with all installed browsers
• Keyboard shortcuts -- press 1-9 for instant selection in the picker
• Rules engine -- route URLs automatically based on domain patterns, regex, and source app
• Source app detection -- match rules based on which app opened the URL
• Browser profiles -- open in specific Chrome profiles or Firefox profiles
• Private/incognito mode -- per-rule incognito support
• URL rewriting -- auto-strip tracking params, force HTTPS
• Copy URL -- copy button in the picker popup
• Recently used -- last-used browser gets a blue dot and moves to front
• Recent URLs -- quick access from the menu bar dropdown
• Launch at login -- optional startup item
• First-launch onboarding -- guided setup on first run
• Lightweight -- ~1.9MB DMG, ~10MB memory footprint
• macOS 14+ -- Apple Silicon and Intel

Installation

Homebrew

brew install laurenschristian/tap/openin

Download

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, and drag OpenIn to /Applications.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/laurenschristian/OpenInApp.git
cd OpenInApp
make install

This builds a Release binary and copies it to /Applications. Requires Xcode 15+ and macOS 14+. See Building from Source for more details.

Screenshot

Quick Start

1. Open OpenIn from /Applications
2. Go to Settings > General and click Set as Default Browser
3. macOS will ask you to confirm
4. Click any link -- OpenIn intercepts it
5. If a rule matches, the URL opens in the target browser automatically
6. If no rule matches, the picker popup appears near your mouse
7. Click a browser or press 1-9

Configuration

Config lives at ~/.config/openin/config.json. Edit it directly or use the Settings UI.

{
  "defaultBrowserID": "com.apple.Safari",
  "activateBrowser": true,
  "showPickerOnNoMatch": true,
  "rules": [
    {
      "name": "GitHub",
      "pattern": "*.github.com",
      "isRegex": false,
      "targetBrowserID": "com.google.Chrome",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Google Docs from Slack",
      "pattern": "https://docs\\.google\\.com/.*",
      "isRegex": true,
      "sourceAppBundleID": "com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap",
      "targetBrowserID": "com.google.Chrome",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Work apps in Chrome Work profile",
      "pattern": "*.atlassian.net",
      "isRegex": false,
      "targetBrowserID": "com.google.Chrome",
      "browserProfile": "Profile 2",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ]
}

Rules

Rules are evaluated top-to-bottom. The first match wins. If no rule matches, the picker appears (or the default browser is used, depending on your settings).

Rule fields

Field	Required	Description
name	yes	Display name
pattern	yes	Glob or regex pattern to match against the URL
isRegex	no	true for regex, false for glob (default: false)
targetBrowserID	yes	Bundle ID of the target browser
sourceAppBundleID	no	Only match URLs opened from this app
browserProfile	no	Chrome profile directory or Firefox profile name
openIncognito	no	Open in private/incognito window
enabled	no	true or false (default: true)

Pattern examples

Pattern	Type	Matches
*.github.com	glob	github.com, gist.github.com, docs.github.com
*.google.com	glob	mail.google.com, docs.google.com
notion.so	glob	Any URL containing notion.so
*jira*	glob	Any URL containing jira
https://docs\\.google\\.com/.*	regex	Google Docs URLs only
https://(dev|staging)\\.example\\.com	regex	Dev and staging environments

Common browser bundle IDs

Browser	Bundle ID
Safari	com.apple.Safari
Chrome	com.google.Chrome
Firefox	org.mozilla.firefox
Arc	company.thebrowser.Browser
Brave	com.brave.Browser
Edge	com.microsoft.edgemac
Orion	com.kagi.kagimacOS

URL Rewriting

OpenIn can automatically clean URLs before opening them:

• Tracking parameter removal -- strips utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content, fbclid, gclid, and other common tracking parameters
• Force HTTPS -- upgrades http:// URLs to https:// automatically

This happens transparently before the URL is passed to the target browser.

Browser Profiles

OpenIn supports opening URLs in specific browser profiles.

Chrome -- use the profile directory name (found in chrome://version under "Profile Path"):

{
  "name": "Work in Chrome Work Profile",
  "pattern": "*.company.com",
  "targetBrowserID": "com.google.Chrome",
  "browserProfile": "Profile 2"
}

Chrome is launched with --profile-directory="Profile 2".

Firefox -- use the profile name:

{
  "name": "Dev in Firefox Dev Profile",
  "pattern": "localhost*",
  "targetBrowserID": "org.mozilla.firefox",
  "browserProfile": "dev-profile"
}

Firefox is launched with -P dev-profile.

Building from Source

Requirements:

• Xcode 15+
• macOS 14+

git clone https://github.com/laurenschristian/OpenInApp.git
cd OpenInApp
open OpenIn.xcodeproj

1. Select the OpenIn scheme
2. Build and run (Cmd+R)
3. To create a release build: Product > Archive

The built app can be copied to /Applications.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Open a pull request

Please open an issue first for major changes to discuss the approach.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.