Debrowse

A tiny macOS menu bar app for switching the default web browser. The menu bar shows the icon of whatever browser is currently the default; click it, pick another browser, confirm the system prompt (or let Debrowse press it for you), done. Handy when you want "Chrome for the next hour, Safari afterwards" without digging through System Settings.

Install

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or newer. The release build is universal (Apple silicon and Intel).

1. Download Debrowse-vX.Y.Z.zip from the latest release and unzip it.

2. Move Debrowse.app to /Applications and open it.

3. macOS will refuse the first launch because the app is not notarised (there is no paid Developer ID behind it). Either go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway, or clear the quarantine flag yourself:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Debrowse.app

Every release ships with a SHA256SUMS.txt you can check the download against.

Upgrading: each build carries a fresh ad-hoc signature, so macOS may treat an upgraded copy as a new app for Login Items and Accessibility. If "Launch at Login" shows unchecked after an upgrade, toggle it on again. If "Skip Confirmation Dialogue" shows a dash, switch Debrowse off and on again under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility; if that does not help, remove the Debrowse entry there with "−" and add the new build.

Using it

• Menu bar icon shows the current default browser. Toggle "Show Browser Icon in Menu Bar" off to get a neutral globe instead.
• Pick a browser from the list. macOS shows its own confirmation dialogue ("Use Firefox" / "Keep Safari"); accept it and both http and https links switch to the new browser. Declining it simply leaves things as they were.
• Skip Confirmation Dialogue has Debrowse press "Use Firefox" for you, so a switch is a single click. No app can suppress that dialogue, so Debrowse operates it through the Accessibility API instead: the first time you turn the option on, macOS asks you to allow Debrowse under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility, and the item shows a dash until you do. Clicking the dash opens that pane; holding ⌥ while clicking turns the option off instead. Debrowse only ever presses the button naming the browser you just picked, and only in the seconds after you pick it; if it cannot find that button, the dialogue stays for you to answer.
• If http and https ever point at different browsers (possible if a second prompt is declined, or via other tools), the header says so, the browsers involved show a dash instead of a check, and picking the one you want repairs it.
• Launch at Login registers the app as a login item. If macOS wants you to approve it first, the item shows a dash and clicking it opens System Settings › Login Items.
• Open System Settings… jumps to Desktop & Dock, where the default browser lives.
• The list refreshes every time you open the menu, and the icon polls every 5 seconds so changes made elsewhere (System Settings, a browser's own "make default" prompt) show up too.

Double-clicking the app in Finder while it is already running pops the menu open. There is no Dock icon and no window; quit it from its menu.

How it works

Debrowse asks macOS which installed apps can open both http and https links and lists those. It is close to what System Settings shows, though some non-browser apps register for web links and will appear too. Switching goes through the same system API that System Settings uses, which is why macOS always asks you to confirm; with "Skip Confirmation Dialogue" on, Debrowse watches for that dialogue and presses its "Use" button through the Accessibility API. Afterwards the app re-reads the actual handlers rather than trusting the API's answer, so what the menu shows is what your Mac will really do.

Build from source

You need the Apple Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install). No Xcode, no dependencies.

make            # builds ./build/Debrowse.app
make install    # builds, copies to /Applications, launches
make uninstall  # quits and removes /Applications/Debrowse.app

See CONTRIBUTING.md for build options, project layout, and the release process.

Licence

MIT.