nvimuxChrome extension

Read the web with your editor's hands.

nvimux is a Chrome extension that scrolls pages, picks links and searches tabs with a feel drawn from (n)vim, so your hand reaches for the mouse far less and your reading is not interrupted.

Add from the Chrome Web Store

Hop mode, with hint letters laid over the links and buttons of an article

Do any of these happen the moment you move to the browser?

You were reading with j / k in your editor, and now you are back on the wheel and the scrollbar

The link you want is already on screen, yet every time there is a pause while you steer the pointer to it

You have too many tabs open, and you are scanning the tab bar for the one you want

Reopening a page you just closed, or a bookmark, means a detour through the history page or the bookmarks bar

With nvimux

Move down the page without lifting your hands.

Scrolling, picking a link and searching your tabs all happen with your fingers still on the keyboard.

REASON

Why it works

01Straight to the link you can already see

Hint letters land on every link, button and input on screen, and typing a hint opens that element. Headings, body text, navigation and controls are colored apart. The round trip of aiming a pointer disappears.

Hint letters laid over each link of an article

02One way in, whatever you are looking for

Open tabs, pages you just closed, bookmarks and the sites you visit most are all fuzzy-searchable and one Enter away. Part of a title or a host name is enough, so neither the tab bar nor the bookmarks bar needs scanning.

The fuzzy tab search narrowing its list of candidates

03What there is to learn fits on one diagram

Ctrl+/ lays every nvimux binding over a picture of the keyboard. You can see what each key is spoken for while you are still learning them. If it never suits your hands, the switch on that same sheet turns it off.

The keybinding sheet, with every assignment laid over a keyboard diagram

FUNCTION

Key features

Recently closed tabs and bookmarks gathered into one searchable list

Scrolling and Page Movementj / k move a little at a time and speed up while held. Shift+J / Shift+K go slowly, Ctrl+D / Ctrl+U move half a screen, Ctrl+F / Ctrl+B a full screen, and g / G jump to the top and bottom. u goes back, Ctrl+R forward.

Hop ModeCtrl+E puts hint letters on the links, buttons and inputs on screen, and typing one opens that element. Two taps of Cmd start it just as well, and two more put things back. Ctrl+J / Ctrl+K walk the links one at a time, and Enter opens the one you are on.

Tab Search and SwitchingThe ; key lists your open tabs most-recently-used first, filtered by any part of the title, host, URL or group name. Ctrl+H / Ctrl+L step to the neighbouring tab, and Ctrl+O / Ctrl+I retrace the order you visited them in.

Closed Pages and BookmarksCtrl+W searches recently closed tabs, bookmarks, bookmark folders and your top sites from a single list. Tab cycles the list through one source at a time.

Tab GroupsThe ' key adds the current tab to a group or takes it out, and a new group can be created on the spot. Ctrl+' lists your groups and takes you to the first tab of the one you pick.

Find in Page and QuotingCtrl+G searches the page, Enter goes to the next match and Shift+Enter to the previous. Ctrl+V extends a selection out from a match and y copies it, while Ctrl+Y copies the URL of the page you are on.

What it needs, and how it handles your keystrokes

Requirements: Chrome 120 or later. A Manifest V3 extension.
Running on every site: It runs on each page so it can receive your keystrokes there. It never takes keys while you are typing into a field — type j into a search box and you get a j — and if it ever reads your typing the wrong way, it can be switched off temporarily.
Permissions it uses: Used to list and switch your open tabs, and to show recently closed tabs, bookmarks, top sites and tab groups in the lists.
Network traffic: There is no server behind it for analytics or syncing. Neither the pages you read nor the keys you press are sent anywhere.
What it stores: Only the on/off switch and the order in which you moved between tabs, both inside the browser. The order is gone once the browser closes.
Languages: English and Japanese.
Price: Free.

Give it a try

Add it from the Chrome Web Store. Reload any pages you already had open once it is installed.

Add from the Chrome Web Store

Chrome 120 or later · Free · English and Japanese