Browswitch

Every link opens in the right browser.
A small native macOS app that intercepts your links and sends them to the browser you want,
based on the app they come from or the URL itself.

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Why

Google Meet calls need Chrome, YouTube belongs in Safari, work links go to another browser… yet macOS only knows a single default browser.

Browswitch registers itself as your default browser and forwards each link in a split second. When no rule matches a link, it shows a picker, and one toggle remembers your choice for that domain.

Features

• Rules by source app: “everything from Discord → Chrome”.
• Rules by URL:
  • domains, subdomains included, several at once (youtube.com, youtu.be);
  • wildcards (*.google.com) and paths (github.com/my-org);
  • “URL contains” or regular expressions.
• Combined conditions: “GitHub from VS Code → Chrome”.
• You control the order: the first matching rule wins, and you reorder rules by drag and drop.
• Keyboard-driven picker: 1–9, ⏎, esc. Works with any keyboard layout, AZERTY included.
• “Always use for this domain”: a toggle (or space) in the picker creates the rule for you.
• Configurable shortcut: hold ⌥ (by default) while clicking a link to force the picker, even when a rule matches. Combinations such as ⌥⌘ or ⌃⇧ work too.
• History of the last 100 links, with their source app and a “Create Rule…” button. It survives restarts and clears in one click.
• 7 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese and Dutch. Follows your system language by default and switches instantly.
• Built-in URL tester to check which rule will apply.
• Menu bar icon to change the primary browser or open the URL on your clipboard.
• Quiet and local: no Dock icon, no network access, no telemetry. Settings and history stay on your Mac, in two JSON files.

Screenshots

Rules: checked top to bottom, reorder by drag and drop.	Editor: source app, match type, target browser.
History: where each link came from and where it went.	Browsers: which ones appear in the picker, and in what order.

Installation

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later and Xcode 15.3+ (or the Command Line Tools with Swift 5.10+).

git clone https://github.com/StevenTedYT/browswitch.git
cd browswitch
./build.sh --install

The script builds a universal app, copies it to /Applications and launches it. Since it is built on your own Mac, Gatekeeper won't block it.

On first launch, the settings window opens. Click Set as Default, then confirm in the macOS dialog:

Your previous default browser becomes the primary browser, preselected in the picker.

./build.sh without arguments only produces build/Browswitch.app.

Usage

In the picker	Action
1 … 9	Open in the matching browser
← → then ⏎	Choose with the keyboard
space	Toggle “Always use for this domain”
esc or click outside	Cancel (the link stays in the history)

Anywhere	Action
⌥ + click a link	Force the picker (keys configurable in Settings ▸ General)
Menu bar icon	Primary browser, clipboard URL, settings
Relaunch the app from Finder	Open the settings

Example rules

Link comes from	And the URL	→ Open with
Discord	(any)	Google Chrome
(any app)	Domain youtube.com, youtu.be	Safari
Visual Studio Code	Domain github.com	Google Chrome
(any app)	Domain *.atlassian.net	Google Chrome
Slack	Contains meet.google.com	Google Chrome

Configuration

Everything lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Browswitch/ (Settings ▸ General ▸ Show in Finder):

• config.json holds your settings and rules. You can edit it by hand while the app is not running. If it becomes unreadable, a copy is kept as config.invalid.json instead of being overwritten.
• history.json holds the history, which you can clear from the History tab.

{
  "language": "system",
  "pickerModifiers": ["option"],
  "fallback": "ask",
  "primaryBrowser": "com.google.Chrome",
  "hiddenBrowsers": ["com.googlecode.iterm2"],
  "browserOrder": ["com.apple.Safari", "com.google.Chrome"],
  "rules": [
    {
      "id": "0B7B1E52-6C1D-4E8A-9D2F-3A1C5E7F9B11",
      "name": "YouTube in Safari",
      "enabled": true,
      "sourceApp": null,
      "matchKind": "domain",
      "pattern": "youtube.com, youtu.be",
      "browser": "com.apple.Safari"
    }
  ]
}

• language: system, en, fr, es, de, it, ja or nl.
• pickerModifiers: any combination of control, option, shift and command. An empty list disables the shortcut.
• fallback: ask shows the picker, primary opens directly in the primary browser.
• matchKind: domain, contains or regex.
• sourceApp and browser are bundle identifiers. Browser IDs are listed in the Browsers tab, and osascript -e 'id of app "Discord"' gives the ID of any app.

How it works

1. Browswitch declares the http and https schemes in its Info.plist, which lets it become the default browser.
2. Each clicked link arrives as a GetURL Apple Event. The source app is identified from the event sender's PID. Helper processes of Electron apps (Discord, Slack, VS Code…) are mapped back to their main app.
3. Router, plain tested Swift code, checks the rules in order. The link then opens in the chosen browser through NSWorkspace, or the picker appears.

Sources/
├── BrowswitchCore/     Model, rule engine and translations (no UI, tested)
└── Browswitch/         AppKit + SwiftUI app: menu bar, picker, settings
Tests/                  Unit tests for the rule engine and translations
scripts/                Icon and screenshot generation

Development

swift test                  # rule engine + completeness of the 7 translations
./scripts/screenshots.sh    # regenerates docs/screenshots (sample data, not your config)

To watch routing decisions live:

/usr/bin/log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "app.browswitch.Browswitch"' --level info

To run a debug build against a throwaway config, set BROWSWITCH_CONFIG=/path/to/config.json.

Adding a language: add a case to Language and a table to Translations.swift. swift test flags any missing key or forgotten {0} placeholder.

License

Browswitch is released under the MIT License: you are free to use, modify and redistribute it, as long as you keep the copyright notice and the license text.