A sidebar browser, in French, built on Chromium.
Orbx adopts the organization and keyboard shortcuts of the Arc browser — sidebar, Spaces, pinned tabs, command bar, split view — with a fully French interface (English available in settings).
Free and independent project, unaffiliated with The Browser Company. Orbx contains no Arc code or assets: everything is rewritten.
- Sidebar: favorites as tiles, pinned tabs, folders, today's tabs, drag and drop, inline rename, adjustable width, hiding (⌘S) with reappearance when hovering the left edge.
- Spaces: icon and theme per Space, switching with ⌃1…⌃9, ⌥⌘←/→ or a two-finger swipe on the sidebar.
- Themes (Spaces menu → Edit Theme): one to three colors in a gradient, chosen by dragging points on a color picker; intensity; four textures (grain, sand, tweed, denim); light, dark or automatic appearance per Space; eight ready-made themes and three ready-made palettes. Text stays readable on any color (computed contrast, at least 4.5).
- Motion: rows slide when the list changes, loading glow, elastic bounce of the list, two-finger swipe on the page to go back; the system's "Reduce motion" setting is respected.
- Sounds: seven brief, original sounds made by
scripts/make-sounds.js(screenshot; on demand, new tab, close, Space switch, pin, refusal), with volume control. - Command bar (⌘T / ⌘L): address, search, switch to an open tab, history, actions, search engine suggestions.
- Split view up to four panes (⌃⇧=).
- Link preview (Peek): an outgoing link from a pinned tab, or a ⇧-click, opens above the page; ⌘O turns it into a tab, Escape closes it.
- Profiles: separate cookies, logins and favorites, one profile per Space.
- Import from Arc: Spaces, pins, folders, favorites and profiles (Orbx menu → Import from Arc…). Run again later, the same command updates Orbx from Arc (order, names, folders, added tabs) without deleting anything, after a backup.
- Video and sound: the current video becomes picture-in-picture when you switch tabs; a mini player in the sidebar controls the sound.
- Built-in ad and tracker blocker (24,000 domains, under a microsecond per request), with a per-site exception from the shield.
- Chrome extensions: installation from the Chrome Web Store, signature verified (Settings → Extensions), buttons under the address, side panel. Verified on real pages: Dark Reader, Wappalyzer, uBlock Origin Lite, CSS Peeper and GoFullPage. The Claude extension opens through to its sign-in screen; the rest has not been tried.
- Boosts: custom CSS per site and "Zap" to hide an element.
- Passwords: built-in saving and filling, encrypted with the system keychain, CSV import and export (Safari / iCloud, Chrome). The threat model is in docs/mots-de-passe.md.
- Notes (⌃⇧N, ⌃⌥N next to the page) and media in the library.
- Boards (⌃⇧E), Arc's "Easels": an infinite canvas for placing text, pasted or dropped images, shapes, arrows, lines and sticky notes; "Capture to a board" (⌥⇧⌘2) sends a region of the page there, with a link to its source. One file per board, images separately, listed in the library. No "live" capture or sharing yet.
- Archive: ⌘W archives the tab, ⇧⌘T reopens it, inactive tabs are archived automatically (12 h by default).
- Little window (⌥⌘N), private browsing (⇧⌘N), multiple windows sharing the same sidebar.
- Library: history, archive, downloads.
- Find in page, zoom, screenshot, print, developer tools, per-site permissions, sleeping of old tabs.
- French and English, light, dark or automatic theme.
Identical to Arc's. The full list is in the app: Help → Essential keyboard shortcuts.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New tab / command bar | ⌘T / ⌘L |
| Archive tab / reopen it | ⌘W / ⇧⌘T |
| Pin or unpin | ⌘D |
| Next / previous tab | ⌥⌘↓ / ⌥⌘↑ |
| Recent tabs | ⌃⇥ (hold ⌃) |
| Go to tab 1…9 | ⌘1 … ⌘9 |
| Next / previous Space | ⌥⌘→ / ⌥⌘← |
| Go to Space 1…9 | ⌃1 … ⌃9 |
| Hide the sidebar | ⌘S |
| Toolbar | ⇧⌘D |
| Split view / close pane | ⌃⇧= / ⌃⇧- |
| Copy URL / as Markdown | ⇧⌘C / ⌥⇧⌘C |
| Clear Today | ⇧⌘K |
| Little window / private browsing | ⌥⌘N / ⇧⌘N |
| History / library / downloads | ⌘Y / ⇧⌘L / ⇧⌘J |
| Capture the page | ⇧⌘2 |
| New board / capture to a board | ⌃⇧E / ⌥⇧⌘2 |
| Settings | ⌘, |
The project requires Node.js 20 or newer.
git clone https://github.com/electroheadfx/orbx.git
cd orbx
npm start # launches the browser
npm test # end-to-end tests (over 1,500 checks)
npm run test:ui # Playwright UI tests, real mouse and keyboard (504 checks)
npm run test:ext # extension API layer, in the real browser (175 checks)
# real-keyboard tests (they take over the keyboard): see tests/natif/
npm run build # builds ~/.orbx-dev/dist/Orbx.app (-- --install for /Applications)The tests watch themselves: no native dialog can open without a prepared answer, an uncaught exception fails the scenario, and a test that stops making progress stops by writing what it was waiting for (windows, pages, unanswered calls; native call stacks if the main thread is frozen). With the screen locked or asleep, checks that need images or sound are skipped one by one, with the reason.
On macOS, test windows are invisible: transparent, mouse-transparent, with no
keyboard or Dock icon, so you can keep working during tests (tests/discret.js).
ORBX_TEST_VISIBLE=1 shows them.
Protected videos (Widevine): ORBX_DRM=1 npm start uses an engine that can play
them; see docs/etude-extensions-et-distribution.md.
On first launch, the engine (Electron) is downloaded into ~/.orbx-dev, outside
the project. Browser data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/Orbx.
src/main/ main process: windows, tabs, menus, data
src/preload/ secure bridge between the interface and the main process
src/renderer/ interface: sidebar, command bar, internal pages
src/shared/ French and English strings
tests/ end-to-end tests, UI tests (Playwright), real sites
docs/ analysis of Arc and roadmap
No framework or build step: plain JavaScript, HTML and CSS, for fast startup and a smooth interface.
See docs/feuille-de-route.md. Next projects: Chrome extensions, synchronization, then the Windows version.
The code is licensed under MIT. The blocklist
(assets/blocklist.txt) gathers public lists that each keep their own license
(MIT and CC BY 3.0), recalled at the top of the file.
Inspired by Orbe, Amadou Ba's browser.