Vulpes Browser

The Hypothesis

What if a web browser was designed purely for reading? No JavaScript, no CSS layout, no images—just text extraction and keyboard navigation. Vim-style browsing for the reader who treats the web as a document archive.

What I'm Building

Vulpes—a text-focused browser built from scratch. Swift for the macOS UI, Zig for text processing, Metal for GPU-accelerated rendering with custom shaders.

Navigation:

j/k to scroll, d/u for half-pages
G/gg for top/bottom
1-9 to follow numbered links
Keyboard-first, mouse-optional

Intentional limitations:

No JavaScript (SPAs show minimal content—that's the point)
No CSS layout (text extraction only)
No images
No forms

Why This Matters

Most browsers are application platforms that happen to display documents. Vulpes is a document reader that refuses to be an application platform.

It's also a learning project—building a browser from scratch teaches you how much complexity we accept as normal. The answer: too much.

Status

Beta. Works for text-heavy sites, breaks on modern SPAs (by design). Custom GLSL shader support for visual customization.