LightGate

A lightweight web browser built with Python and PyQt6.

LightGate provides a clean, minimal-footprint browsing experience with multi-tab support, bookmarks, configurable settings, and a basic download manager — all in a well-structured, modular Python codebase.

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Features

• Multi-tab browsing — open, close, and switch between tabs
• Navigation controls — Back, Forward, Reload/Stop, and Home buttons
• Smart address bar — auto-prefixes https://, falls back to DuckDuckGo for non-URL queries
• Bookmarks — add/remove bookmarks, persisted across sessions (data/bookmarks.json)
• Settings — configure home page, search engine, and download folder (data/settings.json)
• Download manager — intercepts downloads and saves to ~/Downloads with progress notifications
• Status bar — shows current URL / loading state
• Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+T new tab, Ctrl+W close tab, Ctrl+Q quit

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Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• PyQt6 ≥ 6.4
• PyQt6-WebEngine ≥ 6.4

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Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/DiniMuhd7/LightGate.git
cd LightGate

# 2. (Recommended) Create a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate   # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Linux note: You may also need the system libxcb and libegl libraries:

sudo apt-get install libxcb-xinerama0 libegl1

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How to Run

python main.py

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Project Structure

LightGate/
├── main.py                  # Entry point
├── browser/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── window.py            # Main BrowserWindow class
│   ├── tab_widget.py        # Tab management
│   ├── web_view.py          # Custom QWebEngineView subclass
│   ├── navigation_bar.py    # Toolbar / address bar
│   ├── bookmarks.py         # Bookmark manager
│   ├── downloads.py         # Download manager
│   └── settings_manager.py  # Settings load/save
├── data/
│   ├── bookmarks.json       # Persisted bookmarks
│   └── settings.json        # Persisted settings
├── resources/
│   └── icons/               # SVG icons for toolbar buttons
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md

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Screenshots

Android Play Store release

Production Android App Bundles are configured to use EAS local credentials so the release is signed with the Google Play upload key that Play Console expects. Do not commit the real credentials.json file or keystore. Copy credentials.example.json to credentials.json, place the upload keystore at android/keystores/lifegate-upload-key.jks, and fill in the keystore password, key alias, and key password before building.

The Android manifest marks camera, microphone, and location hardware as optional so Play Store does not filter out devices that lack one of those hardware features. Runtime permissions are still requested only when a website needs them.

Expected Play Console certificates:

• App signing key certificate SHA-1: 9D:DE:13:B8:4A:8C:94:96:12:B0:00:E2:94:00:57:D7:98:0D:34:46
• Upload key certificate SHA-1: 06:C3:63:B2:B6:43:F7:2F:69:35:F4:DF:3F:48:FC:7B:41:2B:36:2C

Verify the upload keystore fingerprint before building:

./scripts/verify-android-upload-key.sh android/keystores/lifegate-upload-key.jks <key-alias>

Build the production App Bundle with:

npx eas build --platform android --profile production

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License

MIT