Browser and link routing

Browser and link routing

Click a link in your terminal, chat app, or email client and it opens in the browser profile belonging to the active space.

Setup

"browser": { "command": "brave", "profile": "Default" }

command is the executable. profile is passed as --profile-directory. Optional args are inserted before the profile flag.

Then make the router your default browser:

./install.sh --with-url-handler

Finding your profile directory names

They are directory names on disk, not the display names you see in the browser.

Brave:

python3 -c "
import json,os
d=json.load(open(os.path.expanduser('~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State')))
for k,v in d['profile']['info_cache'].items(): print(k, '->', v.get('name'))
"

Chrome is the same with ~/.config/google-chrome/Local State. Chromium uses ~/.config/chromium/Local State.

The first profile is always Default. The rest are Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on. The space in Profile 1 is fine, the CLI passes it as a single argument.

Checking without opening anything

omarchy-spaces which https://example.com

["brave", "--profile-directory=Profile 1", "https://example.com"]

That is the exact argv it would run. Switch spaces and run it again to confirm the routing changes.

How it works

omarchy-spaces-open.desktop becomes the handler for http, https, and text/html. Its Exec line is omarchy-spaces open %u. The CLI reads the active space, builds the argv, and execs the browser directly, so no extra process stays around.

If the active space declares no browser, it falls through to xdg-open.

Turning it off

xdg-settings set default-web-browser brave-browser.desktop

Or point at a specific profile so links always land in one place:

xdg-settings set default-web-browser brave-perso.desktop

Per space browsers, not just profiles

Nothing requires the same browser everywhere:

{ "id": "personal", "browser": { "command": "brave", "profile": "Default" } }
{ "id": "work",     "browser": { "command": "google-chrome-stable", "profile": "Profile 1" } }

Extra flags

"browser": {
  "command": "brave",
  "profile": "Profile 1",
  "args": ["--password-store=gnome-libsecret"]
}

On Hyprland that flag matters. Chromium detects the keyring backend from XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, does not recognise Hyprland, and falls back to a store that encrypts with a hardcoded key. Passing it explicitly puts saved passwords in the real keyring.

What this does not do

It routes links. It does not stop you opening the other profile by hand, and it does not isolate cookies beyond what browser profiles already give you. The separation is the browser's, this just picks which one.