The browser that isn't there. The window is the webpage — no tabs, no toolbar, no address bar, no chrome at all. Made for clean screenshots, fullscreen YouTube, dashboards, and anything else that deserves the whole window.
A native macOS app in one Swift file, built on WKWebView (the Safari engine). No Electron, no dependencies, ~450 KB built.
./build.sh # → Chromeless.app
open Chromeless.appRequires the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install). Optionally mv Chromeless.app /Applications/.
Everything is a keystroke (also listed on the start page and in the menu bar):
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
⌘L |
Search or enter a URL (floating HUD) |
⌘drag |
Move the window from anywhere |
⌃⌘F |
Fullscreen (YouTube's own ⛶ button works too) |
⇧⌘S |
Snapshot the page as PNG → Desktop |
⌘P |
Pin the window above everything |
⌘[ / ⌘] |
Back / forward (two-finger swipe also works) |
Esc |
Bail out — back to the start page (⌘[ returns) |
⌘= ⌘- ⌘0 |
Zoom in / out / reset (pinch works too) |
⇧⌘C |
Copy the current URL |
⌘R / ⇧⌘R |
Reload / reload ignoring cache |
⌘N / ⌘W |
New window / close window |
The traffic-light buttons exist but stay invisible — hover the top-left corner to reveal them. The window remembers its frame and reopens your last page.
Chromeless doubles as a webpage-to-PNG tool:
./Chromeless.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromeless https://example.com --snap shot.png --size 1440x900
./Chromeless.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromeless localhost:3000 --snap dev.png --wait 3It loads the page, waits for it to settle, writes a Retina PNG, and exits.
- Cookies and logins persist (kept in
~/Library/WebKit/com.chromeless.app/), so YouTube stays signed in.
Apple gates WebAuthn in WKWebView behind the restricted com.apple.developer.web-browser.public-key-credential entitlement, and macOS kills ad-hoc builds that claim it without an Apple-issued provisioning profile (verified: instant SIGKILL). Chromeless checks its own signature at runtime:
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Default build (no entitlement): the WebAuthn API is hidden, so sites feature-detect the absence and offer their fallbacks instead of a doomed passkey prompt. For Google, "Try another way" → "Get a prompt on your phone" signs you in with no password and no passkey — it's Google's own push approval, not WebAuthn.
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Entitled build: passkeys work natively via iCloud Keychain + Touch ID. To get there: join the Apple Developer Program, request the Web Browser Public Key Credential capability for your App ID (developer.apple.com → Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → your identifier → Additional Capabilities, or Apple's capability request form), download a provisioning profile containing it, then:
PROVISIONING_PROFILE=chromeless.provisionprofile \ CODESIGN_IDENTITY="Apple Development: you@example.com (TEAMID)" ./build.shThe same binary detects the entitlement and stops hiding WebAuthn. macOS may show a one-time consent (System Settings → Privacy & Security lists passkey access for web browsers).
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Presents a Safari user agent; element fullscreen, autoplay, and AirPlay are enabled.
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First
⇧⌘Smay trigger the standard macOS prompt to allow Desktop access. -
Deliberately absent: tabs, find-in-page, downloads, history UI, extensions. That's the point.