Feather 0.1.4-alpha

Feather 0.1.4-alpha

An early alpha of Feather: a small, native macOS browser built on WebKit, with vertical sidebar tabs, pinned tabs, and a tab lifecycle that unloads pages you aren't using. Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no telemetry.

What's new in 0.1.4

• The automatic update check is more reliable. In 0.1.3 the timed check did not run within four minutes of launch on the author's Mac (the menu command worked); macOS slows an app's timers while it is in the background. Feather now also checks when you switch back to it (at most one attempt per 10 minutes), and logs why a check ran or was skipped.
• 0.1.3 can update itself to this version (Feather > Check for Updates..., then Update). If you are on 0.1.2 or earlier, install this zip by hand once.

Everything from 0.1.3 still applies: updates are signed by the project owner, checked for size and SHA-256, never installed without your click, and downgrades are refused.

Download

Feather-0.1.4-alpha.zip (1.5 MB). Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (arm64 only; no Intel build).

SHA-256: e4911d17fafc38cbeb434b508104893b249eda0a2849f7bb642264570b3443ce

Opening it (important)

This app is only ad-hoc signed and not notarized (that needs a paid Apple Developer account), so macOS will refuse to open it the first time:

1. Unzip, and move Feather.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it once. macOS will say it can't be verified.
3. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about Feather, and click Open Anyway.

If you'd rather not run an unnotarized binary, build it from source (needs Xcode and XcodeGen): see the README. The zip was built from a fresh clone of this exact commit (630a37f) by those same steps.

Be aware: this is alpha

• Updating itself is only partly tested (see the README's Updates section). If an update fails, the banner offers the download page. Apps installed from a browser download may make macOS ask once about the update helper (Contents/Library/FeatherUpdater.app, which runs outside the sandbox only while an update installs).
• Tested on one Mac only (Apple M3, macOS 27.0). Built for macOS 14+, but not run on other versions.
• USB security keys (YubiKey) work with the limits listed in the README; iCloud passkeys and Touch ID do not.
• Missing: a password manager / AutoFill, extensions, ad and tracker blocking, private browsing, a download list, sync, multiple windows.
• Text typed into web forms and a page's JavaScript state are not restored after a crash.
• It is designed to be light on memory, but no measurements against Safari or any other browser have been made, so it makes no claim to use less.

Privacy

No analytics, accounts or telemetry. Tabs, history and bookmarks stay on your Mac in the app's sandbox. Besides the pages you open, Feather downloads the icon of sites you visit and asks GitHub for the newest release about once a day (Settings > Updates switches this off); searches typed in the address bar go to Google.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bug reports are welcome as issues.

Feather 0.1.3-alpha

Feather 0.1.3-alpha

An early alpha of Feather: a small, native macOS browser built on WebKit, with vertical sidebar tabs, pinned tabs, and a tab lifecycle that unloads pages you aren't using. Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no telemetry.

What's new in 0.1.3

• Updates inside the app. Feather checks GitHub for a newer release about once a day (switch off in Settings > Updates; Feather > Check for Updates... checks now), shows a banner, and installs the update with one click: it saves your tabs, replaces itself and reopens. Updates are signed by the project owner, checked for size and SHA-256, and downgrades are refused. Nothing installs without your click.
• This is the first version with the updater, so it has to be installed by hand once (see below). Later versions can update themselves.

Download

Feather-0.1.3-alpha.zip (1.5 MB). Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (arm64 only; no Intel build).

SHA-256: 324404df212e78e08c4de180e1f7695f57fbb3617261495826af44a99f829ad4

Opening it (important)

This app is only ad-hoc signed and not notarized (that needs a paid Apple Developer account), so macOS will refuse to open it the first time:

1. Unzip, and move Feather.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it once. macOS will say it can't be verified.
3. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about Feather, and click Open Anyway.

If you'd rather not run an unnotarized binary, build it from source (needs Xcode and XcodeGen): see the README. The zip was built from a fresh clone of this exact commit (7ea793f) by those same steps.

Be aware: this is alpha

• Updating itself is only partly tested. A full update of a copy of the app against a local test feed works (swap, relaunch, tabs restored), and wrongly signed or tampered updates are refused, but updating the real installed app from a real GitHub release first happens with the version after this one. If an update fails, the banner offers the download page. Apps installed from a browser download may make macOS ask once about the update helper.
• The update helper (Contents/Library/FeatherUpdater.app) runs outside the app's sandbox, only while an update installs, and installs only what the owner's key signed.
• Tested on one Mac only (Apple M3, macOS 27.0). Built for macOS 14+, but not run on other versions.
• USB security keys (YubiKey) work with the limits listed in the README; iCloud passkeys and Touch ID do not.
• Missing: a password manager / AutoFill, extensions, ad and tracker blocking, private browsing, a download list, sync, multiple windows.
• Text typed into web forms and a page's JavaScript state are not restored after a crash.
• It is designed to be light on memory, but no measurements against Safari or any other browser have been made, so it makes no claim to use less.

Privacy

No analytics, accounts or telemetry. Tabs, history and bookmarks stay on your Mac in the app's sandbox. Besides the pages you open, Feather downloads the icon of sites you visit and asks GitHub for the newest release about once a day (Settings > Updates switches this off); searches typed in the address bar go to Google.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bug reports are welcome as issues.

Feather 0.1.2-alpha

Feather 0.1.2-alpha

An early alpha of Feather: a small, native macOS browser built on WebKit, with vertical sidebar tabs, pinned tabs, and a tab lifecycle that unloads pages you aren't using. Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no telemetry.

What's new in 0.1.2

• USB security keys (YubiKey and other FIDO2 keys) now work for signing in and registering, including PIN entry. WebKit doesn't offer this to third-party browsers, so Feather talks to the key itself. A sheet always names the site that is asking. Tested with one real YubiKey (firmware 5.7.4), with and without a PIN, results checked by Yubico's python-fido2.
  • Not supported: iCloud passkeys, Touch ID, NFC and Bluetooth keys (these need an Apple entitlement that requires a paid developer account). Sites may still say "partial passkey support".
  • Implemented but not yet tested: accounts stored on the key (account picker), the older appid sign-in, the "this key isn't registered, plug in another" flow.
• Site icons are kept across relaunches (a small local cache, refreshed weekly, cleared by Clear History).
• A GitHub build check, changelog and security policy were added.

Download

Feather-0.1.2-alpha.zip (1.4 MB). Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (arm64 only; no Intel build).

SHA-256: eef623b9eecd9662c1d26048a1f45b1e3fd8be6d8aaf4a201907530670464c69

Opening it (important)

This app is only ad-hoc signed and not notarized (that needs a paid Apple Developer account), so macOS will refuse to open it the first time:

1. Unzip, and move Feather.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it once. macOS will say it can't be verified.
3. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about Feather, and click Open Anyway.

If you'd rather not run an unnotarized binary, build it from source (needs Xcode and XcodeGen): see the README. The zip was built from a fresh clone of this exact commit (32eb8f0) by those same steps.

Be aware: this is alpha

• Tested on one Mac only (Apple M3, macOS 27.0). Built for macOS 14+, but not run on other versions.
• Not tested: a power cut or restart in the middle of a save, video calls, printing, other YubiKey models, and sign-in on individual large sites.
• Missing: a password manager / AutoFill, extensions, ad and tracker blocking, private browsing, a download list, sync, multiple windows.
• Text typed into web forms and a page's JavaScript state are not restored after a crash.
• It is designed to be light on memory, but no measurements against Safari or any other browser have been made, so it makes no claim to use less.

Privacy

No analytics, accounts or telemetry. Tabs, history and bookmarks stay on your Mac in the app's sandbox. Besides the pages you open, Feather downloads the icon of sites you visit; searches typed in the address bar go to Google.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bug reports are welcome as issues.

Feather 0.1.1-alpha

Feather 0.1.1-alpha

An early alpha of Feather: a small, native macOS browser built on WebKit, with vertical sidebar tabs, pinned tabs, and a tab lifecycle that unloads pages you aren't using. Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no telemetry.

What's new in 0.1.1

• Fixes blurry text in Google Sheets (and very likely Docs and Slides). The web view reported the browser window's size as 0 x 0, and canvas-drawn apps then rendered at low resolution and stretched it. Measured on Google's public sample sheet at native resolution, the grid is about 47x sharper.
• Tabs that load in the background no longer see a 0 x 0 window, so pages that lay themselves out at load time behave properly.

Download

Feather-0.1.1-alpha.zip (1.1 MB). Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (arm64 only; no Intel build).

SHA-256: d8190409e2fd6cb051c907622c9b56cb1fdf51496bea5b226f7135846876df11

Opening it (important)

This app is only ad-hoc signed and not notarized (that needs a paid Apple Developer account), so macOS will refuse to open it the first time:

1. Unzip, and move Feather.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it once. macOS will say it can't be verified.
3. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about Feather, and click Open Anyway.

If you'd rather not run an unnotarized binary, build it from source (needs Xcode and XcodeGen): see the README. The zip above was built from this exact commit (0af181c) by those same steps.

What it does

• Sidebar tabs with pinned tabs (drag to reorder, drag to pin), one address bar for URLs and Google searches (click it once to select everything), find in page, per-site zoom, downloads, printing.
• Sessions designed so your tabs aren't lost: saved within a fraction of a second, written durably, rolling backups, damaged files are quarantined rather than overwritten, and History > Restore Previous Session.
• Animations that only run when you do something (and switch off with macOS Reduce motion).

Be aware: this is alpha

• Tested on one Mac only (Apple M3, macOS 27.0). It is built for macOS 14+ but has not been run on other versions.
• Not tested: a power cut or restart in the middle of a save, video calls, printing, and sign-in flows for large sites (Google, Microsoft) inside the web view.
• Missing: a password manager / AutoFill, extensions, ad and tracker blocking, private browsing, a download list, sync, multiple windows.
• Text typed into web forms and a page's JavaScript state are not restored after a crash.
• It is designed to be light on memory, but no measurements against Safari or any other browser have been made, so it makes no claim to use less. A benchmark harness is included.

Privacy

No analytics, accounts or telemetry. Tabs, history and bookmarks stay on your Mac in the app's sandbox. Besides the pages you open, Feather downloads the icon of sites you visit; searches typed in the address bar go to Google.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bug reports are welcome as issues.

Feather 0.1.0-alpha

Superseded by 0.1.1-alpha, which fixes blurry text in Google Sheets and Docs. Please download that version instead.

Feather 0.1.0-alpha

An early alpha of Feather: a small, native macOS browser built on WebKit, with vertical sidebar tabs, pinned tabs, and a tab lifecycle that unloads pages you aren't using. Swift and SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no telemetry.

Download

Feather-0.1.0-alpha.zip (1.1 MB). Requires macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (arm64 only; no Intel build).

SHA-256: e81fae1d1e6e78d55a1ac0e3551242de688bce82898aa2ff4141f114559679a1

Opening it (important)

This app is only ad-hoc signed and not notarized (that needs a paid Apple Developer account), so macOS will refuse to open it the first time:

1. Unzip, and move Feather.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it once. macOS will say it can't be verified.
3. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down to the message about Feather, and click Open Anyway.

If you'd rather not run an unnotarized binary, build it from source (needs Xcode and XcodeGen): see the README. The zip above was built from this exact commit (6aa5bec) by those same steps.

What it does

• Sidebar tabs with pinned tabs (drag to reorder, drag to pin), one address bar for URLs and Google searches, find in page, per-site zoom, downloads, printing.
• Sessions designed so your tabs aren't lost: saved within a fraction of a second, written durably, rolling backups, damaged files are quarantined rather than overwritten, and History > Restore Previous Session.
• Animations that only run when you do something (and switch off with macOS Reduce motion).

Be aware: this is alpha

• Tested on one Mac only (Apple M3, macOS 27.0). It is built for macOS 14+ but has not been run on other versions.
• Not tested: a power cut or restart in the middle of a save, video calls, printing, and sign-in flows for large sites (Google, Microsoft) inside the web view.
• Missing: a password manager / AutoFill, extensions, ad and tracker blocking, private browsing, a download list, sync, multiple windows.
• Text typed into web forms and a page's JavaScript state are not restored after a crash.
• It is designed to be light on memory, but no measurements against Safari or any other browser have been made, so it makes no claim to use less. A benchmark harness is included.

Privacy

No analytics, accounts or telemetry. Tabs, history and bookmarks stay on your Mac in the app's sandbox. Besides the pages you open, Feather downloads the icon of sites you visit; searches typed in the address bar go to Google.

Licensed under the MIT License. Bug reports are welcome as issues.