A macOS menu bar app that opens links in the most recently focused browser.
Fully open source — verify the code yourself. Built with Claude Code.
When using multiple browsers (Chrome, Safari, Arc, Firefox), clicking links in other apps always opens in a fixed default browser. BrowserRouter fixes this by tracking which browser you were last using and routing links there.
Download the latest release from GitHub Releases.
- Download
BrowserRouter-vX.X.X.zip - Unzip and drag
BrowserRouter.appto your Applications folder - Remove the quarantine attribute (required for unsigned apps):
xattr -cr /Applications/BrowserRouter.app
- Open the app normally
Requires Swift 5.9+ and macOS 13+.
git clone https://github.com/mares29/browserrouter.git
cd browserrouter
./scripts/bundle.shThis builds the app and installs it to ~/Applications.
- Open
~/Applications/BrowserRouter.app - A globe icon appears in the menu bar
- Go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser
- Select BrowserRouter
Just use your Mac normally. BrowserRouter runs in the background and:
- Tracks which browser you switch to
- When you click a link (in Mail, Slack, etc.), it opens in your last-used browser
- If that browser isn't running, it tries the next most recent one
- Falls back to your configured fallback browser or system default
Click the menu bar icon to:
- See which browser is currently active
- Choose which browsers to track (Tracked Browsers submenu)
- Set a fallback browser (Fallback Browser submenu)
- Configure menu bar display (icon only, icon + letter, or icon + name)
- Enable launch at login
- Set BrowserRouter as default browser
- Registers as a handler for
http://andhttps://URLs - Listens for
NSWorkspace.didActivateApplicationNotificationto track browser focus - When a URL is opened, routes it to the most recently focused (and currently running) browser
BrowserRouter stores only a list of your recently used browsers locally on your Mac. No analytics, no network requests, no URL logging. See PRIVACY.md for details.