Omareader: restyle Chromium pages from the active Omarchy theme

[badenpiland]

I'd like Omareader considered for inclusion with the other Chromium pieces (Copy URL and yt-dlp). It is a pre-release people can install now, separately from Omarchy.

What it does

Omareader restyles web pages with the background, foreground, and selection color of the theme omarchy theme set just activated. Open tabs repaint when the theme directory is swapped. Light themes stay light. Images are not color-inverted. Terminal accent colors are not forced onto sites. Link and syntax colors stay on Dark Reader's usual path.

A Python native host watches ~/.local/state/omarchy/current (that directory is replaced atomically) and publishes the palette over native messaging. The extension bundles Dark Reader's dynamic theme engine, darkreader 4.9.133, MIT, copyright Dark Reader Ltd. The Dark Reader extension does not need to be installed. If it is on, the popup asks once before turning it off, and asks for permission to manage extensions only if you choose to turn it off. Leaving it on means both extensions restyle the page.

Pages also get Dark Reader's site fixes, including Amazon. The bundled list is from Dark Reader 4.9.133. Once a day Omareader downloads the list Dark Reader publishes. No browsing data is sent. Uncheck "Update site fixes daily" to keep the list already in use. A failed download, or a list this version does not understand, keeps the list already in use.

Text that would disappear into the theme background is drawn in the theme foreground. A stylesheet from another host is fetched and themed the same way. On a dark theme the Amazon header wordmark stays the light sprite Amazon ships, and the orange smile stays orange.

Once a day the popup checks this repo's GitHub releases, including pre-releases. When one is newer, it names the installed version and links the available version to the repo. That check sends no browsing data.

Alt+Shift+O turns it on or off. The toolbar shows the dark glasses while it is on, and the light glasses while it is off or that site is paused.

Install it today

• Repo: https://github.com/badenpiland/omareader
• Pre-release: https://github.com/badenpiland/omareader/releases/tag/v0.2.0

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badenpiland/omareader/main/install.sh | bash

Restart that browser. Chrome asks for sudo once.

The command follows the Omarchy default browser and installs Omareader only there. Chromium, Brave, Brave Origin, and Edge load the extension on the next restart. Chrome ignores a per-user install, so the command asks once for sudo and writes the extension where Chrome will load it. Firefox and Zen are not supported.

If a browser already refused the extension, it will not accept the installer again until the extension is installed by hand once, removed, and the command is run again.

The installer copies the host to ~/.local/share/omareader/ and downloads the signed crx for the version on main. It checks omareader.crx.sha256 when that file is published. The extension id is mhglniaepbokfgnpeennihlifandcgjh, pinned by the public key in the manifest. The signing key is not in the repo.

How it could land in Omarchy

The same shape as the existing Chromium extensions, not an Omarchy shell plugin (omarchy plugin add only clones a repo and does not register a native host):

1. Unpack the extension, public key included, under default/chromium/extensions/omareader. Unpacked load does not need the private signing key. The id stays mhglniaepbokfgnpeennihlifandcgjh.
2. Add it to --load-extension the way yt-dlp is added in ~/.config/*-flags.conf.
3. Add omarchy-install-chromium-omareader, modeled on omarchy-install-chromium-copy-url, and call it from install/user/chromium.sh and a migration.
4. The host name today is com.bhp.omareader. It can move to com.omarchy.omareader if you vendor it.
5. Brave Origin's profile is ~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Origin. The Copy URL host installer does not list that directory. An Omareader installer should.

Limits: no chrome:// or Chrome Web Store pages. Firefox and Zen are not supported.

This is a suggestion, not a bug report. I can open a PR from a fork if you want it in the tree.

[badenpiland]

Updated the post for 0.1.5: https://github.com/badenpiland/omareader/releases/tag/v0.1.5

Since this suggestion was opened at 0.1.2:

• Install is one command, then restart whichever Chromium-based browser you use.
• The popup asks before turning stock Dark Reader off. Permission to manage extensions is requested only if you choose to turn it off.
• Dark Reader's site fixes are included. The daily download can be turned off.
• Alt+Shift+O toggles it. Pause on this site leaves that host alone.
• The downloaded crx is checked against the published SHA-256: bf2715178a98935f85bb5ca9934a493064b465b26a83ca455b5ab152e9e4e4ef
• The extension auto-installs for Chromium and Brave Origin. Other Chromium-based browsers get the native host when a config directory already exists, then one drag-in of the crx.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badenpiland/omareader/main/install.sh | bash

[badenpiland]

0.1.6 is published: https://github.com/badenpiland/omareader/releases/tag/v0.1.6

The one-liner follows the Omarchy default browser and installs only there. Chromium, Brave, Brave Origin, and Edge load on restart. Chrome asks once for sudo. Firefox and Zen are not supported.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badenpiland/omareader/main/install.sh | bash

[badenpiland]

0.2.0 is published: https://github.com/badenpiland/omareader/releases/tag/v0.2.0

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/badenpiland/omareader/main/install.sh | bash

Restart that browser. The command still follows the Omarchy default browser and installs only there.

What changed:

• Stylesheets served from another host are read, so the theme reaches pages such as Amazon.
• Text that would disappear into the theme background is drawn in the theme foreground.
• On a dark theme the Amazon header wordmark stays light. The orange smile is unchanged.
• The popup says when the installed version is older than a GitHub release, including pre-releases, and links the available version to the repo. That check sends no browsing data.