Mozeidon

Mozeidon is essentially a CLI written in Go to handle Mozilla Firefox OR Google Chrome tabs, history, and bookmarks.

Here you'll find :

• a guide to complete the installation of the mozeidon components (see architecture).
• advanced examples of the CLI usage (including integration with fzf and fzf-tmux)
• a Raycast extension built around Mozeidon CLI (for MacOS only)
• a MacOS native app built around Mozeidon CLI (for MacOS only)

All the code is available here as open-source. You can be sure that :

• your browsing data (tabs, bookmarks, etc) will remain private and safe: mozeidon will never share anything outside of your system.
• at any time, stopping or removing the mozeidon firefox (or chrome) addon extension will stop or remove all related processes on your machine.

Using the mozeidon CLI, you can :

• list all currently opened tabs
• list recently-closed tabs
• list current history
• list current bookmarks
• switch to a currently opened tab
• open a new tab (empty tab or with target url)
• close a currently opened tab

Architecture

Mozeidon is built on ipc and native-messaging protocols, using the following components :

• the Mozeidon firefox or chrome add-on, a JS script running in the Mozilla (or Chrome) browser, receives commands and sends back data (i.e tabs, bookmarks, etc) by leveraging various browser APIs.

• the Mozeidon native-app, a Go program, interacts with the Mozeidon firefox-addon. It sends commands to, and receive data from the browser addon - via native-messaging protocol.

• the Mozeidon CLI, another Go program, interacts with the Mozeidon native-app. It sends commands to and receive data from the native-app - via ipc protocol.

Installation

You need to install at least 3 components :

• the Mozeidon firefox add-on or the Mozeidon chrome add-on
• the Mozeidon native-app
• the Mozeidon CLI

Mozeidon firefox-addon

The mozeidon addon for Mozilla Firefox can be found here :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mozeidon

Mozeidon chrome-addon

The mozeidon addon for Google Chrome can be found here :

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mozeidon/lipjcjopdojfmfjmnponpjkkccbjoipe

Mozeidon native-app

The mozeidon native-app, a very simple ipc server written in go, will allow the mozeidon add-on to receive commands from and send responses to the mozeidon CLI (see below).

On MacOS or Linux, you can install it using homebrew :

brew tap egovelox/homebrew-mozeidon ;

brew install egovelox/mozeidon/mozeidon-native-app ;

Otherwise, you may download the binary from the release page.

If no release matches your platform, you can build the binary yourself:

git clone https://github.com/egovelox/mozeidon-native-app.git ;

cd mozeidon-native-app && go build

As a firefox native-app, it has to be referenced into your Firefox or Chrome configuration.

Referencing the native-app into your Firefox configuration

On MacOS, first locate the ~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/NativeMessagingHosts directory (or create it if missing).

Then create a mozeidon.json file, and copy into it the following json.

Note: depending on your installation, you may need to replace the value in "path" with the absolute path of the mozeidon-native-app.

{
  "name": "mozeidon",
  "description": "Native messaging add-on to interact with your browser",
  "path": "/opt/homebrew/bin/mozeidon-native-app",
  "type": "stdio",
  "allowed_extensions": [
    "mozeidon-addon@egovelox.com"
  ]
}

Now the Mozeidon firefox-addon will be able to interact with the Mozeidon native-app.

Note : For other OS than MacOS, please check the Mozilla documentation to find the correct location of the Firefox NativeMessagingHosts directory.

As a last step, you need to install the Mozeidon CLI.

Referencing the native-app into your Chrome configuration

On MacOS, first locate the ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts directory (or create it if missing).

Then create a mozeidon.json file, and copy into it the following json.

Note: depending on your installation, you may need to replace the value in "path" with the absolute path of the mozeidon-native-app.

{
  "name": "mozeidon",
  "description": "Native messaging add-on to interact with your browser",
  "path": "/opt/homebrew/bin/mozeidon-native-app",
  "type": "stdio",
  "allowed_origins": ["chrome-extension://lipjcjopdojfmfjmnponpjkkccbjoipe/"]
}

Now the Mozeidon chrome-addon will be able to interact with the Mozeidon native-app.

Note : For other OS than MacOS, please check the Chrome documentation to find the correct location of the Chrome NativeMessagingHosts directory.

As a last step, you need to install the Mozeidon CLI.

Mozeidon CLI

The Mozeidon CLI is a lightweight CLI written in go.

On MacOS or Linux, you can install it using homebrew :

brew tap egovelox/homebrew-mozeidon ;

brew install egovelox/mozeidon/mozeidon ;

Otherwise, you may download the binary from the release page.

If no release matches your platform, you can build the binary yourself:

git clone https://github.com/egovelox/mozeidon.git ;

cd mozeidon/cli && go build

Examples

How to use the Mozeidon CLI with go-template syntax for customized output :

# get maximum 10 of latest bookmarks, title and url

mozeidon bookmarks -m 10 --go-template '{{range .Items}}{{.Title}} {{.Url}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}'

# get opened tabs, with 📌 icon if pinned

mozeidon tabs get --go-template '{{range .Items}}{{.WindowId}}:{{.Id}} {{.Url}} {{if .Pinned}}📌{{else}}🦊{{end}} {{"\\u001b[38;5;109m"}} {{.Domain}}{{"\\033[0m"}} {{.Title}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}'

Customized tabs output with a pipe into fzf

If you've installed fzf you can use it as a kind of UI for mozeidon CLI.

The below bash command shows how fzf can be used to select a tab, and to open it in your browser.

mozeidon tabs get --go-template '{{range .Items}}{{.WindowId}}:{{.Id}} {{.Url}} {{if .Pinned}}📌{{else}}🦊{{end}} {{"\u001b[38;5;109m"}} {{.Domain}}{{"\033[0m"}} {{.Title}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}' \
| fzf --ansi --with-nth 3.. --bind=enter:accept-non-empty \
| cut -d ' ' -f1 \
| xargs -n1 -I % sh -c 'mozeidon tabs switch % && open -a firefox'

note : xargs -n1 prevents to run any command if no tab was chosen with fzf ( say, for example, that you exited fzf with ctrl-c )

note : mozeidon tabs switch is used to switch to the tab you chose in fzf

Same as previous, but tailored for tmux

As an example, let's bind our mozeidon script with the tmux shortcut Prefix-t

# in $HOME/.tmux.conf
bind t run-shell -b "bash $HOME/.tmux/mozeidon_tabs.sh"

Now create the script $HOME/.tmux/mozeidon_tabs.sh :

#!/bin/bash
mozeidon tabs get --go-template \
'{{range .Items}}{{.WindowId}}:{{.Id}} {{.Url}} {{if .Pinned}}📌{{else}}🦊{{end}} {{"\u001b[38;5;109m"}} {{.Domain}}{{"\033[0m"}}  {{.Title}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}' \
| fzf-tmux -p 60% -- \
--no-bold --layout=reverse --margin 0% --no-separator --no-info --black --color bg+:black,hl:reverse,hl+:reverse,gutter:black --ansi --with-nth 3.. --bind=enter:accept-non-empty \
| cut -d ' ' -f1 \
| xargs -n1 -I % sh -c '$HOME/bin/mozeidon tabs switch % && open -a firefox'

Another advanced fzf-tmux script

This more advanced script will allow to :

• open a new tab (empty or with search query)
• switch to a currently open tab
• close one or many tabs

#!/bin/bash
$HOME/bin/mozeidon tabs get --go-template \
  '{{range .Items}}{{.WindowId}}:{{.Id}} {{.Url}} {{if .Pinned}}📌{{else}}🦊{{end}} {{"\u001b[38;5;109m"}}  {{.Domain}}{{"\033[0m"}}  {{.Title}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}'\
  | fzf-tmux -p 60% -- \
  --border-label=TABS \
  --no-bold \
  --layout=reverse \
  --margin 0% \
  --no-separator \
  --no-info \
  --black \
  --color bg+:black,hl:reverse,hl+:reverse,gutter:black \
  --with-nth 3.. \
  --bind="enter:accept+execute($HOME/bin/mozeidon tabs switch {1} && open -a firefox)" \
  --multi \
  --marker=❌ \
  --bind="ctrl-p:accept-non-empty+execute($HOME/bin/mozeidon tabs close {+1})" \
  --bind="ctrl-o:print-query" \
  --header-first \
  --color=header:#5e6b6b \
  '--header=close tab(s) [C-p] 
open new tab [C-o]'\
  | grep -v "[🦊📌]" \
  | xargs -r -I {} sh -c '$HOME/bin/mozeidon tabs new "{}" && open -a firefox'

Raycast extension

For MacOS and Firefox users only : see the Mozeidon Raycast extension.

This Raycast extension will not work with Chrome browser. If you use MacOS, see MacOS swift app-agent

Note that you'll first need to complete the installation of Mozeidon components (Mozeidon firefox add-on, Mozeidon native-app and Mozeidon CLI).

Note that you cannot list history items with this Raycast extension : only tabs, recently-closed tabs, and bookmarks.

MacOS swift app-agent

If you ask for something faster than Raycast ( which I find quite slow to trigger the search list ),
you might take a look at this macOS app mozeidon-macos-ui

Releases

Various releases of the Mozeidon CLI can be found on the releases page.

Releases are managed with github-actions and goreleaser.

A release will be auto-published when a new git tag is pushed, e.g :

git clone https://github.com/egovelox/mozeidon.git && cd mozeidon;

git tag -a v2.0.0 -m "A new mozeidon (CLI) release"

git push origin v2.0.0

Local development setup

We'll assume that you installed and followed the steps described in the Mozeidon native-app paragraph above. In fact, you rarely need to modify this component, it's just a message broker (see the architecture paragraph above ).

First clone this repository.

Then, build the firefox-extension locally :

cd mozeidon/firefox-addon; npm install; npm run build

Now don't forget to disable the current mozeidon extension, if it is enabled in your browser.

Then, in Firefox, via Extensions > Debug Addons > Load Temporary Add-on, select the manifest file in firefox-addon/manifest.json.
This will load the local extension into Firefox.

From there, you may want to go further and build the CLI also :

cd mozeidon/cli; go build;

You should now be able to use the CLI with the local binary :

./mozeidon/cli/mozeidon tabs get

Notes

For users who installed both the firefox-addon AND the chrome-addon, mozeidon CLI will not work properly when both browser-extensions are activated at the same time. To overcome this limitation, keep one extension activated (e.g firefox-addon) and deactivate the other extension (e.g chrome-addon).