bichrome

bichrome is a simple utility for Windows and macOS that you configure as your default browser, which then will choose which browser to open a URL in based on the configuration you specify. It also supports picking a particular Chrome profile -- either by specifying a profile name, or by specifying the "hosted domain" of your profile if you're using Google Workspace. (Your hosted domain is the bit after the @ in a non-"gmail dot com" address hosted by GMail.)

It was created to address the problem of clicking links in Slack and other apps and then having to relocate them to the "correct" browser window / Chrome profile where you're logged in to Facebook / JIRA / etc.

Big thanks to Krista A. Leemhuis for the amazing icon!

Installation

Windows

1. Download bichrome-win64.exe from the latest release.
2. Move it to its permanent home -- e.g. creating a directory in %localappdata%\Programs called bichrome and putting it there.
3. Run bichrome-win64.exe once by double clicking it. This will register bichrome as a potential browser.
4. Configure bichrome as your default browser by opening "Default Apps" (You can open your start menu and just type "Default Apps") and clicking the icon under "Web browser", and picking bichrome.

That's it! Now just create a configuration file named bichrome_config.json next to bichrome-win64.exe (see the configuration section for details) -- a good starting place is to download & edit the example config.

macOS

1. Download bichrome-macos.zip from the latest release.
2. Extract it and copy the bichrome app e.g. to /Applications
3. Open System Preferences and search for "Default Browser"
4. Pick bichrome as your default browser.

That's it! Now just create a configuration file named bichrome_config.json in ~/Library/Application Support/com.bitspatter.bichrome/bichrome_config.json (see the configuration section for details) -- a good starting place is to download & edit the example config.

bichrome_config.json

Configuring bichrome involves setting up a set of profiles that define a name and a browser (and for Chrome, optionally a browser profile name or a profile's hosted domain), and setting up a list of profile selectors that pick a profile based on matching patterns against the URL you're opening. Profile names

The following snippet shows how profiles are configured. See the example config for a more complete example.

{
  "default_profile": "Personal",
  "profiles": {
    "Work": {
      "browser": "Chrome",
      "hosted_domain": "mycorp.com"
    },
    "Personal": {
      "browser": "Firefox"
    }
  },
  "profile_selection": [ ... ]
}

The format for the patterns are documented in detail on Mozilla.org or in the documentation of the webextension_pattern crate which is used to perform the matching. Some examples can be found in the the example config.

Configuring the matching is done under the profile_selection key. The browser from the first selector that matches the URL will be used to open the URL. If none of the patterns match, the URL will be opened with the profile named in default_profile, and if that doesn't exist, it will default to using Chrome with no profile specified. (Chrome's behavior in this case is to open it in the last activated window.) A profile specifying a browser of OsDefault will use Safari on macOS and Edge on Windows, and Safari or Edge will open the respective browser iff it's running on a supported OS.

The following snippet shows how selectors are configured. See the example config for a more complete example.

{
  "default_profile": "...",
  "profiles": { ... },
  "profile_selection": [
    {
        "profile": "Personal",
        "pattern": "*.twitter.com"
    },
    {
        "profile": "Work",
        "pattern": "*.mycorp.net"
    }
  ]
}

bichrome_config.json is expected to live next to bichrome-win64.exe on Windows, and in ~/Library/Application Support/com.bitspatter.bichrome/bichrome_config.json on macOS.

You can find an example config in example_config/bichrome_config.json.

Profile names for Chrome and Edge can either be the name you see in the profile list, or the internal "profile name". The latter can be a little bit opaque -- the standard profile name for both of them (i.e. the first profile created) is Default, and then it will create profiles named Profile 1, Profile 2, and so forth. These will (on Windows) each have a folder in %localappdata%/Google/Chrome/User Data or %localappdata%/Microsoft/Edge/User Data. The correct profile name for the active profile can be found in the Profile path key on edge://version/ or chrome://version/ respectively.

For Chrome, hosted_domain can be the name of a Google Apps domain that you've signed in to Chrome, in which case bichrome automatically determines which profile that is.

You may also supply Executable as a profile's browser, along with a path to a program you would like to open certain URLs. You could, for example, use it to open YouTube links directly in your video player of choice.

{
    "default_profile": "...",
    "profiles": {
        "Video Player": {
            "browser": "Executable",
            "path": "C:/Program Files/mpv/mpv.exe"
        }
    },
    "profile_selection": [
        {
            "profile": "Video Player",
            "pattern": "*.youtube.com"
        },
        {
            "profile": "Video Player",
            "pattern": "youtu.be"
        }
    ]
}

License

The icon is copyright (c) 2021-2023 Jørgen P. Tjernø. All Rights Reserved.

The source code is licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.