About
Vimma is a keyboard-first browser for people who live in Vim and tmux, made so the web keeps the flow of the rest of your work. Vim brings the modal layer: j/k to scroll, f for link hints, / to find, : for commands. tmux brings the prefix layer, on ctrl+b like tmux's default prefix: ctrl+b c for a new tab, ctrl+b v to split, ctrl+b w to switch workspace. Every one of those keys can be remapped in config.toml, and so can the prefix and the leader.
- Why another browser, and not an extension?
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Extensions such as Tridactyl and Vimium come close, but an extension cannot reach every key. Vimma's dispatcher sees each key before Firefox does, including in the URL bar, on
about:pages and in the PDF viewer.Splits, workspaces and a status bar belong to the window, and no extension owns the window. In Vimma they are built in.
The long version: Why Vimma.
- What does the name mean?
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Vimma is Finnish for a burst of eager, focused energy. You hear it in työvimma: a spell of work where everything flows and the hours slip by. It also happens to start with Vim. That is how browsing should feel: fast, fluent and absorbed.
- What are the privacy defaults?
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Off by default: Mozilla's studies and rollouts (Normandy, Nimbus), sponsored new-tab content and suggestions, feature recommendations and Mozilla promos. The build has no crash reporter and no official telemetry, so nothing is uploaded; a crash leaves a local core dump.
Kept as in Firefox: certificate revocation (CRLite), the add-on blocklist, Sync and add-ons from addons.mozilla.org. Google Safe Browsing is on in builds made with a Google API key. Each default can be changed in
about:config.Firefox's own updater is not built in, and system add-on updates are off, so Vimma never asks Mozilla's update server for a Firefox build. The one request it still makes there is for the OpenH264 and Widevine plugins, which video calls and DRM video need.
- What is underneath?
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Firefox 157, on the release channel, so you get Mozilla's engine and its add-on ecosystem. Vimma is built with Surfer, the toolchain behind Zen Browser. Vimma's code lives in its own files, with small patches to Firefox. Sites see Firefox's user agent byte for byte, and add-ons see Firefox's version number, so the web treats Vimma as Firefox.
- How private are workspaces?
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Each workspace is a Firefox container: cookies, logins and site storage are separate. History, bookmarks, form history and site permissions are shared by all workspaces, as they are between Firefox containers.
- Do I need Omarchy?
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No. On Omarchy, Vimma follows your theme and recolours when you change it. Elsewhere it uses Tokyo Night, its built-in theme, and you can set your own colours in
config.toml. - Which platforms?
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Linux x86_64 is the only platform built and tested. See install.
- What is the licence?
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MPL-2.0, like Firefox. This website is MPL-2.0 too, its text and the logo included.
- Where is the source?
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On GitHub, at github.com/JRanne/vimma, public since 10 October 2026. Vimma is still pre-alpha: you build it from source, and issues and the specs behind each feature are there too.
- Does this site track me?
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No. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads no fonts, scripts or images from other servers. Its keys (press ?) remember one setting, whether they are on, in your browser's local storage.