This is a nix flake for the Zen browser.

• Linux and MacOS support
• Available for x86_64 and aarch64
• Support for twilight and beta
• Policies can be modified via Home Manager and unwrapped package override
• Fast & Automatic updates via GitHub Actions
• Browser update checks are disabled by default
• The default twilight version is reliable and reproducible
• Declarative [Work]Spaces (including themes, icons, containers)

Just add it to your NixOS flake.nix or home-manager:

inputs = {
  zen-browser = {
    url = "github:0xc000022070/zen-browser-flake";
    # IMPORTANT: we're using "libgbm" and is only available in unstable so ensure
    # to have it up-to-date or simply don't specify the nixpkgs input
    inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
  # ...
}

{
  # home.nix
  imports = [
    inputs.zen-browser.homeModules.beta
    # or inputs.zen-browser.homeModules.twilight
    # or inputs.zen-browser.homeModules.twilight-official
  ];

  programs.zen-browser.enable = true;
}

$ home-manager switch

# options are: 'x86_64-linux', 'aarch64-linux' and 'aarch64-darwin'

inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".default # beta
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".beta
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".twilight
# IMPORTANT: this package relies on the twilight release artifacts from the
# official zen repo and those artifacts are always replaced, causing hash mismatch
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".twilight-official

# you can even override the package policies
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".default.override {
  policies = {
      DisableAppUpdate = true;
      DisableTelemetry = true;
      # more and more
  };
}

$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch # or home-manager switch

# it's a symlink, if you install two versions they will collide and you should either specify "zen-twilight" or "zen-beta"
$ zen

This is only an attempt to document some of the options provided by the mkFirefoxModule module, so feel free to experiment with other program options and help with further documentation.

programs.zen-browser.*

• enable (boolean): Enable the home manager config.

• nativeMessagingHosts (listOf package): To enable communication between the browser and native applications.

  Example:

  {
    # Add any other native connectors here
    programs.zen-browser.nativeMessagingHosts = [pkgs.firefoxpwa];
  }

• policies (attrsOf anything): You can also modify the extensions and preferences from here.

{
  programs.zen-browser.policies = {
    AutofillAddressEnabled = true;
    AutofillCreditCardEnabled = false;
    DisableAppUpdate = true;
    DisableFeedbackCommands = true;
    DisableFirefoxStudies = true;
    DisablePocket = true;
    DisableTelemetry = true;
    DontCheckDefaultBrowser = true;
    NoDefaultBookmarks = true;
    OfferToSaveLogins = false;
    EnableTrackingProtection = {
      Value = true;
      Locked = true;
      Cryptomining = true;
      Fingerprinting = true;
    };
  };
}

For more policies read this.

{
  programs.zen-browser.policies = let
    mkLockedAttrs = builtins.mapAttrs (_: value: {
      Value = value;
      Status = "locked";
    });
  in {
    Preferences = mkLockedAttrs {
      "browser.tabs.warnOnClose" = false;
      # and so on...
    };
  };
}

Check this comment.

{
  programs.zen-browser.policies = let
    mkExtensionSettings = builtins.mapAttrs (_: pluginId: {
      install_url = "https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/${pluginId}/latest.xpi";
      installation_mode = "force_installed";
    });
  in {
    ExtensionSettings = mkExtensionSettings {
      "wappalyzer@crunchlabz.com" = "wappalyzer";
      "{85860b32-02a8-431a-b2b1-40fbd64c9c69}" = "github-file-icons";
    };
  };
}

To setup your own extensions you should:

1. Go to Add-ons for Firefox.
2. Go to the page of the extension that you want to declare.
3. Go to "See all versions".
4. Copy the link from any button to "Download file".
5. Exec wget with the output of this command:

echo "<paste-the-link-here>" \
 | sed -E 's|https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/file/[0-9]+/([^/]+)-[^/]+\.xpi|\1|' \
 | tr '_' '-' \
 | awk '{print "https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/" $1 "/latest.xpi"}'

6. Run unzip -*.xpi -d my-extension && cd my-extension.
7. Run cat manifest.json | jq -r '.browser_specific_settings.gecko.id' and use the result for the entry key.
8. Don't forget to add the install_url and set installation_mode to force_installed.

• profiles.*.spaces (attrsOf submodule): Declare profile's [work]spaces.
  • name (string) Name of space, defaults to submodule/attribute name.
  • id (string) Required. UUID v4 of space. Changing this after a rebuild will re-create the space as a new one, losing opened tabs, groups, etc. If spacesForce is true, the space with the previous UUID will be deleted.
  • position (unsigned integer) Position/order of space in the left bar.
  • icon (null or (string or path)) Emoji, URI or file path for icon to be used as space icon.
  • container (null or unsigned integer) Container ID to be used as default in space.
  • theme.type (nullOr string) Type of theme, defaults to "gradient".
  • theme.color (listOf submodule) List of JSON colors to be used as theme:
    • red (integer between 0 and 255) Red value of color (first value of "c" array in JSON object).
    • green (integer between 0 and 255) Green value of color (second value of "c" array in JSON object).
    • blue (integer between 0 and 255) Blue value of color (third value of "c" array in JSON object).
    • custom (boolean) Is custom color ("isCustom" in JSON object).
    • algorithm (enum of "complementary", "floating" or "analogous") color algorithm (defaults to "floating").
    • lightness (integer) Lightness of color.
    • position.x (integer) X Position of color in gradient picker on Zen browser.
    • position.y (integer) Y Position of color in gradient picker on Zen browser.
    • type (enum of "undefined" or "explicit-lightness") Type of color (default to "undefined").
  • theme.opacity (null or float) Opacity of theme (defaults to 0.5).
  • theme.rotation (null or integer) Rotation of theme gradient (defaults to null).
  • theme.texture (null or float) Amount of texture of theme (defaults to 0.0).
• profiles.*.spacesForce (boolean) Whether to delete existing spaces not declared in the configuration. Recommended to make spaces fully declarative (defaults to false).

{
  programs.zen-browser = {
    enable = true;
    profiles."default" = {
      containersForce = true;
      containers = {
        Personal = {
          color = "purple";
          icon = "fingerprint";
          id = 1;
        };
        Work = {
          color = "blue";
          icon = "briefcase";
          id = 2;
        };
        Shopping = {
          color = "yellow";
          icon = "dollarsign";
          id = 3;
        };
      };
      spacesForce = true;
      spaces = let
        containers = config.programs.zen-browser.profiles."default".containers;
      in {
        "Space" = {
          id = "c6de089c-410d-4206-961d-ab11f988d40a";
          position = 1000;
        };
        "Work" = {
          id = "cdd10fab-4fc5-494b-9041-325e5759195b";
          icon = "chrome://browser/skin/zen-icons/selectable/star-2.svg";
          container = containers."Work".id;
          position = 2000;
        };
        "Shopping" = {
          id = "78aabdad-8aae-4fe0-8ff0-2a0c6c4ccc24";
          icon = "💸";
          container = containers."Shopping".id;
          position = 3000;
        };
      };
    };
  };
}

Zen has to be manually added to the list of browsers that 1Password will communicate with. See this wiki article for more information. To enable 1Password integration, you need to add the browser identifier to the file /etc/1password/custom_allowed_browsers.

environment.etc = {
  "1password/custom_allowed_browsers" = {
    text = ''
      .zen-wrapped
    ''; # or just "zen" if you use unwrapped package
    mode = "0755";
  };
};

To enable communication between the browser and native applications, you can use the following configuration pattern.

Check the Home Manager Reference.

{
  home.packages = [
    (
      inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".default.override {
        nativeMessagingHosts = [pkgs.firefoxpwa];
      }
    )
  ];
}

To set Zen Browser as the default application for various file types and URL schemes, you can add the following configuration to your Home Manager setup:

{
  xdg.mimeApps = let
    value = let
      zen-browser = inputs.zen-browser.packages.${system}.beta; # or twilight
    in
      zen-browser.meta.desktopFileName;

    associations = builtins.listToAttrs (map (name: {
        inherit name value;
      }) [
        "application/x-extension-shtml"
        "application/x-extension-xhtml"
        "application/x-extension-html"
        "application/x-extension-xht"
        "application/x-extension-htm"
        "x-scheme-handler/unknown"
        "x-scheme-handler/mailto"
        "x-scheme-handler/chrome"
        "x-scheme-handler/about"
        "x-scheme-handler/https"
        "x-scheme-handler/http"
        "application/xhtml+xml"
        "application/json"
        "text/plain"
        "text/html"
      ]);
  in {
    associations.added = associations;
    defaultApplications = associations;
  };
}

This usually happens when the Zen team deletes a beta release from the official repository. They do this to keep only stable artifacts available. See #105 and #112 for further context.

You can either revert your nix input update or wait until CI refreshes sources.json.

Make sure that you update your flake.lock as to sync up nixpkgs version. Or make zen follow your system nixpkgs by using inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs" (assuming your nixpkgs input is named nixpkgs).

Check No WebGL context for details.

You may want to set policies.DisableAppUpdate = false; in your policies.json file. See #48.

Before contributing, please make sure that your code is formatted correctly by running

$ nix fmt

This project is licensed under the MIT License.