Kenaz

Kenaz is a Linux-first browser shell written in Rust with Slint, WRY, and SQLite. It aims for a familiar single-window browser experience with a native desktop chrome, real tabs, an omnibox, persisted browser data, and browser-like behavior where the platform webview already provides it.

Current version: 0.0.1

Quick start

1) Prerequisites

• Rust stable toolchain (install with rustup)
• Linux desktop environment with GTK 3 / WebKitGTK support

Debian/Ubuntu packages:

sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev

If those development packages are not available system-wide, Kenaz can fall back to a repo-local sysroot under .local/linux-sysroot through the checked-in pkg-config wrapper. The first build may take longer while that cache is prepared.

2) Build and run

cargo run -p kenaz-app

Optimized local build:

cargo build -p kenaz-app --release

The release binary is written to target/release/kenaz-app.

3) Install locally on Linux (optional)

cargo build -p kenaz-app --release
./installer.sh install

To update an existing local install:

cargo build -p kenaz-app --release
./installer.sh update

The installer copies:

• the release binary to ~/.local/bin/kenaz
• the launcher icon to ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/kenaz.png
• a desktop entry to ~/.local/share/applications/kenaz.desktop

If your desktop keeps an older cached launcher icon, run ./installer.sh update again to rewrite the local desktop entry and icon path.

Useful development commands:

cargo fmt --all
cargo check --workspace
cargo test --workspace

What you can do in Kenaz today

• Browse in a single native window with a tab strip, close buttons, and a new-tab/home surface.
• Type either URLs or search queries into the omnibox.
• Use back, forward, reload, and stop controls.
• Open window.open, Ctrl-click, and middle-click page links in new tabs.
• Keep bookmarks, history, downloads, homepage, search engine, theme, and download directory persisted locally.
• Use dedicated browser surfaces for bookmarks, history, downloads, settings, startup, and error/empty states.
• Use browser-style edit shortcuts across both the omnibox and embedded pages.
• Keep embedded page context menus native through WebKitGTK/WRY while exposing a Kenaz-specific right-click edit menu for the omnibox.

Current keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+L	Focus the omnibox
Ctrl+X	Cut in the omnibox, or send cut to the active page
Ctrl+C	Copy in the omnibox, or send copy to the active page
Ctrl+V	Paste into the omnibox, or send paste to the active page
Ctrl+A	Select all in the omnibox, or send select-all to the active page
Ctrl+T	Open a new tab
Ctrl+W	Close the active tab
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopen the most recently closed tab
Ctrl+D	Bookmark the current page
Ctrl+H	Open History
Ctrl+J	Open Downloads
Ctrl+,	Open Settings
Ctrl+Tab	Switch to the next tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Switch to the previous tab
Ctrl+R	Reload or stop the active page
Alt+Left	Go back
Alt+Right	Go forward
Esc	Close the open shell menu, omnibox suggestions, or omnibox context menu

Platform and runtime notes

• Kenaz currently targets Linux first, with X11 as the primary embedded-webview target for v0.0.1.
• Wayland is not the primary child-webview target yet; when running from a Wayland session today, XWayland is the practical path.
• Browser state is stored in SQLite at $XDG_DATA_HOME/kenaz/kenaz.sqlite3.
• If XDG_DATA_HOME is unset, Kenaz falls back to $HOME/.local/share/kenaz/kenaz.sqlite3.
• If neither environment variable is available, Kenaz falls back to ./.kenaz-data/kenaz.sqlite3.
• The Settings surface can open a GTK folder chooser to select a custom download directory.
• Completed-download open/reveal actions use xdg-open, so the host desktop should provide a compatible opener.
• Kenaz includes a local Linux installer script (./installer.sh) but does not ship distro-specific packages yet.

Current v1 scope

Kenaz's current v0.0.1 scope is centered on the browser shell basics:

• single-window browser chrome
• multi-tab navigation
• bookmarks, history, downloads, and settings surfaces
• persistent browser settings and data
• Linux-first runtime support

The main follow-up work after this slice is moving the remaining blocking store and file operations out of direct UI callbacks and behind a background boundary.

Workspace layout

crates/
  kenaz-app/         binary entrypoint and startup wiring
  kenaz-ui/          Slint components, models, and UI adapter
  kenaz-core/        browser state, omnibox logic, themes, and routing
  kenaz-engine/      shared engine traits and event contracts
  kenaz-engine-wry/  WRY-backed browser engine
  kenaz-store/       SQLite persistence and migrations
static/
  logo.png
  logo_back.png
scripts/
  pkg-config-wrapper.py

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0