BIbirdculture·Sep 11, 2026Submission
Yojam: A macOS default-browser shim that routes URLs through a rule engine
3 points · Open discussionfluffypony
yojam
Swift2026–2026
fluffypony / yojam
yojam
open links on macOS in whatever browser, app, or profile you need - whatever yo jam is
4Distinct people
5Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
800GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
open links on macOS in whatever browser, app, or profile you need - whatever yo jam is
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:03:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by week5 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2026-04-19 06:22:04 UTC to 2026-09-11 21:40:50 UTC. Weeks start Monday, UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13 | 2026-04-13 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Apr 20 | 2026-04-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Apr 27 | 2026-04-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 4 | 2026-05-04 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 11 | 2026-05-11 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 18 | 2026-05-18 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 25 | 2026-05-25 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 1 | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 8 | 2026-06-08 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 15 | 2026-06-15 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 22 | 2026-06-22 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 29 | 2026-06-29 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 6 | 2026-07-06 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 13 | 2026-07-13 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 20 | 2026-07-20 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 27 | 2026-07-27 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 3 | 2026-08-03 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 10 | 2026-08-10 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 17 | 2026-08-17 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 24 | 2026-08-24 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 31 | 2026-08-31 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 7 | 2026-09-07 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-09-14 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
5 sourcesYojam: A macOS default-browser shim that routes URLs through a rule engine
6 points · Open discussionYojam: A macOS default-browser shim that routes URLs through a rule engine
2 points · Open discussionOpen links in whatever browser, app, or profile you need
3 points · Open discussionShow HN: Yojam – Route links to the right browser/profile, strip trackers first
Author here. Yojam sits in place of your default browser on macOS and intercepts every http/https click, mailto, .webloc, Handoff page, AirDrop link, Share menu item, and yojam:// URL. They all go through the same pipeline: global URL rewrites, tracker parameter stripping, rule matching (domain / prefix / regex / source app), per-browser rewrites, then either open or show a picker at the cursor.
Things I cared about that other pickers don't quite get right:
- Browser profiles as first-class targets. A rule can send a URL to "Chrome, Profile 3" or "Firefox, Work container" - not just "Chrome". Seems obvious; somehow nobody else does it properly.
- Source-app matching. GitHub links from Slack route differently than GitHub links from Messages. Handoff, AirDrop, Share, Services, and each browser extension get synthetic bundle IDs so rules can
Read the rest
fire on ingress path.
- Tracker stripping happens before the target browser ever sees the URL, so referrer leakage through utm_* / fbclid / gclid / etc. is cut off globally rather than per-site. This is the only sane way to do it.
- Custom launch arguments with a $URL placeholder, so you can point a rule at any executable, not just registered URL handlers. Useful for throwaway Chromium instances or weird CLI tools.
- Menu bar only. No dock icon, no cmd-tab entry (unless the preferences window is open).
Stack: Swift, AppKit, App Group container shared with a Share Extension, Safari Web Extension (WIP but should be out soon), and a native messaging host for Chromium/Firefox extensions (not live yet, just doing final spit and polish). Private windows in Safari & Orion go through AppleScript because there's no CLI flag (thanks, Apple). Everything is local - the only network traffic is optional iCloud KV sync and Sparkle update checks.
macOS 14+. BSD-3. Happy to answer implementation questions, especially around default-browser registration, the LSHandlers dance, and how the native messaging manifests get installed across six Chromium variants without them stepping on each other.