Napture Browser

A modern, lightweight, and privacy-focused desktop web browser.

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Overview

Napture is a cross-platform web browser built with Electron and Chromium. Designed from the ground up for speed, visual clarity, and customization, Napture offers a responsive interface, built-in tracker protection, flexible theme customization, and an extensible architecture.

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Features

• Modern & Minimalist UI – Sleek, streamlined interface with customizable omnibar, sidebar widgets, and glassmorphism accents.
• Built-in Privacy & Content Blocking – Automatic blocking of third-party tracking scripts, ads, and telemetry requests.
• Custom Protocol Handlers – Internal scheme routing for napture:// (settings, history, downloads, bookmarks) and ne:// namespaces.
• End-to-End Encrypted Sync – Secure synchronization of preferences, bookmarks, and pinned sites.
• Tab & Session Management – Multi-tab workspace with session restore, tab previews, and memory-saving hibernation.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility – Native packaging support for Linux (AppImage, Deb, Rpm, Flatpak, Snap), Windows (Installer & Portable), and macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel).

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Prerequisites

Before running or building Napture, make sure you have installed:

• Node.js: v18.x or higher (LTS recommended)
• npm: v9.x or higher (comes with Node.js)
• Git

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Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/nebuff/napture.git
cd napture

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Run in development mode

npm start

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Building Executables

Napture includes a universal build script (build.sh on Linux/macOS or build.bat on Windows) as well as standard npm build scripts.

Using the Universal Build Script

# Build standalone packages for your current operating system:
./build.sh

# Fast unpack build for testing (outputs directly to dist/ without compression):
./build.sh --dir

# Build for specific platforms:
./build.sh --linux      # Generates .AppImage, .deb, .rpm, .tar.gz
./build.sh --win        # Generates Windows NSIS installer & Portable exe
./build.sh --mac        # Generates macOS .dmg & .zip bundles
./build.sh --all        # Builds for all platforms

# Run the test suite:
./build.sh --test

Windows (Command Prompt / PowerShell)

:: Build for current environment:
build.bat

:: Quick unpacked test build:
build.bat --dir

Using npm Scripts Directly

Command	Description
npm start	Launch the browser locally in development mode
npm test	Run the complete Jest test suite
npm run pack	Build unpacked application into dist/
npm run dist	Build installers for current host platform
npm run dist:linux	Build Linux packages (.AppImage, .deb, .rpm, .tar.gz)
npm run dist:win	Build Windows executables (.exe installer & portable)
npm run dist:mac	Build macOS bundles (.dmg & .zip)
npm run dist:all	Build all platform targets

All generated packages and binaries are output to the dist/ folder.

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Running Tests

Napture includes a comprehensive Jest test suite covering UI components, database operations, protocol routing, and security policies:

npm test

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Project Structure

Napture/
├── napture/                  # Core application source code
│   ├── main.js               # Main process & window lifecycle manager
│   ├── preload.js            # Secure IPC bridge for renderer contexts
│   ├── tab-preload.js        # Webview tab isolation & content injection
│   ├── protocol-handler.js   # Internal napture:// scheme routing
│   ├── settings-ui.js        # Browser settings page controller
│   ├── history-ui.js         # History management & search interface
│   ├── downloads-ui.js       # Downloads manager & file shelf
│   ├── db/                   # SQLite database (history, settings, sync)
│   ├── newebx/               # UI styling & chrome customizations
│   ├── renderer/             # Webview components, tab bar & omnibar
│   ├── src/                  # Native bindings, components & telemetry
│   └── styles/               # Design system & theme stylesheets
├── scripts/                  # Packaging and build automation scripts
├── tests/                    # Jest automated test suites
├── build.sh                  # Universal build automation script
├── build.bat                 # Windows build script
├── package.json              # Project dependencies & metadata
└── versions.json             # Engine and browser version constants

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Configuration

Napture can be customized via environment variables. Copy .env.example to .env to override defaults:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Description	Default
NAPTURE_CHANNEL	Release channel tag (stable, beta, nightly)	stable
TELEMETRY_ENDPOINT	Custom telemetry ingestion endpoint	None
SYNC_SERVER_URL	Custom E2EE sync server URL	Default

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.