Zen Browser

This is a nix flake for the Zen browser.

Features

• 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

Installation

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";
  };
  # ...
}

Integration

Important

Use the twilight package to guarantee reproducibility, the artifacts of that package are re-uploaded to this repository. However, if you don't agree with that and want to use the official artifacts, use twilight-official.

Home Manager

{
  # 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;
}

Then build your Home Manager configuration

$ home-manager switch

Check the Home Manager Reference and my rice here! :)

With environment.systemPackages or home.packages

To integrate Zen Browser to your NixOS/Home Manager configuration, add the following to your environment.systemPackages or home.packages:

# system: only 'x86_64-linux' and 'aarch64-linux' are supported

inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".default # beta
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".beta # or "beta-unwrapped"
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".twilight # or "twilight-unwrapped"
# IMPORTANT: this package relies on the twilight release artifacts from the
# official zen repo and no new release is created, the artifacts are replaced
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".twilight-official # or "twilight-official-unwrapped"

# you can even override the package policies
inputs.zen-browser.packages."${system}".default.override {
  policies = {
      DisableAppUpdate = true;
      DisableTelemetry = true;
      # find more options here: https://mozilla.github.io/policy-templates/
  };
}

Afterwards you can just build your configuration

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

Start the browser

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

Home Manager reference

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.

  Some common policies:

  {
    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.

  Preferences:

  {
    programs.zen-browser.policies = {
      Preferences = {
        "browser.tabs.warnOnClose" = {
          "Value" = false;
          "Status" = "locked";
        };
        # and so on...
      };
    };
  }

  Zen-specific preferences:

  Check this comment.

  Extensions:

  {
    programs.zen-browser.policies = {
      ExtensionSettings = {
        "[email protected]" = {
          install_url = "https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/wappalyzer/latest.xpi";
          installation_mode = "force_installed";
        };
        "{85860b32-02a8-431a-b2b1-40fbd64c9c69}" = {
          install_url = "https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/github-file-icons/latest.xpi";
          installation_mode = "force_installed";
        };
      };
    }
  }

  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.

1Password

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";
  };
};

Native Messaging

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

With Home Manager

Check the Home Manager Reference.

With package override

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

Troubleshooting

1Password constantly requires password

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

Contributing

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

$ nix fmt

LICENSE

This project is licensed under the MIT License.