feat(desktop): add setting to open links in external browser

[mguttmann]

Summary

Adds a new setting in Settings → General → Browser that allows users to choose whether clicking links should open them in the system's default browser (default) or within the desktop app.

Changes

• Added BrowserSettings interface with openLinksExternally option
• Added Browser section in Settings → General (desktop only)
• Modified click handler in desktop to check user preference before opening links

Screenshots

The new setting appears in Settings → General → Browser section (desktop only).

Motivation

Currently, clicking on links in the desktop app opens them within the app itself. This can be frustrating when you want to open links in your default system browser instead, to use features like:

• Browser extensions
• Bookmarks
• Separate window management
• Full browser capabilities

Closes#10309

[github-actions]

The following comment was made by an LLM, it may be inaccurate:

Potential Duplicate Found:

PR #8523: feat(desktop): open external links in system browser instead of webview

Why it's related:

This PR appears to address the same feature - allowing users to open external links in the system browser instead of within the desktop app. PR #10310 seems to build upon or refine this concept by adding it as a configurable setting rather than always opening externally.

[mguttmann]

Thanks for flagging this!

Yes, there's overlap with #8523. Here's a comparison:

Feature	This PR (#10310)	PR #8523
Settings page toggle	✅	❌
Command palette toggle	❌	✅
Sidebar UI toggle	❌	✅
Storage approach	Reads from Tauri Store directly	Uses window.__OPENCODE__

This PR is intentionally minimal - just a Settings toggle without extra UI elements. PR #8523 has more features but is also more complex.

Happy to defer to #8523 if the maintainers prefer that approach, or this could serve as a simpler alternative. The core click handler logic is similar in both.

[mguttmann]

Rebased on latest dev branch.

Changes made during rebase:

• Resolved merge conflicts with upstream changes
• Moved setting from "Browser" section to "Desktop" section (combined with other desktop-only settings)
• Added i18n translation keys for all 15 supported languages
• Integrated with existing deep-link handling code

[mguttmann]

CI Status Update ✅

All checks are passing:

• ✅ typecheck
• ✅ test (linux)
• ✅ test (windows)
• ✅ check-standards

Ready for review and merge.

[mguttmann]

Recreated cleanly from dev — this branch now contains only the external links setting (no sidebar sorting code that was previously included). Also added a fix for the SettingsRow switch wrapping to a new line when description text is long. Typecheck passes locally.

[mguttmann]

[github-actions]

Closing this pull request because it has had no updates for more than 60 days. If you plan to continue working on it, feel free to reopen or open a new PR.