Startpage

A shortcut-driven browser start page. Every link has a single-key shortcut, links are grouped into four boxes, and boxes are grouped into tabs.

Everything you see comes from ~/.config/startpage/config.json, read fresh on every page load, so changing your links is a matter of editing that file — or using the settings window — and hitting refresh. Nothing is sent anywhere: no account, no database, no telemetry. The first run writes a sample config for you.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/chedieck/startpage.git
cd startpage
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. For daily use you probably want it running in the background — see Installing as a service.

Keybinds

The page listens for bare keypresses — no Ctrl, no Alt:

Key	Does
Tab	Next tab
Shift+Tab	Previous tab
any other key	Opens the link that claims that key in the current tab
Esc	Closes the settings window

Tab cycling lives on Tab so that every printable key stays yours to assign. Shortcuts are case-sensitive (g and G are two different links) and only have to be unique within a tab, so c can be Calendar on one tab and Client on another. An empty shortcut (or -) lists the item without binding a key. If two links in the same tab claim the same key, the first wins and the other is drawn without a key; the settings window highlights both.

Links open in the same tab, replacing the start page. Tick Open links in a new tab in Settings → General, or set "openInNewTab": true, if you would rather keep it open.

Configuring

Click the Settings icon in the bottom-right corner of the sidebar photo, or edit ~/.config/startpage/config.json directly:

{
	"title": "My Startpage",
	"quote": "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.",
	"openInNewTab": false,
	"quickAccess": {
		"title": "Quick Access",
		"icon": "🐎",
		"items": [{ "url": "https://mail.google.com", "shortcut": "m", "name": "📧 Mail" }]
	},
	"tabs": [
		{
			"title": "Work",
			"icon": "💼",
			"sections": [
				{
					"title": "Projects",
					"icon": "🐙",
					"items": [{ "url": "https://github.com", "shortcut": "p", "name": "🐙 Projects" }]
				}
			]
		}
	],
	"backgroundImage": "/api/images/background.jpg",
	"frameContentImage": "/api/images/frameContent.png"
}

Field	Meaning
title	Text in the window's title bar
quote	The one-liner in the light blue strip
quickAccess	A section pinned to the bottom-right box of every tab
tabs	The tabs, in display order
tabs[].sections	Up to three sections per tab; see the layout below
backgroundImage	Wallpaper behind the window (optional)
frameContentImage	Photo in the window's left sidebar (optional)
openInNewTab	Open links in a new tab instead of navigating away

Each item is { "name": ..., "url": ..., "shortcut": ... }. The name is displayed as-is, so leading emoji or Nerd Font glyphs are just part of the name.

Set STARTPAGE_CONFIG to put the config somewhere else. Uploaded images always live in an images/ directory next to it.

The four boxes

Every tab is a 2×2 grid: the first three boxes are the tab's own sections, the fourth is always Quick Access.

┌──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ sections[0]  │ sections[1]  │
├──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ sections[2]  │ quickAccess  │
└──────────────┴──────────────┘

A section you leave out renders as empty space. A list too long to fit continues in a second column inside the same box, and shrinks its text if even that is not enough. The whole window scales as one unit, so browser zoom changes how big it looks and never how it is laid out.

Images

The wallpaper and the sidebar photo default to static/background.png and static/window-content.png. To use your own, open Settings → Customization and pick a file: it is copied to ~/.config/startpage/images/ and referenced from your config, and Use default removes the override. By hand, set backgroundImage / frameContentImage to any path or URL the browser can load.

Setting it as your home page

Run the app somewhere stable (below), then point your browser at it.

Firefox — Settings → Home → Homepage and new windows → Custom URLs → http://localhost:51991.

Chrome / Chromium — Settings → On startup → Open a specific page → http://localhost:51991.

Neither browser lets you replace the new-tab page without an extension.

make nginx puts the page on http://startpage.local so you never type a port again; it needs nginx and asks for sudo. make nginx DOMAIN=home.local picks another name, make nginx-uninstall undoes it.

Installing as a service

The Makefile installs the built app into /opt/startpage and registers a user systemd unit, so it starts with your session and needs no root beyond writing to the prefix:

make install          # build, copy to /opt/startpage, install the unit
make enable start     # run it now and on every login
make status           # check on it
make update           # rebuild and restart after pulling changes
make nginx            # optional: serve it at http://startpage.local
make uninstall        # remove all of it

Defaults are PREFIX=/opt/startpage, PORT=51991 and HOST=127.0.0.1; override them on the command line, e.g. make install PORT=8080. HOST=127.0.0.1 deliberately keeps the page off your network — it is a page of your personal links, and its config endpoint is unauthenticated, so do not expose it to anything you do not trust.

Development

npm run dev      # dev server with hot reload
npm run build    # production build into build/
npm run preview  # serve that build
npm run check    # svelte-check / TypeScript
npm run lint     # prettier + eslint
npm run format   # rewrite files with prettier

Point the app at a throwaway config while hacking on it:

STARTPAGE_CONFIG=/tmp/startpage.json npm run dev

Path	What
src/routes/+page.svelte	The page itself: layout, keybinds, styling
src/lib/components/ConfigEditor.svelte	The settings window
src/lib/types.ts	Config shape and the tab → grid mapping
src/lib/server/config.ts	Reading/writing the config file
src/lib/default-config.json	What a fresh install gets
resources/	systemd unit and nginx snippets

Credits

The interface font is VT323 and the list font is JetBrains Mono Nerd Font, both under the SIL Open Font License; their license files sit next to them in static/fonts/.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 chedieck. Licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later: if you run a modified version of this as a service that other people can reach, they are entitled to its source.