Phim

Phim is a superfast, ephemeral webpage viewer.
It has no history, cookies, navigation, or distractions.
It's the perfect companion for Velja and Hyperduck.

Download • Website • Documentation

Why Phim?

Phim is designed for ephemeral reading. Every session starts completely fresh - no cookies, no cache, no history. When you close Phim, it's like it was never there. This makes it perfect for:

Reading documentation without cluttering your browser
Checking competitor websites privately
Viewing sensitive documents
Quick link previews via Velja or Hyperduck
Testing websites in a clean environment

Features

Truly Ephemeral: Every session starts fresh, nothing is saved
Minimalist Design: Borderless window with floating toolbar that appears on hover
Intelligent Vibrancy: Automatically makes light backgrounds transparent for a native macOS look
Zen Mode: Distraction-free reader view that extracts and beautifully formats article content
Browser Integration: Automatically detects and offers to open tabs from your active browser
Multiple Input Methods:
- Command-line arguments
- Piped input
- Drag and drop
- Open With context menu
- Clipboard monitoring
Keyboard Shortcuts:
- O: Open current URL in default browser
- R: Reload page
- C: Copy current URL
- Z: Zen Mode (distraction-free reader view)
- X: Close Phim
- ⌘⇧V: Toggle vibrancy
- ⌘⇧L: Toggle fancy loading animation
Auto-Updates: Built-in Sparkle framework for automatic updates

Installation

Install with Homebrew

The easiest way to install and keep Phim updated:

# Add the tap and install
brew tap roelvangils/phim
brew install --cask phim

# Update to the latest version
brew upgrade --cask phim

Direct Download

Download the latest release from the Releases page and drag Phim.app to your Applications folder.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/roelvangils/phim.git
cd phim
./build_with_spm.sh

Usage

From Finder

Open Phim.app from Applications folder
The app will automatically load URLs from your clipboard when it becomes active

From Terminal

# Open a URL
phim https://example.com

# Open a local file
phim /path/to/file.html

# Pipe a URL
echo "https://example.com" | phim

As Default Handler

Right-click any HTML file → Open With → Phim

Requirements

macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
Apple Silicon or Intel Mac

Development

Project Structure

phim/
├── PhimSource/           # Swift source files
│   ├── PhimApp.swift    # Main application
│   ├── ContentView.swift # UI container
│   ├── WebView.swift    # WebKit wrapper
│   └── welcome.html     # Welcome page
├── build.sh             # Build script
├── generate_sparkle_keys.sh # Sparkle key generation
└── sign_update.sh       # Update signing script

Building

The project uses a custom build script that expects an Xcode project in the Phim/ subdirectory:

./build.sh

Creating Updates

Generate EdDSA keys (one time only):
```
./generate_sparkle_keys.sh
```

Build and sign your update:

./build.sh
ditto -c -k --sequesterRsrc --keepParent Phim.app Phim-1.0.1.zip
./sign_update.sh 1.0.1 Phim-1.0.1.zip

Update appcast.xml with the generated entry
Upload both files to GitHub releases

Privacy

Phim respects your privacy:

No persistent cookies or cache
No tracking or analytics
No data collection
Each session starts fresh

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or open issues for bugs and feature requests.

Author

Created by Roel Van Gils

Acknowledgments

Built with Swift and SwiftUI
Uses Sparkle for automatic updates
Inspired by the need for a focused, distraction-free reading experience on macOS

roelvangils/phim