Shell features · BrowserShell

BrowserShell isn’t a command palette — it’s a shell. These features make it composable.

Pipes

Pass stdout from one command to stdin of the next:

tabs | grep youtube
history search react | head
cat /current/content.txt | ai summarize
bookmarks | grep -i work

The parser handles | left-to-right. Filters like grep, head, tail, and wc are builtins that operate on piped input.

Aliases

Define shortcuts in your rc file or inline:

alias ll='tabs'
alias gh='tab new https://github.com'
alias triage='tabs | grep -v pinned'
alias audit='siteinfo && cookies && permissions'

List all aliases: alias

Remove: alias name= (empty value)

Environment variables

export EDITOR=vim
export PROMPT_THEME=dracula
echo $EDITOR

Variables persist in config. Referenced during command expansion.

Bang expansions

Two kinds of bangs:

History bangs — replay prior commands:

Bang	Expands to
`!1`	History entry #1 (re-execute)
`!1 args`	History entry #1 with modified args

Site bangs — URL shortcuts (manage with bang command):

Bang	Expands to
`!gh query`	GitHub search URL
`!so error message`	Stack Overflow search
`!yt lofi`	YouTube search

bang list
bang add wiki https://wiki.example.com/search?q=%s
history search "react hooks"
go !1                    # navigate to first result
!gh useEffect cleanup    # GitHub search

See Keybindings & bangs for rc file setup.

Built-in editor (beta)

Note: Simple editing works today; full Vim-style editing is not ready yet. Treat edit as early preview software.

Edit notes, scripts, config, and form fields from the terminal:

touch /notes/ideas.md
edit /notes/ideas.md
edit /config/rc
edit /current/inputs/email

Key	Action
Arrow keys	Move cursor
Type	Insert text
Enter	New line
Ctrl+S	Save
`:w`	Save
`:wq`	Save and quit
Esc	Exit (warns if unsaved)

Writable paths: /notes/, /scripts/, /config/rc, /config/bangs/, /current/inputs/.

Watch mode

Re-run any command on an interval:

watch 5 tabs
watch 10 "tabs | grep -i deploy"
watch 3 siteinfo

Output refreshes in place. Stop with watch stop or start a new watch.

Tip

Pair watch with notify to get alerted when output changes: run a watch, then notify "check terminal" manually when needed.

Redirection and export

export /bookmarks/Work > ~/backup.json
cat /notes/ideas.md
source ~/.browsershellrc

Exit codes

Commands return exit codes like Unix:

0 — success
1+ — error

The executor stores $? as the last exit code. Pipelines fail if any stage fails.

History

↑ / ↓ — navigate command history
Ctrl+R — reverse search (like Bash)
History persists across sessions in config

Completion

Press Tab to complete:

Command names
Flags and options
VFS paths (/tabs/, /bookmarks/Work/)
Bookmark and history entries (context-dependent)

Double-tab shows all matches when ambiguous.