Bare Browser is an open-source, native macOS browser project built with SwiftUI and WebKit.
It exists because a certain kind of browser user got left hanging.
Arc proved that browsers did not have to be rows of tabs stapled to the top of a window. It made browsing feel spatial, personal, and a little more like a real workspace. Then The Browser Company shifted its focus to Dia, and Arc moved into maintenance mode: still running, still receiving security/Chromium updates, but no longer the active product with a future roadmap. For people who had built their day around that model, that left a very specific hole.
There are interesting alternatives. Zen Browser is promising. Orion has real Mac energy. Safari is solid. But none of them quite scratch this itch for me: a browser that is open source, sidebar-first, WebKit-based, SwiftUI/AppKit-native, and shaped like it actually belongs on macOS instead of feeling like a cross-platform skin.
Bare Browser is the reaction to that gap.
It is not an Arc clone. It uses original branding, assets, text, and implementation. The goal is to keep the part that mattered: spaces, pinned/essential tabs, folders, profiles, split views, a native command bar, minimal top chrome, and a calm Mac app sensibility.
The bet is simple: a browser can be opinionated without being noisy, powerful without becoming a cockpit, and native without giving up the weird ideas that made recent browser experiments feel alive.
Context:
- The Browser Company's 2025 letter to Arc members.
- The Verge's coverage of Arc feature development stopping.
The repository now contains the first package-based macOS scaffold:
MeridianBrowser: SwiftUI app entry point.MeridianCore: models, store, persistence services, security helpers, WebKit host, and native views.MeridianBrowserTests: unit tests for foundational behavior.
This is not a release package yet. Signing, hardened runtime packaging, UI tests, and notarization require the next Xcode project/bundle setup slice.
The app restores public session state from a local SQLite store under Application Support. Private browsing profiles and dependent tab metadata are filtered before any session snapshot is written to disk.
Persistent profiles can be created from the sidebar profile menu, native menu, or command bar, and switching profiles selects or creates a safe default space/tab context for that profile. Private profiles remain session-only.
Local history is stored in a separate SQLite database under Application Support and scoped to persistent profiles for command-bar search. Private browsing profile visits are not recorded or written to disk, restored history is normalized before use, and recorded history URLs strip userinfo, fragments, and known sensitive query parameters before retention. The app includes native actions to clear the active profile's history and delete individual command-bar history results.
- macOS Tahoe 26.x or later
- Xcode 26.x with the macOS 26 SDK
- Swift 6.2 or later
The public product name is Bare Browser. The Swift package, module names, and
some internal symbols still use the historical Meridian* naming.
First-party app assets live under Resources/. Do not add third-party assets
without documenting their source and license.
swift build
swift test
./script/build_and_run.shscript/build_and_run.sh stages the SwiftPM GUI executable into
dist/Bare Browser.app before launching it, which gives the app foreground
macOS bundle behavior that swift run MeridianBrowser does not reliably provide.
It also supports --debug, --logs, --subsystem-logs, and --verify.
GitHub Actions runs the baseline CI suite on pull requests targeting dev or
main and on pushes to those branches. The CI / SwiftPM baseline check uses a
macOS 26 runner, prints the active Swift/Xcode versions, runs swift build,
swift test, bash -n script/build_and_run.sh, and checks diff whitespace.
Signing, UI smoke tests, notarization, and release packaging remain manual until
the Xcode app/UI test host and owner-approved signing setup are available.
Bare Browser does not collect product analytics, browsing telemetry, page contents, URLs, cookies, tokens, or private browsing data. Website passwords are stored only after explicit user confirmation, only for persistent profiles, and only in the local macOS Keychain with this-device-only accessibility. The current app has no analytics SDK, tracking endpoint, or network reporting path.
Developer diagnostics are local only. script/build_and_run.sh --logs streams
local OS log entries for the Bare Browser process, and --subsystem-logs streams
local OS log entries for Bare Browser's bundle subsystem. These modes do not send
diagnostic data off the machine.
Bare Browser is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.