flash

Flash and Surfingkeys

Surfingkeys lets you “Map your keys for web surfing, expand your browser with javascript and keyboard”. It is an MIT extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari 15+, configured in a JavaScript file, with about 6,200 stars and monthly commits. Like Vimium it works only inside web pages; unlike Vimium it is a small programming environment.

	Surfingkeys	Flash
License, price	MIT, free	MIT, free
Where it works	Web pages, including Safari	Every macOS app
Hints from	The DOM	The Accessibility tree
Extras	Visual mode, omnibar, Vim and Emacs editors for text fields, PDF viewer, markdown preview, sessions, LLM chat	NORMAL mode across apps, flashlight, bar, widgets, popups, plugins
Configuration	~/.surfingkeys.js, custom JS functions on keys	One TOML file, no code
Permissions	Extension permissions (all URLs, native messaging, cookies, downloads, history)	Accessibility; Automation per browser for tab lists

Where Surfingkeys is stronger

• Programmable. A key can run any JavaScript against the page.
• Safari support as an extension, and a PDF viewer, markdown preview and an in-browser editor for text fields.
• Richer in-page hints (DOM, text filtering) and visual mode.

Where Flash is stronger

• Every app, and the browser chrome: the address bar, tab strip, settings pages and Web Store that no extension can touch.
• No code to maintain. HN users describe configuring Surfingkeys as “managing a personal browser extension”; flash.toml is a list of keys.
• The same keys outside the browser, and everything after the click.

Flash features you might like

• Plugins are the programmable layer: a plugin in any language adds catalogs, actions and status values (cookbook).
• [mode.apps."<bundle id>"] tables give per-browser keys without conditions in code.
• Terminal popups show a TUI next to the page, under a bar segment.

Moving from Surfingkeys

Surfingkeys	Flash
f hints	f in NORMAL
E / R tabs	[t / ]t
x close tab	Same
Omnibar	:flashlight
api.mapkey in JS	[mode.normal.mappings] in TOML
Custom JS actions	A plugin, or a mapping that runs any executable

Unmap f for the browser in whichever tool you keep for in-page hints, as in the Vimium page.

Checked 2026-10-14 against the Surfingkeys README.

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