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Show HN: Arcmark – macOS bookmark manager that attaches to browser as sidebar (github.com)

94 points by ahmed_sulajman ↗ HN
Hey HN! I was a long-time Arc browser user and loved how its sidebar organized tabs and bookmarks into workspaces. I wanted to switch to other browsers without losing that workflow. So I built Arcmark, it's a macOS bookmark manager (Swift/AppKit) that floats as a sidebar attached to any browser window. It uses macOS accessibility API to follow the browser window around.

You get workspace-based links/bookmarks organization with nested folders, drag-and-drop reordering, and custom workspace colors. For the most part I tried replicating Arc's sidebar UX as close as possible.

1. Local-first: all data lives in a single JSON file ( ~/Library/Application Support/Arcmark/data.json). No accounts, no cloud sync.

2. Works with any browser: Chrome, Safari, Brave, Arc, etc. Or use it standalone as a bookmark manager with a regular window.

3. Import pinned tab and spaces from Arc: it parses Arc's StorableSidebar.json to recreate the exact workspace/folder structure.

4. Built with swift-bundler rather than Xcode.

There's a demo video in the README showing the sidebar attachment in action. The DMG is available on the releases page (macOS 13+), or you can build from source.

This is v0.1.0 so it's a very early version. Would appreciate any feedback or thoughts

GitHub: https://github.com/Geek-1001/arcmark

11 comments

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mbreese
This looks like a nice project!

I always have a love hate relationship with bookmarks. I tend to treat bookmarks as a write once read never datastore. I have a set of 2-3 bookmarklets that I use often, but almost never use other bookmarks. I do keep an archive of pages or links I find interesting, but I store those in a separate archive (self hosted Karakeep).

So, I’m legitimately curious — for the author or others — how do you use bookmarks? What is your personal usage pattern? Do you have many pages you need to keep track of? Is there much churn or adding of new bookmarks? I’d like to make beater use of my stored links, but right now it is really a write-only archive.

WhyNotHugo
Bookmark managers being a separate application is a brilliant idea. Like password managers, they can be full blown standalone applications, with lots of functionality and variability.

I wish Firefox and others had good IPC for external applications to function as bookmark manager, password manager, etc. Browsers can then focus on being browsers, and we have have a variety of external bookmark managers exploring different design ideas, or focusing on different workflows.

adityamwagh
Check out raindrop.io, I use it everyday it’s it’s been a pleasure to use.
samename
Cool project! I’m a tab hoarder and this seems like it’ll be a good help, excited to try it
Terretta
How do you feel about Safari tab groups? They're perfectly happy to snap open a thousand tabs at once, from however many such groups you like, all synced across all the (Apple) devices. And on the left of the Safari window in a sliding tray.

Aside from these groups, there's "Save all open tabs to a Bookmarks folder" which lets you just shove a few hundred or thousand tabs into a bookmarks folder every few weeks or months.

Given the old limits on these, it's remarkable how much work they put into tab hoarding enabling!

EyMaddis
This is hilarious! I love it!

(I don’t want to be “that guy” but are you aware of the Zen Browser? It was a drop in replacement for me and I love it)

hibajiri
I noticed there is an Always on Top option in Settings, but I cannot enable it. Do I need to grant any additional permissions? Also, it would be great if the app could read bookmarks from other browsers and support cloud syncing of the JSON file via WebDAV.
jackphilson
Interesting example on how I envision software to evolve in the future because massive abundance caused by AI. Massively composable and interoperable.
eancarr
Cool, this is just what I wanted and didn't know I did, thanks for making it. I'd love a dark mode...
antfarm
I am curious about why you are using Swift Bundler and what your experience with it is.
jwong_
I am having an issue with it attaching. Are the system requirements right? I am on Sequoia