Vim, but in your browser. Replace Firefox's control mechanism with one modelled on Vim.
This addon is very usable, but is in an early stage of development. We intend to implement the majority of Vimperator's features.

Tridactyl - Vim-styled Control for Your Firefox Browser
Tridactyl is a Firefox add-on that transforms your browser into a keyboard-operated control system, based on Vim's design. This replacement for VimFX, Vimperator and Pentadactyl binds common tasks to single key presses, simplifying and speeding up browsing. Features include the ability to follow any link with just a few keystrokes, switch between tabs by searching, customizable search settings, and the power to bind any command to a preferred keystroke. Tridactyl is still in development with a vision to provide all features previously offered by Vimperator.
Add-on stats
Weekly download count: 194
Firefox on Android: No
Risk impact: Very high risk impact
Risk likelihood:
Manifest version: 2
Overrides new tab: Yes
Permissions:
- activeTab
- bookmarks
- browsingData
- contextMenus
- contextualIdentities
- cookies
- clipboardWrite
- clipboardRead
- downloads
- find See more
Size: 3.35M
URLs: Website
Ranking
Other platforms
Not available on Chrome
Not available on Android
Not available on Edge
Want to check extension ranking and stats more quickly for other Firefox add-ons?
Install
Chrome-Stats extension
to view Firefox-Stats data as you browse the Firefox Browser Add-ons.
Add-on summary
Control your browser with your keyboard only. Replace Firefox’s control mechanism with one modelled on VIM. This is a “Firefox Quantum” replacement for VimFX, Vimperator and Pentadactyl. Most common tasks you want your browser to perform are bound to a single key press:
- You want to open a new tab? Hit
t
. - You want to follow that link? Hit
f
and type the displayed label. (Note: hint characters should be typed in lowercase.) - You want to go to the bottom of the page? Hit
G
. Or the top?gg
. - You want to focus the text field on Wikipedia to search for another term?
gi
. - Switch to the next tab?
gt
. - Go back in time?
H
. - Notice that this tab is rubbish and you want to close it?
d
. - Regret that decision?
u
restores it. - Want to write something in Vim?
Ctrl-i
in a text box opens it in Vim, if you have:native
working. - Temporarily disable all that magic because you can’t stand it?
Shift-Insert
orCtrl-Alt-Escape
. - But how do you use your browser now?
Shift-Insert
orCtrl-Alt-Escape
again and we’re back on.
:help
might help you a lot, and there’s always :tutor
.
Highlighted features:
- Follow any link on the site with just 2-3 key presses.
- Switch to any open tab by searching for its URL or title or entering its ID.
- Easy customizable search settings.
- Bind any supported command or commands to the key (sequence) of your liking.
- Great default bindings (if you’re used to Pentadactyl or Vimperator).
- Access your data for all websites:
- This is Mozilla’s way of saying that Tridactyl can read the content of web pages. This is necessary in order to e.g. find the links you can follow with the
:hint
command (bound tof
by default).
- This is Mozilla’s way of saying that Tridactyl can read the content of web pages. This is necessary in order to e.g. find the links you can follow with the
- Exchange messages with programs other than Firefox:
- This permission is required for Tridactyl to interact with your operating system (opening your editor to edit text areas, sending links to your video player, reading a configuration file from your disk…). This is possible thanks to an external executable we provide. If you feel this gives Tridactyl too much power you can chose not to install the external executable: Tridactyl will still work but won’t be able to start external programs.
- Read and modify bookmarks:
- Tridactyl’s command line has a powerful autocompletion mechanism. In order to be able to autocomplete your bookmarks, Tridactyl needs to read them.
- Clear recent browsing history, cookies, and related data:
- Tridactyl implements the
:sanitise
command Vimperator and Pentadactyl had. It works a bit like the “Clear All History” dialog you can access by pressingCtrl+Shift+Del
on default Firefox.
- Tridactyl implements the
- Get data from the clipboard:
- If your clipboard contains a URL, pressing
p
will make Tridactyl follow this URL in the current tab.
- If your clipboard contains a URL, pressing
- Input data to the clipboard:
- Tridactyl lets you copy various elements to the clipboard such as a page’s URL with
yy
, a link’s URL with;y
or the content of an HTML element with;p
.
- Tridactyl lets you copy various elements to the clipboard such as a page’s URL with
- Download files and read and modify the browser’s download history: See more
User reviews
Pros
- Life-changing and enhances productivity by minimizing mouse usage
- Incredible time saver that allows for faster navigation
- Excellent for users familiar with Vim key bindings
- Frequent updates and active development
- Customizable with commands and external editor functionality
Cons
- Issues with hint mode displaying too many irrelevant hints
- Inconsistent performance requiring clicks on blank spaces for actions to register
- Tabopen functionality not optimized for user experience (searching titles instead of URLs)
- Breaks functionality on certain sites like Microsoft Teams
- User interface could improve to better amalgamate hints
Most mentioned
- Difficulty with hint mode having too many labels
- Need for enhanced tab management with :tabopen
- Overall efficiency improvement and usability with keyboard shortcuts
- Frequent feature requests for improvements in navigation
- Integration issues with specific websites
User reviews
I love this and can't live without it. There's some issues I'd love to see taken care of, if even possible.
Sometimes I need to click on a blank space on a page to make tridactyl perform an action, like scrolling with J/K, or typing a command with ":" .
Second issue I have is where I activate hint mode with F, and there are way too many hint labels on a specific element, many of which don't do anything, and only one that actually does something. Maybe it could be implementet that hint labels that don't do anything when typed are hidden from hint mode, and that hints that do the same thing (like click the same button) are merged into each other.
3rd issue is that on using t to tabopen, it searches not just the urls from my bookmarks and history, it also searches in the tab "titles", which is for example "Tridactyl – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)" for this mozilla page. I'd like to just search in urls from my bookmarks and history, not those titles too.
Also when using t to tabopen, I'd like it to open the page at the top when pressing enter, instead of searching what I just typed in. Because now I have to press the Tab key everytime I want to open the top url. I don't want to search the part after :tabopen, because I would have just used the s/S key to search.
Tridactyl breaks microsoft teams by the way, so I had to do :blacklistadd teams.microsoft.com.
I also look forward to tridactyl working on addons.mozilla.org and other sites.
by Firefox user 18422486, 2025-01-10
by TS, 2025-01-07
by botand, 2025-01-06
Add-on safety
Risk impact
Tridactyl requires a lot of sensitive permissions. Exercise caution before installing.
Risk impact analysis details
- Critical Grants access to browser tabs, which can be used to track user browsing habits and history, presenting a privacy concern.
- Critical ****** ****** ** *** ********* ****** * *********** ******** **** ** ** *** ******* *** ****** **** **** *** ******* *****
- High ****** ********* ** * ****** ******** ******** ********** * ******* ******* *****
- High ******* ******* **** *** ****** ***** *** ***** ** ******* **** ********* ********* ** * *********** *****
- High ****** ******* *** ********* ********* ******** ***** *** ** ********** ****** * ******** ******* *****
- Medium ****** ** ********* *** ******* ******** **** **** *********** *** ********* *** ********* ******* *** *****
- Medium ****** ********** ** ******** ********** *** ********* ******* ******** ****** ******** ****** ********
- Medium ****** ** **** ******* ******** ************ ***** * *** ******* *****
- Medium ******* ***** *********** ***** ****** ********* *** ***** ********* **** **** ************** *** ********
- Medium *********** ************* ******* ********** *** ****** ************* ******* *** **** ** ******* **********
- Medium *** ***** *** *** ********* ****** ****** *** **** **** ********** ** ****** **** ***********
- Low ****** ***** ** ******* ****** ********** **** ** ** ******** ******* ** **** ***** *************
- Low ******* ****** ** *** ********* ********
Risk likelihood
Tridactyl is probably trust-worthy. Prefer other publishers if available. Exercise caution when installing this add-on.
Risk likelihood analysis details
- High This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.
- Medium **** ********* *** ******* ** *** **** * ******* *** ******* *** *** ** ****** ** *****
- Low **** ********* *** ***** **** **** * ****** **** ***** ********** *** **** ****** ** ** ****** *** *****
- Good **** ********* *** **** **** *******
Upgrade to see full risk analysis details