Browse

The sidebar

Tabs live in a sidebar on the left, not in a bar across the top. From the top down it holds back, forward and reload, the Browse and Work switch, the address field, your space, the list of tabs and, at the foot, your Essentials and the profile button.

The address field shows only the site's name while you read. Click it, or press ⌘L (CtrlL on Windows), to see the whole address and type a new one. Press Return to go, Esc to leave it.

Drag the edge of the sidebar to resize it. Drag it narrow, or press ⌘⇧S (CtrlShiftS), and it folds into a slim rail of icons. That is Compact mode. Work always uses the rail.

Working with tabs

Right-click a tab for its menu:

• Reload Tab, Duplicate Tab, Copy Link and Bookmark Tab.
• Add to Essentials and Move Tab to Space.
• Ask Zephium and Open in Split View.
• Close Tab, Close Other Tabs and Close Tabs Below.

Closed a tab by mistake? Reopen Closed Tab brings it back with ⌘⇧T (CtrlShiftT).

Settings › Tabs sets where new tabs open, which tab you return to after closing one, whether opening a page you already have switches to it, whether a playing video keeps playing in a small window when you change tabs, where links from other apps open, and when tabs you stop using close on their own and stay in History.

Sleeping tabs

Tabs you have not used for a while go to sleep to free memory, and wake when you return to them. By default that is after 15 minutes. Tabs that play media or hold unsaved input never sleep. Change this in Settings › Performance, where you can also keep chosen sites awake.

Spaces and profiles

A space is a set of tabs for one part of your life: Work, Reading, a side project. Tabs you open stay with the space they were opened in. A profile is a whole separate browser: each one keeps its own sign-ins, history, tabs, extensions and Work. Your Zephium account, if you have one, is shared by all profiles.

Spaces

1. Choose the space name at the top of the tab list, then New Space.
2. Give it a name, an icon or an emoji, a color and, if you like, its own theme. The window wears the theme while you are in that space.
3. Switch with the same menu, with ⌘⌥→ and ⌘⌥←, or jump to one directly with ⌃1–9. On Windows the keys are CtrlAlt→, CtrlAlt← and CtrlShift1–9.

To change or remove a space, choose Edit Space. Deleting a space closes its tabs, and Zephium tells you how many before it does.

Profiles

Open the profile button at the foot of the sidebar and choose New Profile…. Give it a name and a picture, then Create Profile, or Create and Switch to move this window into it. Edit a profile from the same menu or in Settings › Profiles.

Deleting a profile removes its history, cookies and site data, tabs, extensions and Work from this device for good. Your Zephium account is not affected. The default profile cannot be deleted, and to delete the one you are in, switch this window to another first.

Essentials

Essentials are the sites you open every day, kept at the foot of the sidebar. They load only when you open them. Drag a tab onto the row, or right-click it and choose Add to Essentials. To take one off, right-click it and choose Remove from Essentials.

The New Tab page

A new tab opens on a search field and the Zephium wordmark. Under it are the time and date, and a row of cards that appear when they have something to say: Ads & trackers blocked today, time Focused against your goal, and tasks Due today.

Choose the gear in the corner, or open Settings › New Tab, to show a greeting, use your name in it, show or hide the clock, pick 12 or 24 hours, and count what is due on the Tasks shortcut.

Search

Search from the address field, the New Tab page or the launcher. The default engine is DuckDuckGo. In Settings › Search you can choose Google, Bing or Brave, or add your own with a search address that contains the search-terms placeholder shown there.

Type !g for Google, !d for DuckDuckGo, !b for Bing or !br for Brave to search one engine for a single query.

Online search suggestions are off by default. Turning them on sends partial searches to your search engine so it can suggest the rest. Matches from your tabs, history and notes are found on your device and never sent anywhere.

The launcher

The launcher is a search that opens over any app. Press ⌘⇧Space on macOS or CtrlShiftSpace on Windows, wherever you are. It finds:

• open tabs, which you switch to with Return;
• pages from your history, and recent searches;
• notes, which it opens;
• commands, such as New private window, which it runs;
• answers to sums, which you can copy;
• anything else as a web search, or an address to open.

Write a task the way you would say it, such as “call Anna tomorrow at 3”, and choose Add to Tasks. With nothing typed, the footer takes you straight to Tasks, Notes, History and Downloads. ⌘K opens more actions for the selected result, such as opening it in a background tab or copying its link.

Change the shortcut in Settings › Keyboard & accessibility. On macOS you can also open it by tapping Command or Option twice, which needs Accessibility permission so Zephium can notice the taps while another app is in front.

Pages, bookmarks, history and downloads

Find on page is ⌘F (CtrlF), with Find Next and Find Previous on ⌘G and ⌘⇧G. Zoom with ⌘=, ⌘- and ⌘0 for actual size.

Split view

To see two pages side by side, right-click a tab and choose Open in Split View, or use Split View… in the File menu.

Bookmarks

Press ⌘D to bookmark the page you are on. Bookmarks in the sidebar's tools lists them, with folders and search.

History

History lists the pages you visited, newest first, and you can search it. To clear it, choose Clear… there and pick the last hour, today, the last 7 days or all history. You can also use Settings › Privacy & security. Private windows add nothing to history.

Downloads

Downloads shows what is coming in and what has arrived. From a finished download you can open the file or show it in its folder. If a download is interrupted, choose Retry Download: it can resume for up to five minutes while its tab stays open. Choose the folder, and whether to be asked where to save each file, in Settings › General. Windows asks you to confirm every save, and starts from the folder you chose.

Notes, Tasks and Time

These three live beside your tabs. Open them from the profile button at the foot of the sidebar, from the menu bar, or with their shortcuts (see Keyboard shortcuts). Each can be turned off in Settings › Features. Turning one off hides it and deletes nothing.

Notes

Each note is a Markdown file in a folder you own, so other apps can open it and edits made there show up in Zephium. Write beside the page, type / to choose a style, or choose New Note from Page to start from where you are. Pin the ones you return to. Show Notes Folder opens the folder in Finder or File Explorer.

Deleted notes wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days. If a note changes in another app while you have it open, Zephium shows both and lets you choose Keep Mine or Use Other Version.

Tasks

Write a task the way you would say it, such as “call Anna tomorrow at 3”, and it lands on the right day. A task can have a list, a priority, a deadline, subtasks and a description, and the page you were on stays linked to it. Look at them as a List or a Board of To do, In progress, Blocked and Done. Tasks that agents make are marked Created by an agent. Deleted tasks can be restored from the trash.

Time and focus

Time shows where your day on the web goes, by hour, day and site, with Browse and Work counted apart. It is counted on this device only, and private windows keep no time.

To focus, open Time and choose Start focus. Pick a length, and whether to repeat with breaks. The sites you chose to shut stay closed until the round ends, and a shut site offers Allow 5 minutes or End focus if you need it. Choose the sites and your daily goal in Settings › Time & focus.

Ads and trackers

The blocker is on by default and needs nothing from you. To pause it on one site, or hide a part of a page, open the sidebar's menu: Block Ads and Trackers turns it off or on for that site, and Hide Elements… lets you click anything you would rather not see. How it works, and its limits, are in Privacy and security.

Appearance

Settings › Appearance is where Zephium becomes yours. Choose System, Light or Dark; pick a theme or edit its colors, then copy it to share or import one someone gave you; set an accent color, the interface font and its size; and choose a sidebar that is Expanded or Compact, and a comfortable or compact density.

Window material is what the window itself is made of. On macOS that is Liquid Glass (which needs macOS 26), Vibrancy or Solid. On Windows it is Acrylic, Mica or Solid. Automatic picks the best your system offers. Reduce motion keeps transitions subtle, and your system's own preference always takes priority.

Private windows

Press ⌘⇧N (CtrlShiftN) for a private window. Site data from it is discarded when it closes, and it adds nothing to history or Time. Zephium's assistant is off in private windows, and Work needs a regular profile, so nothing about the pages leaves the window.