ppu — Ping Pong URLs

ppu is a rule-based link/URI router for Linux. Set it as your default browser and it decides which actual browser (or app) opens each link, based on rules you define — e.g. work links in one Chrome profile, personal links in Firefox, and steam:// links in the Steam client itself.

How it works

• ppu registers itself as a .desktop application handling x-scheme-handler/http, x-scheme-handler/https, and any other URI schemes you register (e.g. steam).
• When something opens a link, the desktop environment invokes ppu <url>.
• ppu reads its rule list (~/.config/ppu/config.toml), checks each enabled rule top-to-bottom, and launches the command from the first matching rule.
• If no rule matches, it falls back to the configured default action.

Rules

Each rule is a glob pattern matched against the full URL/URI, plus a command to launch:

[default]
name = "Default browser"
command = "firefox"
args = ["%u"]

[[rules]]
name = "Steam links -> Steam app"
pattern = "steam://*"
command = "steam"
args = ["%u"]
enabled = true

[[rules]]
name = "YouTube -> Chrome"
pattern = "*youtube.com*"
command = "google-chrome-stable"
args = ["--profile-directory=Work", "%u"]
enabled = true

• pattern supports *, ?, and [...] glob wildcards.
• %u in args is replaced with the URL; if omitted, the URL is appended as the last argument.
• Rules are evaluated in order — reorder them in the TUI to control priority.
• Non-browser apps work the same way: point a rule's command at any executable (steam, discord, spotify, ...) and register its URI scheme with ppu register-scheme <scheme>.

Usage

ppu                       # opens the rule-editor TUI (same as `ppu edit`)
ppu edit                  # opens the rule-editor TUI (alias: `ppu gui`)
ppu <url>                 # dispatches a URL per the rules (used by the desktop file)
ppu register-scheme steam  # routes steam:// links through ppu's rules too
ppu export rules.toml      # exports the current rule set
ppu import rules.toml      # appends rules from a file to the current rule set
ppu import rules.toml -f   # replaces the current config entirely (--force)

An imported file can be a full config (what ppu export writes) or just a list of [[rules]] with no [default] section. --force replaces the whole config, so it needs the full form.

The TUI (ppu edit) lets you add/edit/reorder/delete rules, edit the default fallback action, import/export the rule file, and register additional URI schemes — all without hand-editing TOML. Press / to search rules by name, pattern, command, or args, then n/N to step through the matches; the full key list is along the bottom of the screen.

Install

From source (dev install, current user only)

./install.sh

uninstall.sh reverses it (--purge also deletes your saved rules).

Arch package

makepkg -si

Config location

~/.config/ppu/config.toml. A starter config is written there automatically the first time ppu runs.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in this work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.