Browser History

Type hist (with the trailing space) to search the pages you visited in your browsers. Raffi reads the history databases directly, so there is no extension to install and the browser does not need to be running.

Words after the keyword match titles, addresses, browser names and profile names. Matching is literal and case-insensitive: every word must appear as a substring, and pages where a word starts with it rank first. At the same prefix quality, matches in the address rank before matches in the title. Results refresh one second after you stop typing; pressing Enter applies the pending search immediately. Each row shows the profile it came from; when a browser has several, its pages are grouped by profile.

Key	Action
Enter	Open the page
Ctrl+Enter	Copy the link
Ctrl+Tab	Switch between browsers
Ctrl+R	Read browser history again
F5	Have `raffi --cache-daemon` read it again

Views

Ctrl+Tab cycles browser by browser; the footer names the one shown. Raffi opens with the first browser found and reads the others the first time you switch to them, then keeps them for the session. Pages in a browser are listed by their latest visit, with a section per profile when that browser has several.

The main list still shows pages from every browser together, most recent first.

Filters

Mix filters into the query. Words that are not filters still match titles, addresses and profiles.

Filter	Example	Matches
`site:`	`site:github.com`	The site and its subdomains
`browser:`	`browser:firefox`	One browser family
`profile:`	`profile:work`	A profile name or directory
`after:`	`after:7d`	Visits after a time
`before:`	`before:2026-01-01`	Visits before a time

after: and before: take today, yesterday, a relative duration such as 7d, 2w, 3m or 1y, or a YYYY-MM-DD date. after: includes the time and before: excludes it. An unknown filter is treated as ordinary search text.

What is read

Raffi looks for profiles with history in the Firefox family (Firefox, LibreWolf, Zen, Floorp, Waterfox) and the Chromium family (Chrome and its beta and dev channels, Chromium, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Thorium). Each profile is listed under the browser’s name, followed by the profile name when a browser has several.

Only http and https pages are kept. Internal pages such as about:, chrome:// or extension pages, as well as local files, data URLs and JavaScript URLs, are skipped. Raffi reads a bounded number of the most recent and most visited addresses per profile (max_entries, default 2000).

Firefox and Chromium keep their latest changes in separate log files until the browser closes, so Raffi reads a private copy of the database and its logs, then deletes the copy. Pages visited a moment ago therefore show up while the browser is still open.

To collapse tracking links, Raffi normalizes addresses before comparing them: it lowercases the scheme and host, drops default ports and common tracking parameters, and ignores a trailing slash. The version you open is the raw address from the most recent visit.

Browsers and profiles

Enter opens a page in the browser and profile it comes from. When that browser’s program is not found, for example when it is installed as a Flatpak, the link goes to your default browser through xdg-open. On Hyprland, niri and sway, Raffi then focuses the browser window it last used, where the link opens, starting the browser when needed.

List sources to choose what is read; this replaces the detection.

addons:
  browser_history:
    open_with: brave
    sources:
      - browser: firefox
        profile: default-release
        name: Firefox
        open_with: chrome
      - browser: chromium
      - path: ~/snap/chromium/History
        open_with: ["qutebrowser", "--target", "tab", "{url}"]

browser reads every profile of that browser, or only profile, given by its name or directory.
path reads a Chromium History file, a Firefox places.sqlite, or a profile directory holding one. Add browser to open its pages in that browser and profile.
name is the label the source shows in the list, the preview and the by-browser view.

open_with picks what opens the pages: a browser (firefox, librewolf, zen, floorp, waterfox, chrome, chrome-beta, chrome-dev, chromium, brave, edge, vivaldi, opera, thorium) or a command, where {url} stands for the page. Set on a source, it applies to that source; set on browser_history, to every source without its own.

A source that cannot be read shows as a row when the list opens.

Site icons

Pages show the icon of their site, found the same way as for browser tabs: first in the browser profile, then downloaded through the service set by browser_tabs.favicon_service. Set it to none to keep everything local.

In the main list

Browser history is opt-in in the main list. To find visited pages without typing hist first, add browser_history to general.main_view:

general:
  main_view:
    - launchers
    - browser_history

Typing rust docs then lists the matching pages next to your launchers.

Configuration

addons.browser_history.enabled boolean (default: true)

Enable or disable the browser history list.

addons.browser_history.trigger string (default: hist)

Keyword that opens the list. Type it followed by a space.

addons.browser_history.max_entries integer (default: 2000)

Most recent and most visited addresses read per source, clamped between 100 and 10000.

addons.browser_history.cache_seconds integer (default: 300)

How long a parsed snapshot stays reusable. Raffi fingerprints each browser database and its -wal and -shm companions, so it reparses as soon as the browser writes a visit, even before the timer expires. The snapshot lives in $XDG_CACHE_HOME/raffi/browser-history/; raffi --refresh-cache removes it. With raffi --cache-daemon, the snapshot is also warmed while Raffi is closed.

addons.browser_history.open_with string | list of strings (default: source browser)

Browser name or command argv ({url} placeholder) that opens pages from sources without their own open_with.

addons.browser_history.sources list of objects (default: auto-detected profiles)

Explicit history sources (browser, profile, path, name, open_with), replacing automatic profile detection.

addons.browser_history.close_on_action boolean (default: true)

Close Raffi after opening or copying a page. Leave it unset to follow general.close_on_action.

addons:
  browser_history:
    trigger: "h"
    max_entries: 5000
    close_on_action: false

See the addon reference for how addon keywords and close_on_action work across Raffi.