Lync

A lightweight macOS menu bar utility that intercepts every link you click and routes it to the right browser — or the right browser profile — based on rules you define.

Inspired by Velja.

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Features

• Universal Link Routing — registers as your Default Web Browser and intercepts all http/https clicks system-wide
• Three match modes — Wildcard (*.zoom.us/*), Regex, or Contains
• Browser Profile Support — route URLs to a specific Chromium profile (Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi) via --profile-directory
• Privacy Shield — strips utm_*, fbclid, gclid, and 25+ other tracking parameters before opening
• Global Fallback — choose which browser handles URLs that match no rule
• Drag-to-reorder rules — priority is evaluated top to bottom; first match wins
• macOS Handoff — URLs handed off from iPhone/iPad pass through the same routing engine
• Menu bar only — no Dock icon, lives quietly in your menu bar

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Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 14.0 or later

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Getting Started

1. Clone and open

git clone https://github.com/locnh/lync.git
cd Lync
open Lync.xcodeproj

2. Build & Run

Press Cmd+R in Xcode, or from the terminal:

xcodebuild -project Lync.xcodeproj -scheme Lync -configuration Debug build
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Lync-*/Build/Products/Debug/Lync.app

3. Set as Default Browser

Go to System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser → Lync.

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Project Structure

Lync/
├── Lync.xcodeproj/
└── Lync/
    ├── LyncApp.swift           # @main — MenuBarExtra + Settings scenes
    ├── AppDelegate.swift       # Apple Event handler (kAEGetURL interception)
    ├── Info.plist              # CFBundleURLTypes for http/https, LSUIElement
    ├── Lync.entitlements       # App Sandbox disabled
    ├── Assets.xcassets/
    ├── Models/
    │   ├── Rule.swift          # Routing rule model (Codable)
    │   └── Browser.swift       # Installed browser model
    ├── Services/
    │   ├── URLRouter.swift         # Core routing engine + UserDefaults persistence
    │   ├── BrowserDiscovery.swift  # Finds browsers via NSWorkspace
    │   └── URLCleaner.swift        # Strips tracking query parameters
    ├── ViewModels/
    │   └── RulesViewModel.swift
    └── Views/
        ├── MenuBarView.swift       # Popover with stats & quick toggles
        ├── SettingsView.swift      # Tabbed settings window (Rules, General, Setup Guide, About)
        ├── RulesView.swift         # Rule list with reorder & delete
        ├── RuleEditorView.swift    # Inline add / edit rule editor
        └── OnboardingView.swift    # First-launch setup guide

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How Routing Works

1. You click any link in any app on your Mac
2. macOS sends a kAEGetURL Apple Event to Lync (the registered default browser)
3. Lync optionally strips tracking parameters
4. Rules are evaluated top to bottom — the first matching rule wins
5. The URL is opened in the rule's target browser (and profile, if specified)
6. If no rule matches, the fallback browser opens the URL

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Adding Rules

Field	Description
Name	Human-readable label for the rule
Match Type	Wildcard, Regex, or Contains
Pattern	The URL pattern to match against
Browser	Target browser (auto-discovered from your system)
Profile	Chromium profile directory name (e.g. Default, Profile 1)

Pattern examples

Type	Pattern	Matches
Wildcard	*.github.com/*	Any GitHub URL
Wildcard	meet.google.com/*	Google Meet links
Regex	https://(www\.)?notion\.so/.*	Notion pages
Contains	zoom.us/j/	Zoom meeting links

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Browser Profile Support

For Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi), you can route URLs to a specific profile by entering the profile directory name — not the display name.

To find your profile directory name:

1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://version
2. Look at Profile Path — the last folder segment is the directory name (e.g. Default, Profile 1, Work)

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Privacy Shield

When enabled, Lync removes the following parameter families from every URL before opening it:

• UTM — utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term, …
• Facebook — fbclid, fb_ref, fb_source, …
• Google Ads — gclid, gclsrc, gbraid, wbraid, dclid
• Microsoft Ads — msclkid
• HubSpot — hsa_*
• Mailchimp — mc_cid, mc_eid
• TikTok / Pinterest / Twitter — ttclid, epik, twclid
• And more…

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Architecture

Lync follows MVVM:

Layer	Responsibility
Models	Rule, Browser — pure data, Codable
Services	URLRouter, BrowserDiscovery, URLCleaner — business logic
ViewModels	RulesViewModel — bridges services to views
Views	SwiftUI views — purely declarative, no logic

State is held in URLRouter.shared (an ObservableObject singleton) and persisted to UserDefaults as JSON.

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Credits

• Prompt: Gemini
• Icon design: Grok
• Code and document: Claude Sonnet
• Publisher: locnh

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License

MIT © 2026 locnh