PA.SURF
Minimal, light on the CPU and safe. Sketch and play right next to the page.
A browser should not block intuition. It should support your ideas.
I wanted a browser that feels like my mind.
Minimal, quiet, nothing blinking. Every browser I used kept adding things I never asked for. So I built my own: minimal, dark and monospace, with only the tools I actually reach for while I work on music.
Quiet by default.
- 8
- analog-style sounds on PA·KEYS, played from the screen or your own MIDI keyboard
- 10 min
- until a background tab falls asleep and gives back its memory
- 24 h
- until an unused tab closes itself (⇧⌘T brings it back)
- 0
- Electron, Chromium or analytics inside
Safe before it saves.
- BLOCKThird-party trackers stop before they load
- UPGRADEKnown sites switch to HTTPS
- WARNFraud warnings for known bad sites
- ISOLATEEach Space keeps its own cookies and logins
- FOCUSOne tab plays sound, the others pause
- SLEEPIdle tabs rest and free the CPU
Small browser, big potential.
SLEEPING TABS
Tabs in the background sleep after 10 minutes. One click wakes them exactly where you left off.
ENERGY
See what a page requests, how much it loads, which trackers were stopped, and put every background tab to sleep at once.
PRIVATE WINDOWS
Nothing stored, nothing remembered. Closed private tabs never come back.
SPACES
Work, private, banking: each Space has its own website data. Delete one and it is gone.
TOUCH ID
Passwords live in your Mac's keychain and unlock with your fingerprint, only for the exact domain.
PA·KEYS
A keyboard slides out under the page: analog-style synth, eight sounds, record and export as MIDI or WAV. Web MIDI for your controllers.
SKETCH
A sketch pad for ideas: fine, thick, marker, text. Saves itself, exports PNG.
AI, ON DEVICE
Summarise a page or ask about it with Apple Intelligence on macOS 26. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Draw it before you lost the words.
Ideas rarely arrive as correct words. Just open my sketch pad and scribble whatever you want. Faster and more intuitive than light.
Fine and thick pens, marker, eraser and text. It saves itself, and exports as PNG or straight to the clipboard.
Keep the feeling, so play the melody.
Next to sketches and words, I save ideas as music. Press ⌥⌘K, a keyboard slides out under the page, and your connected MIDI keyboard plays it right away. No setup, no DAW to open.
Press REC, play the idea, then save it as MIDI for your DAW or as WAV to listen back. Eight analog-style sounds, from warm pad to bass.
What you get.
- SYSTEM
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- PROCESSORS
- Apple Silicon + Intel
- ENGINE
- WebKit
- BUILT WITH
- Swift · AppKit
- SECURITY
- Sandbox · hardened runtime
- PASSWORDS
- Keychain + Touch ID
- AI
- On device, macOS 26
- PRICE
- Free
PA.SURF costs nothing. If you use it every day and want to say thanks, a donation keeps it going.
donation: paypal.me/patrickalavi- PA.SURF 2.0 as a ZIP file (.zip)
- Universal app for Apple Silicon and Intel
- INSTALL.txt with the first-launch steps
Unzip it, move PA.SURF into Applications and open it. macOS asks once on first launch, see below.
Before you install.
macOS blocks PA.SURF on first launch.
I have not had PA.SURF notarised by Apple yet, so macOS stops it the first time. Close the message, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security and click “Open Anyway” next to PA.SURF. On macOS 14 you can also right-click the app and choose Open. After that it starts normally.
Is it really free?
Yes. No account, no subscription, no ads. Donations are welcome but never required.
Where are my passwords?
In your Mac's own keychain, never on a server. PA.SURF asks for Touch ID or your Mac password before it fills one in. After an update macOS may ask once for keychain access: enter your password and choose “Always Allow”.
Can I make it my default browser?
Yes: System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser → PA.SURF.
Which Macs work?
Any Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. The on-device AI needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence; everything else works without it.