The Sailfish guide.
Everything Sailfish can do, and the quickest keys to get there. If you’re coming from Arc, most of it will feel like home.
How it’s organized
Your tabs live in a sidebar on the left. At its top are the URL bar and back, forward and reload; at the bottom, the Library, a dot for each space, and a + menu for a new space, folder, split or tab.
- Spaces
- Separate sets of tabs, each with its own name, icon and theme. One for work, one for side projects, one for reading.
- Favorites
- The tiles at the top: the sites you open all day. They follow your profile into every space that uses it.
- Pinned tabs
- Under the space’s name. They stay until you remove them, and closing one just unloads it.
- Today
- Below the divider: everything else. New tabs land at the top, and ones you haven’t looked at in 12 hours archive themselves.
- Archive
- Where closed tabs go. Nothing is lost: find them in the Library, or bring the last one back with ⇧⌘T.
Getting around
The habits that make Sailfish fast.
Start everything with ⌘T
⌘T opens the command bar. Type to search or go to an address. Open tabs show up as Switch to Tab, so you jump to them instead of opening them twice, and commands like Split View or Edit Theme are there too. Press ⇥ on an empty bar to list just the commands, or after a site’s name to search that site. ⌘↩ opens the result in a Little Sailfish. It does sums too: ↩ copies the answer.
Edit the address with ⌘L
⌘L puts the current URL in the command bar, with the site’s recent pages under it. From a pinned tab, anywhere new opens in a Today tab, so the pinned one stays put.
Make room with ⌘S
⌘S hides the sidebar so the page gets the whole window. Move the pointer to the window’s left edge to bring it back for a moment.
Switch spaces without looking
⌃1–⌃9 go straight to a space, and ⌥⌘← ⌥⌘→ step through them. On a trackpad, swipe two fingers sideways over the sidebar.
Jump between tabs
Hold ⌃ and press ⇥ to flip through your recent tabs, and let go to land on one. ⌘1–⌘8 pick a tab by its place in the sidebar, ⌘9 the last, and ⌥⌘↑ ⌥⌘↓ step up and down.
Close without worry
⌘W archives rather than deletes, and ⇧⌘T brings back the last tab you closed.
Share a clean link
⇧⌘C copies the page’s URL without its tracking parameters. ⌥⇧⌘C copies it as a Markdown link.
Peek before you open
⇧-click a link to look at it without leaving your page. esc puts it away.
Let Little Sailfish catch outside links
Links you click in Mail, Slack or any other app open in a Little Sailfish, so they don’t pile up in your sidebar. Keep one with ⌘O.
Work side by side
⌃⇧= splits the window, or drag a tab onto another tab’s row.
Drive the sidebar from the keyboard
⌘. moves the keys into the sidebar, unless the page is still loading. Use ↑ ↓ to move, ↩ to open, and esc to go back to the page.
Tabs & sidebar
Pinned tabs
⌘D pins the tab you’re on, or unpins it. Closing a pinned tab only unloads it, so it’s there next time. If you browse away from its page, the row shows a slash: click its icon to go back, or ⌘-click the icon to keep the new page as a Today tab. Right-click to edit the pinned URL.
Favorites
Right-click a tab and choose Favorite Tab, or drag it into the grid at the top. Favorites belong to the profile, so every space using it shows them. Gmail and Google Calendar favorites show your unread count, and hovering them previews unread emails or today’s events.
Folders
Make one from the + menu at the bottom of the sidebar or Tabs > New Folder…, then drag tabs in. Folders nest. Right-click one to copy all its links, change its icon, or turn it into a space of its own.
Selecting several tabs
⌘-click or ⇧-click tabs to select more than one, then right-click to open them in a split, move them, put them in a new folder or archive them. ⌘D pins them all.
Renaming
Double-click a tab to rename it. Right-click for Change Icon…, and Reset Name and Icon to undo both.
Tab groups
Right-click Today tabs and choose Add to New Group for a named, colored group. Click its header to fold it away.
Tidy
Once Today has six tabs or more, Tidy appears beside Clear when you hover the sidebar. It sorts your Today tabs into groups by site and topic, right on your Mac. A group’s header can turn it into a pinned folder.
Clear and archive
⌘W archives a tab, and ⇧⌘K (or Clear) archives every Today tab. ⌘Z or ⇧⌘T brings the last one back where it was. Today tabs you haven’t looked at in 12 hours archive themselves; change that in Settings > Profiles.
Drag and drop
Drag tabs to reorder them, into folders, onto Favorites, or onto a space’s dot to move them there. Hold ⌥ while dropping to copy instead. Drop links, text or files on the sidebar to open them.
Sidebar tricks
Drag the sidebar’s right edge to resize it. Click the space’s name to fold away its pinned tabs, and double-click empty sidebar space for a new tab. Press and hold back or forward for a list of pages, and ⌘-click the reload button to duplicate the tab.
Sound
A tab playing sound shows a speaker: click it to mute. Mute all tabs and Unmute all tabs are in the command bar.
Spaces & profiles
Spaces
Each space keeps its own pinned and Today tabs, with its own name, icon and theme. Make one from the + menu, or swipe past your last space. Switch with ⌃1–⌃9, ⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→, a two-finger swipe on the sidebar, or a click on its dot.
The space menu
Right-click a space’s name or its dot to change its icon, rename it, edit its theme, set its profile, share its pinned links, export it into a folder of another space, or delete it. Double-click the name to rename it too.
Reordering
Drag the dots at the bottom of the sidebar, or the cards in the Library’s Spaces.
Profiles
A profile keeps its own history, logins, cookies and extensions, and any number of spaces can use one. Create and rename them in Settings > Profiles, and pick a space’s with Spaces > Change Profile.
Library
Open it with ⇧⌘L or the box at the bottom of the sidebar.
Downloads
⇧⌘J opens them, grouped by day. Click one to preview it. Hover the Library button to see the latest. With Tidy Downloads on (Settings > General), Sailfish cleans up messy file names on your Mac.
Spaces
Every space as a card. Drag a card’s handle to reorder, or drag a tab onto another card to move it.
Archived tabs
Everything you’ve closed. Click one to reopen it. Archive > Clear Archive empties it for good.
Media
Your captures, plus images and videos from Desktop, Documents, Downloads and your screenshots folder. Right-click the Library button to pick which folders.
Windows & links
Little Sailfish
A small window for one page. Links from other apps open in one, and so does ⌥⌘N, from any app. ⌥⌘-click a link to open it there too. ⌘O moves the page into a space and ⇧⌘O picks which. Window > Stay On Top keeps it above other windows.
Peek
⇧-click a link to preview it over the page. Links to other sites from Favorites and pinned tabs open in Peek as well. esc closes it; the buttons beside it keep it as a tab or put it in a split.
Split view
⌃⇧= adds a page beside the one you’re on, up to four. You can also drag a tab onto another tab’s row. Each pane’s menu can make the split vertical, move panes, expand one, or separate them again. ⌃⇧1–⌃⇧4 focus a pane and ⌃⇧- closes it.
Space Linking
Settings > Links > Space Linking… sends links from other apps to a chosen space, the most recent space or Little Sailfish, by what their URL is or contains.
Other windows
⇧⌘N opens an incognito window, which archives nothing and has no favorites. ⌘N opens a new window. Local servers and files get a developer toolbar with the full URL.
Link clicks
⌘-click or middle-click opens a link in a background tab; ⇧⌘-click opens it in front. Settings > Links turns the ⇧-click Peek and the ⌥⌘-click Little Sailfish off.
Reading & media
Reader View
On a page with an article, ⌥⌘R or the button in the URL bar shows just the text, with its own type and theme controls. esc leaves.
Find
⌘F finds on the page, ⌘G and ⇧⌘G step through matches, and ⇧↩ in the find bar goes back one.
Zoom
⌘+, ⌘- and ⌘0. The zoom level shows in the corner for a moment.
Capture
⇧⌘2 copies the visible page as an image and keeps it in the Library’s Media.
Quotes
Select text and press ⌃⇧⌘C, or use Share Quote in the URL bar, to copy it with a link that scrolls to and highlights it.
Mini player
Leave a tab playing a video and it moves into Picture in Picture. Leave one playing only sound and its controls wait at the bottom of the sidebar.
Privacy & blocking
uBlock Origin
Built in and on from the start. Turn it off in Settings > General.
Clean links
⇧⌘C copies the page’s URL without the tracking parameters added to it.
Site controls
The button in the URL bar holds the site’s permissions and settings, sharing and captures, and your extensions’ actions.
Your data
No account, no sync and no analytics. The privacy page has the details.
Customization
Themes
Spaces > Edit Theme… or the paintbrush next to a space’s name. Pick up to three colors, light or dark, then set intensity and grain.
Your shortcuts
Settings > Shortcuts lists every shortcut. Click one to change it, and right-click to reset or remove it. Help > Essential Keyboard Shortcuts has the everyday ones.
App icon
Settings > Icon has nine icons for the Dock.
Sidebar
Spaces > Hide Space Header leaves out the space’s name. View > Collapse Pinned Tabs folds them away.
Settings worth a look
Warn before quitting (on unless you turn it off), sound effects and tab-drag haptics, search engine and download folder per profile, and Set as Default Browser.
Import
From another browser
Settings > General > Import…, or Import from Another Browser… in the command bar. From Arc you get your spaces, pinned and Today tabs, favorites, archive, history, passwords, cookies and keyboard shortcuts. From Chrome, Edge, Dia and Safari, bookmarks come in as pinned tabs in a new space, with history, passwords and cookies. From Zen you get your spaces, pinned and open tabs, Essentials, bookmarks, history and cookies, and passwords from a file you export from Zen.
Safari
Safari needs Full Disk Access first, and Sailfish shows you where to turn it on. Its passwords come from a file you export from Safari or the Passwords app.
Export
Settings > Advanced > Export Data saves your spaces as Markdown.
Sail for iPhone
Sailfish for iPhone, on iOS 26 or later.
Moving between tabs
Swipe along the bottom bar to go from tab to tab. Tap the tab stack to see them all, or flick it up for the previous one.
Reading
Reader mode, page translation and page summaries, all on your iPhone. Pinch in on a page at its smallest zoom for a summary.
Blocking
Ads, trackers and cookie banners are blocked from the start, each with its own switch in Settings.
Tabs
Pin tabs, open private ones, and let the rest archive after a day, or anywhere from 12 hours to 30 days. Settings can export your open tabs as a list of links, and import them again.
Keyboard shortcuts
Every shortcut, as Sailfish sets them. Change any of them in Settings > Shortcuts.
| Open the command bar | ⌘T |
|---|---|
| Edit the current URL | ⌘L |
| Commands, or search a site | ⇥ |
| Open a result in a Little Sailfish | ⌘↩ |
| Remove a suggestion from history | ⌥⌘⌫ |
| Back | ⌘[or⌘← |
| Forward | ⌘]or⌘→ |
| Reload | ⌘R |
| Reload, ignoring the cache | ⇧⌘R |
| Stop loading | ⌘. |
| Paste URL as new tab | ⌥⌘V |
| View history | ⌘Y |
| Archive tab | ⌘W |
|---|---|
| Restore last closed tab | ⇧⌘T |
| Undo | ⌘Z |
| Pin or unpin | ⌘D |
| Next tab | ⌥⌘↓or⇧⌘] |
| Previous tab | ⌥⌘↑or⇧⌘[ |
| Go to sidebar item 1 to 8 | ⌘1–⌘8 |
| Go to the last sidebar item | ⌘9 |
| Recent tabs, older | ⌃⇥ |
| Recent tabs, newer | ⌃⇧⇥or⌃` |
| Close the tab in the recent tabs switcher | ⌃W |
| Copy URL | ⇧⌘C |
| Copy URL as Markdown | ⌥⇧⌘C |
| Copy selection as a quote | ⌃⇧⌘C |
| Clear unpinned tabs | ⇧⌘K |
| Show or hide the sidebar | ⌘S |
|---|---|
| Go to space 1 to 9 | ⌃1–⌃9 |
| Next space | ⌥⌘→ |
| Previous space | ⌥⌘← |
| Move the keys into the sidebar | ⌘. |
| Fold or unfold a group there | ←or→ |
| Add split view | ⌃⇧= |
|---|---|
| Close this split pane | ⌃⇧- |
| Focus pane 1 to 4 | ⌃⇧1–⌃⇧4 |
| Next pane | ⌃⇧] |
| Previous pane | ⌃⇧[ |
| New window | ⌘N |
|---|---|
| Blank window | ⌃⌘N |
| New incognito window | ⇧⌘N |
| New Little Sailfish window | ⌥⌘N |
| Little Sailfish: open in space | ⌘O |
| Little Sailfish: choose a space | ⇧⌘O |
| Close window | ⇧⌘W |
| Minimize | ⌘M |
| Full screen | ⌃⌘F |
| Reader View | ⌥⌘R |
|---|---|
| Find | ⌘F |
| Find next | ⌘G |
| Find previous | ⇧⌘G |
| Jump to selection | ⌘J |
| Zoom in | ⌘+ |
| Zoom out | ⌘- |
| Actual size | ⌘0 |
| Capture | ⇧⌘2 |
| Save page as | ⇧⌘S |
| ⌘P | |
| Close Peek or Reader View | esc |
| Open Library | ⇧⌘L |
|---|---|
| View downloads | ⇧⌘J |
| Settings | ⌘, |
| JavaScript console | ⌥⌘J |
| Inspect elements | ⌥⌘C |
| View source | ⌥⌘U |
| Hide Sailfish | ⌘H |
| Hide other windows | ⌥⌘H |
| Quit | ⌘Q |
| Peek a link | ⇧ click |
|---|---|
| Open a link in the background | ⌘-click or middle-click |
| Open a link in front | ⇧⌘ click |
| Open a link in a Little Sailfish | ⌥⌘ click |
| Select several tabs | ⌘-click or ⇧-click |
| Rename a tab | Double-click |
| New tab | Double-click empty sidebar |
| Copy a tab while dragging | Hold ⌥ |
| Switch spaces | Two-finger swipe on the sidebar |
| Switch spaces with a mouse | Scroll with ⇧ over the sidebar |
| Pages back or forward | Press and hold back or forward |
| Duplicate a tab | ⌘-click reload |