Nordlys

A Chrome new tab page with bookmark folders, a dashboard for tasks and focus, 9 animated backgrounds and 21 themes.

Nordlys replaces Chrome's new tab page. I wanted my bookmarks and something nice to look at in one place, so I made this. It's still a beta. Before an update changes how your setup is stored, Nordlys keeps a restore point. Bookmarks Put bookmarks in folders and move the folders around. You can see where one will land before you drop it. Fitted mode lines rows up edge to edge; Tidy up puts folders of similar height together. Adjust tile size, spacing, board width and icon labels in one panel. Fold folders you rarely use under the board, or turn on One page fit to keep everything on screen. You can use the keyboard, undo changes and right-click to edit. Icons Press Search to look up brand icons from Iconify's Simple Icons set. The icon you pick is saved on your device. You can also use Chrome's favicon, an image link, a file or a letter. Dark logos are adjusted on dark themes, and you can turn that off per bookmark. Backgrounds Choose from 9 animated backgrounds: Nordlys (the aurora), Polaris (star trails round the pole star), Halo (a moon inside an ice ring), Pillars (columns of light over a frozen town), Nacre (mother-of-pearl clouds at dusk), Silk (threads in a slow current), Baikal (black lake ice with frozen bubbles), Contour (a map of slowly moving hills) and Fjord. You can also use your own picture, a looping video or a plain colour. Colour moods tint the background, and you can mix one from three colours. Slow the motion down to Still; it switches to Still automatically if your system asks for reduced motion. Follow the time of day uses your clock and time zone to change the light. It doesn't ask for your location. Themes There are 21 themes: 11 dark and 10 light. Each also recolours the background, so Gruvbox gets an amber sky and OLED Obsidian stays black. You can follow the system setting, choose dark or light, make a theme or write CSS. Pick bundled fonts or fonts on your computer for the clock, interface and monospace text. Nordlys dims the area behind the clock, date and search box when needed, including over your own wallpaper. Search The search box uses the search engine set in Chrome. It shows your bookmarks, recent searches and answers to math like 45 * 12 + sqrt(144) as you type. It sends nothing while you type; pressing Enter sends the search through Chrome. Type > for commands such as theme nord, sky polaris or move YouTube to Daily. You can see the result before you press Enter and undo it afterward. Copy your theme, background, mood and fonts as one line of text, or save the look as a picture. Bookmarks aren't included. Profiles and sync Keep several whole setups, like Work and Home, and switch from the chip under the greeting. Turn on sync and your setup follows you to every Chrome you're signed in to, through Chrome's own sync, with no account of ours. Edits from different devices merge instead of overwriting each other. A bookmark or folder can stay on one device only, or have a different address there. Dashboard Turn on the dashboard and cards for the day sit above your folders: focus of the day, tasks, habits, a focus timer, notes, weather, world clocks, a countdown, a tab stash and a line for the day. Drag a card by its title to move it and the others make room; stretch it by its corner. Start from one of five layouts, and hide the folders while it's on. It's free, like everything else here. Tasks understand dates and importance typed in words ("call mum tomorrow !"), have steps inside, and sort into Today, Later and Done. Focus mode gives the whole page to one thing: a large Pomodoro or count-up timer, sounds made in the browser (rain, ocean, wind, deep noise), your tasks at the side and how long you've focused today. Connected apps See your tasks from the task managers and code hosts you already use, and your events from any calendar with an ICS link. Nordlys talks to each service directly with a token you create there. The token stays on your device, and Nordlys asks for access to a service's address only when you connect it. Ask The Ask card talks to a model you choose: Chrome's built-in model on your device, your own key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or OpenRouter, or a model on your computer through Ollama. Type ? and a question in the search box to ask it. Chrome bookmarks A folder can mirror one of your Chrome bookmark folders. Nordlys only reads it. It asks for bookmark access when you link the folder, not at install. Privacy No account, analytics, tracking or remote code. Settings and bookmarks stay on your device. Brand icon search contacts Iconify only after you press Search, sending only the phrase you typed. The weather card asks Open-Meteo for the place you chose. Keys and tokens for Ask and connected apps stay on your device and go only to the service they belong to. You can export your setup as JSON. Nordlys is available in English, Russian, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Chinese and Turkish. It's free and open source under the MIT licence: https://github.com/sa1ntsinner/nordlys-tab There's a Buy me a coffee link in Settings → Support.