A premium, privacy-first, light-weight web browser built on top of Firefox Quantum (Gecko) featuring custom Vertical Tabs, built-in uBlock Origin protection, and elegant glassmorphism transparency.
- Gecko Engine Power: Built on top of Firefox Quantum, providing standard add-on compatibility, memory safety, and top-tier web standards compliance.
- uBlock Origin Integrated: Intrusive advertisements, tracking cookies, and telemetry popups are blocked by default for a clean, fast experience.
- Vertical Collapsible Tabs: Reclaims vertical reading space on widescreen displays via a collapsible sidebar hierarchical list.
- Translucent Glass Interface: Premium glassmorphic styles that harmonize with macOS native transparent and vibrant window boundaries.
- Sovereign Privacy: No user profiling, no tracking telemetry, no remote storage, 100 percent open source and transparent.
Hilal Browser is the continuation of the project previously developed as Huma Browser. The project has now been officially restarted and reintroduced under the Hilal Browser name, with the current repository, branding, defaults, and documentation reflecting that new identity.
This repository is not a fork of the Firefox source code — it is a small patch and overlay layer on top of upstream mozilla-firefox/firefox. We stay as close to upstream as possible so we can keep rebasing forward forever.
First, make sure you have Rust installed, then compile and bootstrap the patch manager (hil):
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/VastSea0/hilal-browser.git
cd hilal-browser
# Build and install the patch manager
cargo build --release --manifest-path hil/Cargo.toml
mkdir -p bin
cp hil/target/release/hil bin/hil
# Setup the pinned Firefox checkout and apply patches
./bin/hil setup
./bin/hil apply
# Compile and run (on Linux, use scripts/build-linux.sh instead)
scripts/build-macos.sh
(cd engine && ./mach run)Ensure you have Rust, Visual Studio, and MozillaBuild installed, then run in Git Bash or PowerShell:
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/VastSea0/hilal-browser.git
cd hilal-browser
# Build and install the patch manager
cargo build --release --manifest-path hil/Cargo.toml
if (-not (Test-Path bin)) { New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path bin }
Copy-Item hil\target\release\hil.exe -Destination bin\hil.exe
# Setup the pinned Firefox checkout and apply patches
.\bin\hil.exe setup
.\bin\hil.exe apply
# Compile and run (PowerShell convenience script)
.\scripts\build-windows.ps1 -Run| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
changes/ |
Patches (*.patch) and overlays mirroring the Firefox source tree. |
manifest.toml |
Patch and overlay order used by bin/hil. |
upstream.lock |
Pinned upstream Firefox commit and tarball checksums. |
bin/hil |
Rust patch manager used for setup, apply, refresh, status, validate, and verify. |
scripts/ |
Build, packaging, release, and localization helpers. |
docs/ |
Workflow, build, release, update, and localization notes. |
engine/ |
Gitignored Firefox checkout created by ./bin/hil setup. |
| Goal | Command |
|---|---|
| Setup the pinned Firefox checkout | ./bin/hil setup |
| Apply all patches and overlays | ./bin/hil apply |
| Reset and force-apply patches | ./bin/hil apply --force |
Regenerate patches from engine/ edits |
./bin/hil refresh |
| Show workspace status | ./bin/hil status |
| Validate repository metadata | ./bin/hil validate |
| Verify upstream checksum | ./bin/hil verify |
| Build on macOS | scripts/build-macos.sh |
| Build on Linux | scripts/build-linux.sh |
| Build on Windows | .\scripts\build-windows.ps1 |
All customization files are unified under the changes/ directory.
- Patches: Diff files ending in
.patchrepresenting source-code edits. Applied to the code tree viagit apply. - Overlays: Asset directories (like
changes/browser/branding/hilal) or config files that are synced directly to the matching path in the source tree.
The application order is strictly governed by manifest.toml. The [patches] block defines the exact order in which patch diffs are applied and overlays are copied. The Rust hil tool commits each step sequentially in the local engine/ Git history. This allows ./bin/hil refresh to automatically map edits back to individual patch files while cleanly preserving any description headers.
The Firefox checkout under engine/ is generated state and is not committed in this repo. Edit Firefox source in engine/, build and test there, then run ./bin/hil refresh to regenerate the patch files declared in manifest.toml.
Branding, preferences, locales, and other overlay files can be edited directly under changes/; ./bin/hil apply copies them into engine/.
docs/WORKFLOW.md— full developer workflow, conflict resolution, when to patch vs overlaydocs/BUILD-MACOS.md— macOS-specific build notesdocs/BUILD-WINDOWS.md— Windows-specific build notesdocs/BUILD-FLATPAK.md— Flatpak and Flathub packaging notesdocs/BUILD-ANDROID.md— Android build and packaging notesdocs/LOCALIZATION.md— bundled langpacks and Hilal locale overlaysdocs/TRANSLATING.md— translate instructions and locale guidelinesdocs/UPSTREAM-SYNC.md— how to roll forward to a newer Firefoxdocs/UPDATES.md— application update channel, MAR creation, and release signing checklistdocs/STABLE-READINESS.md— repo guardrails, browser smoke, and human release checksdocs/PRIVACY_LEVELS.md— privacy levels design documentdocs/TAHOE_SAFARI_UI_PLAN.md— Tahoe Safari-inspired UI design documentdocs/TAHOE_SAFARI_UI_PROGRESS.md— Tahoe Safari-inspired UI progress logsdocs/FIREFOX-UI-FIX.md— details on the custom browser UI overrides and styling patches
The Hilal branding assets in changes/browser/branding/hilal/ are © Hilal Browser contributors. The build glue, scripts, and patches in this repository are released under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 to match Firefox.