SnapSession

Snappy, hardware-accelerated browser profile and session selector for Linux desktops.

SnapSession is a lightweight, responsive browser profile and session launcher crafted for Linux desktops (KDE Plasma, GNOME, XFCE, etc.). It enables instant switching between profiles across Chromium and Firefox / Gecko browsers while optimizing launch performance directly in memory.

• Brave Browser
• Thorium Browser
• Google Chrome
• Chromium
• Vivaldi
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera

• Mozilla Firefox
• Firefox Developer Edition
• LibreWolf
• Floorp
• Waterfox
• Zen Browser

• 🚀 Dual-Engine Launch Acceleration:
  • Chromium: Direct GPU rasterization, zero-copy buffers, Ozone X11 pipeline, and KDE Wallet lag bypass.
  • Firefox / Gecko: Hardware WebRender pipeline (MOZ_WEBRENDER=1), high-precision XInput2 touch/scrolling (MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1), and independent concurrent instances (--no-remote).
• 👁️ True-Paint Window Detection: Replaces fragile fixed timeouts with real-time X11 render detection. The launcher smoothly remains visible while heavy tab sessions restore, dismissing the exact millisecond the web frame paints.
• 📌 Pin to Top: Pin your most frequent profiles directly to the top-left of the grid.
• 🎨 16 Web-Safe Color Palettes: Profiles receive a permanent, deterministic gradient based on CRC32 hashing. Custom colors can be chosen using the built-in color picker wheel.
• 🔍 Instant Search Filter: Quickly filter across dozens of profiles with live search (Enter to launch top match).
• ⚙️ In-App Settings: Toggle individual optimization parameters on the fly (F2 or gear icon).
• 🖥️ Responsive Zero-Scroll Layout: Automatically adapts to your display resolution (from 3 to 6 columns) to display all profiles cleanly without unnecessary scrolling.

• Python: 3.8+
• PyQt5: python3-pyqt5 (or pip install PyQt5 / uv add PyQt5)
• X11 Utilities: x11-utils (provides xwininfo and xprop)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pyqt5 x11-utils

sudo pacman -S python-pyqt5 xorg-xwininfo xorg-xprop

sudo dnf install python3-qt5 xwininfo xprop

git clone https://github.com/develcuy/snapsession.git
cd snapsession
uv run snapsession.py

git clone https://github.com/develcuy/snapsession.git
cd snapsession
pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 snapsession.py

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps
cp snapsession.svg ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/snapsession.svg
cp snapsession.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications/

Settings, custom colors, and pinned profiles are stored locally at:

~/.config/snapsession_config.json

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Fernando Paredes García

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: develcuy.com