Key Surf - Supercharge Your Browsing

Why Key Surf?

Built for developers, designers, and power users who demand efficiency

⚡

Lightning Fast

Access any command or bookmark instantly with Ctrl+J. No more hunting through menus or bookmarks bar.

🔍

Smart Search

Intelligent fuzzy search finds what you need as you type. Search bookmarks, create custom commands, and more.

🎯

Custom Commands

Create personalized shortcuts for your workflow. Jump to frequently used sites, tools, and resources instantly.

📱

Universal Access

Works on any website, any tab. Your productivity tools are always just a keystroke away.

🔐

Privacy First

Your data stays on your device. No tracking, no analytics, no data collection. Period.

🎨

Beautiful UI

Clean, minimal interface that gets out of your way. Designed to feel native to your browsing experience.

Real-World Use Cases

Practical ways teams use Key Surf daily across GitHub, Jira, Salesforce, and internal tools

🐙

GitHub PR Reviews

Jump straight to teammates' pull requests or specific PR IDs without searching through notifications.

gh pr alice gh pr 4821

GitHub

📋

Jira Issue Lookup

Open tickets instantly by key or jump to sprint/board views while staying in flow.

jira ABC-214 jira DEF-9001 jira board

Jira

💼

Salesforce Records

Know the object or record ID? Jump right there. Perfect for support, sales ops, and admins.

sf 0012x0009Ax8 sf opp 0069A... sf case 5009A...

Salesforce

👥

Team Context Switching

Create shortcuts for each engineer or designer to review work, dashboards, and docs rapidly.

team alice team bob prs dash qa

Teams

🧭

ID-Based Deep Linking

Have an ID in Slack or email? Paste it and go—no more multi-click navigation or search drifts.

ticket 78231 case 00012345 open 9f8ad12

Speed

🛠️

Internal Tools & Docs

Centralize tribal knowledge: deploy tools, runbooks, dashboards, and knowledge base entries.

kb onboarding deploy staging grafana logs

Internal

👾

Reddit Subreddits

Jump right into your frequent subreddits.

r reactjs r webdev r apple

How It Works

Get productive in seconds

Press Ctrl+J

Open the spotlight search from anywhere on the web

Type Your Command

Search bookmarks with "bm", create new commands, or use built-in shortcuts

Hit Enter

Execute instantly and get back to what matters

Built-in Commands

bm productivity Search your bookmarks

copy Copy text from current URL

create Create new custom command

settings Open extension settings

list View all your commands

help Get help and tips

Create Powerful Commands

Design fast, memorable shortcuts that map directly to the URLs and actions you use most

1. Basic Structure

Each command has a pattern (what you type) and a path pattern (where it goes). For simple static jumps just map a short keyword to a target path.

Pattern: repo docs
Path: /your-org/your-repo/tree/main/docs

Typing repo docs instantly opens the docs section.

2. Parameters

Use :name segments in the pattern to capture dynamic parts you supply at run time.

Pattern: gh pr :id
Path: /pull/:id

Entering gh pr 4821 navigates to /pull/4821.

Multiple params are supported: jira :project-:key → /browse/:project-:key.

3. Variables

Create aliases so it's easier to remember complex ids or names. Define variables for each alias on a new line (e.g. ATL=ABCDEF1234) that will replace inside the path.

Pattern: map :city :page
Path: /map/:city/:page
Variables:
  ATL="ABCDEF1234"
  BOS="1234ABCD"

Typing map @ATL budget → /map/ABCDEF1234/budget.

Typing map @BOS summary → /map/1234ABCD/summary.

4. Path Modes

Select how the path is combined with the current URL:

append: adds to current path
replace: replaces path on base domain
absolute: always uses full base URL

Use absolute for cross-domain jumps (e.g. from GitHub to Jira).

5. Naming Best Practices

Use short, mnemonic prefixes (gh, jira, sf, rd).
Keep verbs consistent (pr, issue, case, board).
Group sequences logically: gh pr :id, gh issue :id.
Avoid ambiguity—prefer repo prs over rp if unclear.
Reserve one-word patterns for your highest-frequency jumps.

6. Share & Evolve

Export and share your team's command set for consistency.

Settings → Export Commands

Periodically prune rarely used commands to keep search results focused.

FAQ

Quick answers to common issues and questions

Ctrl+J / Command+J doesn't open Key Surf

The global shortcut may be unassigned, overridden by another extension, or reserved by your OS.

Open chrome://extensions/shortcuts in the address bar.
Find Key Surf and locate the "Open spotlight search" (toggle-spotlight) command.
Click in the shortcut box and press your preferred combo (e.g. Ctrl+J, Alt+K, or Cmd+J on macOS).
Avoid conflicts with system shortcuts (e.g. some keyboards reserve Cmd+J for downloads in certain browsers).

If the key still doesn’t work, try another like Ctrl+Space or Alt+Shift+K. You can always launch via the extension icon popup as a fallback.

Why doesn't it work on a blank / new tab page?

Chrome restricts extensions from injecting UI on certain internal pages such as:

New Tab (chrome://new-tab)
Chrome Web Store pages
chrome:// or edge:// internal pages

Open any regular website (e.g. github.com) and trigger the shortcut again—it will appear instantly.

Shortcut suddenly stopped working

This can happen after a browser update or if another extension claimed the same key.

Revisit chrome://extensions/shortcuts and reassign.
Disable recently-added extensions temporarily to check for conflicts.
Ensure the page has finished loading (extension waits for document_end).

Can I change or add more shortcuts?

Yes. All assignable commands appear under chrome://extensions/shortcuts. You can map an alternate combo for faster access and avoid conflicts across keyboards.

The overlay never appears anywhere

Run through this quick checklist:

Confirm the extension is enabled in chrome://extensions.
Reload the current tab (especially after first install).
Verify no aggressive content blocker is stripping injected CSS/JS.
Try an incognito window (if allowed) to isolate conflicts.

Can I import/export my shortcuts?

YES!!!

Supercharge Your Browsing with Key Surf