CyberBrowser - iOS Browser with Real Chromium Blink Engine

A real iOS browser built on the Chromium ios_web engine (content_shell), featuring a custom tabbed browser UI with address bar, navigation, history, and Google search integration.

Architecture

CyberBrowser/
├── .github/workflows/build-blink.yml  # CI/CD: Builds real Chromium on macOS
├── patches/
│   └── CyberBrowserViewController.mm.patch  # Patches Chromium's view_controller.mm
│   └── view_controller_tabbed.patch     # Diff patch (alternative)
├── scripts/
│   ├── fetch-chromium.sh              # Fetches Chromium iOS source
│   ├── apply-patches.sh               # Applies CyberBrowser patches
│   └── build.sh                       # Builds ios_web_shell target
├── src/                               # Standalone Swift/UIKit fallback
│   ├── ChromiumInit.h/mm              # Objective-C++ Chromium WebMain init
│   ├── BrowserViewController.h/mm     # Standalone browser UI (fallback)
│   ├── AppDelegate.h/mm               # App lifecycle
│   └── SceneDelegate.h/mm             # iOS 13+ multi-window
└── CyberBrowser/
    └── Info.plist                     # App bundle config

How It Works

The Real Build (GitHub Actions CI)

1. Fetch Chromium iOS Source (~30GB, cached between builds)
2. Apply Patches - Replaces ios/web/shell/view_controller.mm with CyberBrowser UI
3. Build ios_web_shell target using autoninja (2-6 hours)
4. Package as CyberBrowser.app + .tipa for TrollStore

Chromium API Used (Verified from Source)

• web::WebState - Core web engine interface
  • GetView() - Returns UIView* containing the web content
  • GetNavigationManager() - Navigation control
  • GetVisibleURL() / GetTitle() / IsLoading() / GetLoadingProgress()
  • OpenURL() / Stop() / SetWebUsageEnabled()
• web::NavigationManager - Back/forward navigation
  • CanGoBack() / CanGoForward() / GoBack() / GoForward()
  • LoadURLWithParams() / Reload()
• web::WebMain - Engine initialization (must call Startup() before any web ops)
• web::ShellMainDelegate / web::ShellWebClient - Required delegates

Patches Applied

The patches/CyberBrowserViewController.mm.patch replaces Chromium's simple shell UI with:

• Progress bar - Shows loading progress via WebState::GetLoadingProgress()
• Address bar - URL entry with Google search fallback
• Back/Forward/Reload - Real navigation via NavigationManager
• History - Stores visited URLs in NSUserDefaults with 500-item cap
• Tab management - UIAlertController-based tab picker
• Context menus - Link copy/paste support

Building Locally

# 1. Fetch Chromium source (one-time, ~30GB)
./scripts/fetch-chromium.sh

# 2. Apply patches
./scripts/apply-patches.sh

# 3. Build (takes 2-6 hours on first run)
./scripts/build.sh

# Output: build-output/CyberBrowser.app

CI/CD (GitHub Actions)

The .github/workflows/build-blink.yml runs on macos-15 with Xcode 16.1:

1. Caches depot_tools and Chromium source (30GB+)
2. Syncs latest source via gclient sync
3. Applies CyberBrowser patches
4. Builds ios_web_shell with autoninja
5. Packages as .app, .ipa, and .tipa
6. Uploads artifacts + creates GitHub Release

Installation

TrollStore (iOS 15+, recommended)

1. Install TrollStore on your device
2. Transfer CyberBrowser.tipa to device
3. Open TrollStore → tap + → select .tipa

AltStore / SideStore

1. Use CyberBrowser.ipa
2. Sideload with your preferred tool

Development

Standalone Mode (No Chromium)

The src/ directory contains a standalone Swift/Objective-C++ browser that can be built independently. It attempts to initialize Chromium but shows an error if the engine is not available.

# Build standalone (requires Xcode)
xcodebuild -project CyberBrowser.xcodeproj -scheme CyberBrowser -destination 'generic/platform=iOS'

License

BSD-3-Clause (Chromium components remain under their respective licenses)