A Quick Guide to
PATANYX Browser

A little heads-up if you try PATANYX: I built it around privacy and keeping your information on your own computer, so some things work a little differently from what you might be used to.

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Unlock your Vault before saving passwords

Think of the Vault as your digital safe. You make it the first time you use PATANYX. If it is locked when you try to save a login, PATANYX tells you the password was not saved.

It locks itself again after the time you pick, five minutes to start with. On Windows it also locks when your computer does.

The PATANYX Vault panel, locked. It shows a passphrase field with an Unlock button, a Lock when idle setting offering 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes or Never, a list of what unlocking turns on, and a separate recovery key field. — The Vault panel, locked.

On Windows, click Fill password when it lights up

When you open a page with a saved login, the Fill password button appears in the toolbar and turns green. Click it, and PATANYX types the login in for you. If the Saved group is folded into one button, click Saved and choose Fill password there.

No Fill password button usually means nothing is saved for that page, or the Vault is locked. Open the Vault panel and it will tell you which, or say if autofill is not available in that tab.

A close-up of the PATANYX toolbar: a green Fill password button with a key icon, lit up next to a green unlocked Vault button, between the gray TA and DNS buttons.

Your bookmarks open with your Vault too

Your bookmarks, saved passwords, and notes are encrypted on your computer and open with the same passphrase. Unlock the Vault and your bookmarks are in Library, with your shelved tabs and downloads.

Until then, Library says so instead of just looking empty.

The PATANYX Library panel before the Vault is unlocked, reading: Unlock the vault for bookmarks, shelved tabs, and download records. PATANYX offers this when started on its own. Downloads finished before unlock are not recorded.

Keep your recovery key somewhere safe

You see it once, when you make your Vault. If you forget your passphrase, it gets you back in, and even I cannot reissue it. Write it down somewhere other than the computer you browse on.

It opens your bookmarks too. One catch: bookmarks from a version before 1.0.3 still need your passphrase until you first change it.

The PATANYX recovery key screen, headed Write this down now, showing a long key in groups of four characters and a button reading I have written it down. — This example key is made up and will not work.

You can change your passphrase

Quit any copy of PATANYX older than 1.0.3 that is still open. Then unlock the Vault and open its Backup tab. Scroll down to Change passphrase, type your current passphrase, then the new one twice.

The tab row of the unlocked PATANYX Vault panel, with tabs for Credentials, Notes, Backup, and Sync Across Devices, Backup selected, and Lock and Close buttons at the right. — The Vault panel, unlocked, on the Backup tab.

The Change passphrase section of the PATANYX Backup tab: a paragraph explaining that the Vault and the Library share one passphrase, that nothing stored and not the recovery key changes, that a failed change leaves the current passphrase working, and that someone with an earlier copy of the Vault or Library and the old passphrase may still be able to read newer copies; three empty fields reading Current passphrase, New passphrase (min. 8 characters), and Confirm new passphrase; and a Change passphrase button.

The new passphrase opens your Vault and your Library, bookmarks included, and nothing you keep in either one changes. Your recovery key, if you have one, stays the same. If the change does not go through, your current passphrase keeps working. If your bookmarks are from a version before 1.0.3, this is also what lets your recovery key open them, and versions before 1.0.3 cannot open them after that.

A green message under the Change passphrase button, reading: Passphrase changed for your vault and your Library. The old passphrase no longer opens them; a recovery key, if you have one, still works. — The confirmation, under the button.

The same Backup tab can also back up or move your Vault and your Library in one encrypted file. Under Encrypted export, choose where to save it, set a passphrase for that file alone, and click Write encrypted export. It holds everything in your Vault, such as passwords, notes, your Private Tunnel configuration and your Premium token. While your Library is open, it also holds your bookmarks, Tab Shelf, Deep Recall pages, page snapshots with their pictures, and Divergence Exceptions. Download records stay on the computer. Your recovery key does not open the file. It opens in PATANYX 1.0.7 and later, and PATANYX does not send it anywhere.

To bring it back, use Import a backup on the same tab. Importing replaces the Vault and Library on that computer with the ones in the file, and you set a new passphrase and get a new recovery key. Download records already on that computer stay.

Expect to sign in to websites again after closing the browser

PATANYX starts a fresh session every time you launch it, so sites you were signed in to will ask again. On Windows, a site you keep in the Privacy panel stays signed in.

Saving a password does not keep you signed in, but it makes signing back in quick.

On Windows, camera, microphone, location, and notifications start blocked

If a site needs one, turn it on in the Privacy panel. Whatever you allow lasts until you close PATANYX, and then it is blocked again.

Turning one on reloads the page, so do it before you fill anything in. On Linux the browser engine does not offer these controls.

The PATANYX permission controls under Privacy, headed What this site asked for, with switches for Camera, Microphone, Location, and Notifications, under a warning that changing any of these reloads the page, each switch reading Refused for this site. — The permission controls, under Privacy.

Read an article without the clutter, with Reader View

New in 1.0.5. Reader View shows the article on the page you are reading as plain text, using the copy of the page the tab already has, so opening it loads nothing new.

Open the Menu and choose Reader View, or press F9, to read the article on this page as plain text, without the menus, ads and pop-ups around it.
A− and A+ change the text size. Serif switches the typeface.
Press F9 again, or click Close, to go back to the page.

Opening Reader View from the Menu, changing the text, closing it with F9. No sound.

Keep related tabs together with Tab Groups

New in 1.0.5. A group keeps its tabs next to each other in the tab strip, with a color and an optional name, and folds away when you do not need it.

Right-click a tab, choose a color and an optional name, then click Make a group with this tab.
Right-click another tab and pick the group under Add to a group. Click the colored label at the start of the group to fold its tabs away, and again to bring them back.
Shelve this group closes its tabs and keeps the group in your encrypted Library; Restore, under Tab Shelf, brings it back. Groups you do not shelve end when you close PATANYX.

Making a group, adding a tab, folding it, shelving it and restoring it. No sound.

Read two tabs at once with Side by Side

New in 1.0.5. Side by Side shows two tabs in one window, each in its own half, and whichever half you click is the one the keyboard and the toolbar act on.

Click Side by Side in the toolbar (under Tabs, if that group is folded), or press Ctrl+Shift+S, to show this tab beside the one next to it.
To choose the pair yourself, right-click the other tab and click Show beside the tab on screen.
Click into either half to work in it. Click Side by Side again to go back to one page.

Pairing a tab with its neighbor, then choosing the pair yourself. No sound.

That is the whole list

If something here does not match what you are seeing, tell me about it.