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Navigation

This guide covers efficient navigation techniques in Astronomo.

Opening URLs

Address Bar

  1. Focus the address bar (click or press your focus key)
  2. Type or paste a URL
  3. Press Enter

Tip

You can omit gemini:// - Astronomo adds it automatically for bare URLs. See Smart URL Detection for other protocols.

From Command Line

# Open a Gemini capsule
astronomo gemini://example.com/

# Browse a Gopher server
astronomo gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/

# Query a Finger server
astronomo user@example.com

Keyboard Navigation

  1. Press Right to select the next link
  2. Press Left to select the previous link
  3. Press Enter to open the selected link

The selected link is visually highlighted.

Mouse Navigation

Click any link to follow it immediately.

History Navigation

Going Back

  • Keyboard: Press Backspace
  • Mouse: Click the ◀ button

Going Forward

  • Keyboard: Press Shift+Backspace
  • Mouse: Click the ▶ button

Note

History is preserved within a session. When you go back, your scroll position and selected link are restored.

Quick Navigation

Press Ctrl+K to open the quick navigation modal - a fuzzy finder for quickly jumping to bookmarks and history entries.

Using Quick Navigation

  1. Press Ctrl+K to open the modal
  2. Start typing to search
  3. Use Up / Down to navigate results
  4. Press Enter to open the selected item
  5. Press Esc to cancel

Search Features

The fuzzy search supports several matching strategies:

  • Title matches - Highest priority, searches bookmark titles
  • URL matches - Searches within URLs
  • Acronym matches - Type "gp" to find "Gemini Protocol"
  • Word boundary matches - Matches at the start of words

Tip

When the search field is empty, the modal shows your 20 most recent items sorted by timestamp.

Page Scrolling

Key Action
Up / Down Scroll by line
Page Up / Page Down Scroll by page
Home Jump to top
End Jump to bottom

Mouse scroll wheel also works.

Refreshing Pages

Press Ctrl+R to reload the current page.

This fetches fresh content from the server.

Handling Input Prompts

Some Gemini pages request input (status 10 and 11 responses):

  1. A modal dialog appears
  2. Type your response
  3. Press Enter to submit
  4. Press Esc to cancel

For sensitive input (status 11), the field is masked like a password field.

Handling Redirects

Astronomo automatically follows redirects up to the configured limit (default: 5).

If a redirect loop is detected or the limit is exceeded, you'll see an error message.

Multi-Protocol Navigation

Astronomo supports browsing Gopher and Finger servers in addition to Gemini.

Smart URL Detection

When you enter a URL without a scheme, Astronomo automatically detects the protocol:

Pattern Detected Protocol
user@host finger://user@host
gopher.example.com gopher://gopher.example.com
host:70/... gopher://host:70/...
Everything else gemini://...

You can always specify the scheme explicitly (e.g., gopher://example.com).

Browsing Gopher

Gopher menus display with type indicators:

  • [DIR] — Directory (click to enter)
  • [TXT] — Text file
  • [SEARCH] — Search input
  • [BIN] — Binary download
  • [IMG] — Image file
  • [EXT] — External HTTP link

Navigate Gopher menus just like Gemini pages—use arrow keys or click to follow links.

When you activate a search item ([SEARCH]):

  1. A modal dialog prompts for your query
  2. Enter search terms and press Enter
  3. Results display as a new Gopher menu

Downloading Gopher Files

Binary files (type 9, images, etc.) download automatically:

  1. Activate the [BIN] or [IMG] link
  2. File saves to ~/Downloads/
  3. A notification confirms the download

Duplicate filenames are auto-incremented (e.g., file(1).txt).

Querying Finger

To look up user information:

  1. Enter user@host in the address bar
  2. Press Enter
  3. User info displays as preformatted text

Or use the explicit format: finger://user@host

Pages can link between protocols. For example:

  • A Gemini page can link to gopher://...
  • A Gopher menu can link to finger://...

HTTP/HTTPS links open in your system's default browser.

Tips for Efficient Browsing

  1. Use keyboard shortcuts - Faster than reaching for the mouse
  2. Use quick navigation - Press Ctrl+K to instantly jump to any bookmark or recent page
  3. Set a home page - Start each session at your favorite capsule
  4. Bookmark frequently - Press Ctrl+D to save interesting pages
  5. Use history - Backspace is your friend