Island

User guide

The sidebar

The sidebar holds your pinned tabs, your tabs, the space switcher and the Agent button. This page shows how to change how it looks and where it sits.

Choose a look

Island has three looks. The default is Native.

LookWhat it is
NativeA macOS-style source list, 248 DIP wide, with the system font, one blue accent and a 52 DIP toolbar. Spaces have no color.
ArcA frameless window (macOS) with a canvas tinted by the active space's color and a rounded, shadowed page card.
GraphiteA neutral look with the Geist font.

To switch, open Settings > Appearance and choose a value under Look. The change applies at once. If you then change any other control there, the preset reads Custom.

If you used Island before the Native look arrived and had saved Appearance settings, you keep Arc until you choose another look.

Collapse the sidebar

Press ⌘B (Ctrl+B). The sidebar shrinks to a 52 DIP icon rail:

  • one button per tab of the active space, with pinned tabs first and the active tab highlighted;
  • a + button for a new tab;
  • the spaces at the bottom.

Hover a tab button to see the page title. Island remembers the choice across launches. Press ⌘B again to expand.

When you focus the address field from the rail with ⌘L (Ctrl+L), the sidebar expands for the length of the edit.

Move the sidebar to the right

Open Settings > Appearance > Layout and set Sidebar position to Left or Right.

Change density, corners and shadow

All of these are under Settings > Appearance > Layout:

  • Sidebar density: Comfortable or Compact.
  • Page corner radius: 0, 6, 10 or 14 (macOS).
  • Full bleed: no inset, no rounding, no shadow.
  • Page card shadow: one soft shadow under the page.

See Appearance for every control.

The Agent button

The Agent button sits at the bottom of the sidebar. In the Native look it is a full-width row; in Arc and Graphite it is a button at the foot of the rail, with a sparkle icon. In every look it uses a neutral plate: the plate shows while the agent panel is open, and a light highlight shows under the pointer. It never takes the accent color.

While a card waits for your answer, an amber dot appears on the button: beside the provider name in Native, on the sparkle icon in Arc and Graphite. The dot shows even when the panel is closed. Click the button, or press ⌘J (Ctrl+J), to open the agent panel.

Address field indicators

The Native address field shows small indicators:

  • A shield on the left with the number of blocked requests. Click it to open Settings > Privacy & blocking. It is hidden at 0.
  • Reader on the right, only on pages that have a reader view.
  • An agent dot: blue while the agent works, orange while it waits for your answer. Click it to open the agent panel.