New Feature: Ask Hotkey

Doug  ·  2026-04-13

Most of the time, your Linklever rules open the browser you expect, but occasionally you may want to pick a different browser.

The Ask hotkey accomodates this need. Hold the hotkey when you click a link and Linklever opens the browser picker, ignoring whatever rule would normally match.

Example

You have a rule that sends github.com to Firefox, but just this once, you want to open a github link in Chrome instead. Hold Shift, click the link, and choose Chrome in the picker.

How It Works

When a link arrives, Linklever checks whether your chosen modifier is held right then. If it is, the browser picker opens regardless of which rule would have matched. If it isn't, the usual rule evaluation runs and the matched browser opens.

The check is platform-specific: Win32 GetAsyncKeyState on Windows, CGEventSource on macOS, and EVIOCGKEY on /dev/input/eventN on Linux, which works on both X11 and Wayland.

Configuration

In the Settings tab, you'll find an Ask Hotkey dropdown with four choices: Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Off. Shift is the default.

Linux Users

This feature requires your user to be in the input group. If the hotkey doesn't work, run groups to check. To add yourself, run sudo usermod -aG input $USER and then log out and back in.

On GNOME, the terminal captures Ctrl and Alt before they reach Linklever. If you click a lot of links from a terminal, stick with Shift.

More Info

See the Settings guide.

Let me know what you think! [email protected]