A typed or pasted path such as D:\Dev\x\page.html has no dotted host, so
the URL-vs-search heuristic handed it to the search engine. Paths (drive,
UNC, file://, and absolute/~ on POSIX) now load as file:// URLs before the
heuristic runs. Local-file tabs keep their file:// URL in the address bar
(normally suppressed because our own home/error pages are file://), show a
"Local file" badge, and hide the registry button since no name resolution
is involved. A missing file lands on the error page with a matching badge.
The browser — the consumer face of the stack. Native .bch support with the
resolver built in, so a user installs one app instead of modifying their
operating system. Named for the thread through the labyrinth: the chain is the
thread.
Scope
Electron shell (Chromium engine, no forking): tabs, address bar, history.
In-process .bch resolution — no system daemon, no NRPT, no OS
trust-store changes; reuses bns.js from the BNS repo as a library.
Record handling: h render, ip connect, p/s3 via in-app gateway,
u redirect.
TLS via cert-verify hook (Electron setCertificateVerifyProc) against the
BNS root / on-chain tls fingerprints — no OS store touched.
Provenance indicator: shows whether a page came from the chain / Sia / a
direct server, with NFT category and record type — the decentralized padlock.
Status: not started
Build it in its own session/repo. The ready-to-paste brief is
BROWSER-PROMPT.md (a reference copy in this folder; canonical source is
D:\Dev\NameCoin\BROWSER-PROMPT.md — if they diverge, NameCoin wins). It points
here and reuses the resolver core. theseus.bch is registered and should
eventually serve the browser's own homepage over the protocol it implements.