What NavShelf is

NavShelf is a no-signup start page that runs in your browser — some people call it a dashboard or a personal home page. A nested folder tree on the left, link cards on the right: you put the dozen sites you actually use into your own categories and see them the moment the browser opens, with no feed and no pop-up to dismiss. Beyond bookmarks it includes three interface languages, light and dark themes, and a tools column of browser-based utilities (Base64, JSON formatting, timestamps). Folders, links and search settings all live in your own browser: nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed.

This post covers one thing: how to set it up in ten minutes and make it the first page you see.

Use the hosted version — just open it

The hosted version is the main one: open the URL and you can start building folders and adding links. No download, no install, no account. New tools and interface changes ship there first, so there are no files to replace by hand.

One thing worth being precise about: “hosted” describes where the page is served from, not where your bookmarks go. On data ownership it is no different from running the app as a local file — neither stores anything on a server.

Step 1: Build the folder skeleton (~3 minutes)

The page opens with a search area and folder tree on the left, a content area on the right — no feed, no card to dismiss.

Right-click anywhere in the empty area or on a folder and you get four actions: New folder, New link, Edit, Delete. The whole app works from that menu — nothing else to memorise.

Start with four to six top-level folders — Work, Learning, Tools, Read Later. Folders nest up to five levels deep, but depth is not the goal: if a folder holds exactly one link, it probably should not be a folder.

Right-click → New link. Fill in the title and URL, then the optional description. It shows on the card, so writing down when you use the link beats writing “official site” — three months from now, that sentence is how you find it again.

One piece of advice: do not migrate hundreds of bookmarks at once. Add the eight to ten links you genuinely open every day, live with the page for a week, then consider a second batch. Big migrations tend to have exactly one enthusiastic day.

Drag and drop works too: links reorder inside a folder, and folders can be dragged into other folders. Two moves are blocked — going past five levels, and dropping a folder into one of its own subfolders — with a warning while you drag.

Step 3: Make it your start page (~2 minutes)

  • Chrome: Settings → On startup → Open a specific page or set of pages → Add a new page → https://navshelf.com/app/
  • Edge: Settings → Start, home, and new tabs → Start page → Add a new page
  • Firefox: Settings → Home → Homepage and new windows → Custom URLs
  • Safari (macOS): Settings → General → Homepage

One caveat up front: browsers do not offer a built-in setting for a custom new tab page. Replacing the new tab takes an extension such as New Tab Redirect; if you would rather not install one, “open on startup” plus keeping the dashboard first on your bookmarks bar covers most of the benefit.

Step 4: Adjust three settings (~2 minutes)

  • Theme: the Theme button switches between day and night, and the whole colour scheme follows.
  • Language: English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese are included; switching applies immediately and is remembered.
  • Search engines: Google, Bing and Baidu come preloaded. Click the search button for the search overlay, then use “Search engines” to add your own: a name plus a URL template where {query} stands for your search terms. Internal wikis and site-specific searches work this way too; clicking outside closes the overlay.

Where your data lives

Bookmarks are kept in your browser’s localStorage and never uploaded. Two consequences: switching browsers, switching devices or clearing browser data will not bring them along — and they cannot vanish because some company shut a service down, because they were never on anyone else’s servers.

So the one habit worth building is a periodic export. About dialog → Export JSON gives you one file with folders, links, search engines and interface settings. On a new device, Import JSON restores it; a malformed file reports an error and leaves your existing data untouched.

Bonus: the Tools column

There is one more switch in the toolbar: Tools, off by default. Turn it on and the content area becomes a built-in directory — Development, Design, AI, Productivity and Writing, with links to the site’s own utilities. It is read-only and never appears in an export. Click it again to return to My collection.

FAQ

Do I still need the browser bookmarks bar? They can coexist. Keep the bar for temporary saves and this week’s project; keep the dashboard for the links you use month after month.

If I open it in another browser, are my bookmarks there? No. The data belongs to the browser you created it in — export to JSON first, then import on the other side.

Does it work on a phone? Yes. The layout adapts and the sidebar collapses. Open the same URL on your phone; bookmarks are stored in that device’s browser.

Is ten minutes realistic? For a minimum viable setup, yes: folders, a dozen links, one settings change to make it your start page. The rest is a matter of whether you actually want to see it every morning.

Start now

Open NavShelf, create one folder, add three links, and set it as your start page. Tomorrow morning the first thing you see will be your own entry points instead of someone else’s feed.