Devlog 6.

I think AstroPinax is finally at the point where it feels like a complete product instead of a side project. The biggest addition is a proper settings panel. Instead of digging through the code, you can now change your default theme, switch your preferred search engine, toggle background audio, and even edit your quick-access links, all from a clean settings window.
I also got rid of the browser’s default date picker. It always felt out of place, so I built my own calendar dropdown that matches the rest of the interface. It blends in much better and makes browsing older APODs feel a lot smoother. Then I added probably my most unnecessary feature… and my favorite one….. AstroPinax now has its own ambient space soundtrack. Using the browser’s Web Audio API, it generates a slow, evolving synth completely in real time. No audio files, no streaming… just the browser creating a subtle space atmosphere on its own. I even added a little audio visualizer in the footer because I thought it looked cool. The command system also got a few upgrades. You can now press Tab to autocomplete commands and search operators instead of typing everything out yourself. I added a few more commands too, including >settings, >music, >prev, >next, and explicit search shortcuts like /google and /ddg. Finally, I added customizable quick-access icons underneath the search bar so getting to your most-used sites takes one click. Looking back, this project started as “I want NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on my new tab.” Somewhere along the way it became a keyboard-first browser homepage with built-in commands, custom search operators, themes, settings, ambient music, and just enough unnecessary polish to make opening a new tab feel interesting again. Safe to say AstroPinax has grown into a lot more than I originally.

Devlog 5 & 5.5

This update started with a small annoyance and somehow turned into AstroPinax getting its own command system.
The first problem was the search bar. Some new tab redirect extensions would steal focus and leave the cursor in the browser’s address bar instead. Not anymore. I ended up brute-forcing it by repeatedly refocusing the search box after the page loads. It’s not glamorous, but it works every time. I also redesigned the date controls. Instead of having separate icons and text scattered around the header, there’s now a single date widget that looks cleaner and opens the date picker with one click. Searches also stay in the same tab now, which feels much more natural for a new tab page. The biggest addition though is Command Mode. If you start your search with >, the search bar transforms into a little terminal and starts suggesting commands as you type. You can move through them with the arrow keys and hit Enter to run them. Right now it supports things like:

today to jump back to today’s APOD.
random for a random day in NASA’s archive.
theme to switch themes.
nasa to open the official APOD website.

Once I had that working, I couldn’t stop adding to it. Typing / now turns the search bar blue and lets you search specific websites directly. Instead of Googling everything first, you can go straight where you want.

/github react searches GitHub.
/reddit linux searches Reddit.
/youtube jazz opens YouTube results.

There are also commands for DuckDuckGo and Wikipedia, with more on the way. I also added >help, which temporarily replaces the APOD panel with a built-in command guide, so you don’t have to remember everything. And if anyone’s curious how AstroPinax works, >source takes you straight to the repository. This project started as “show me NASA’s photo of the day. “Now it’s slowly turning into a keyboard-first browser homepage that just happens to have NASA built into it.

Devlog 4&4.5.

AstroPinax went through its biggest redesign yet.
The original layout is gone. Instead of showing the APOD beside the content, the Astronomy Picture of the Day now becomes the entire background. Whether it’s an image or a video, it fills the screen and turns every new tab into a different scene from space. To keep everything readable, I added a subtle dark overlay instead of blurring the background. The search bar now sits right in the center inside a frosted glass container, making it the first thing you see without taking attention away from the APOD itself. I also changed the typography to Rajdhani and Outfit, which gives the whole project a much more futuristic feel. While I was at it, I removed the Previous, Next and Today buttons. It felt like unnecessary clutter. Navigation is now handled through the date picker or the keyboard, which fits the minimalist direction I wanted. Then I tackled one of the things that annoyed me most….. waiting. Previously, you had to wait for NASA’s API before you could do anything. Now the search bar appears instantly, so you can start searching the web the moment you open a new tab while the APOD loads in the background. I also replaced the boring loading screen with animated skeleton placeholders. Instead of flashing a “Loading…” message, the page gradually comes to life as the image, title and description arrive. The light theme is gone too. It never really matched the vibe of the project. In its place is a new Void theme—a true pitch-black mode that’s especially nice on OLED screens. The starfield is still there, just toned down enough to give the background a little life without becoming distracting. Finally, I cleaned up the error handling so failed API requests don’t hijack the whole page anymore. If NASA’s API decides not to cooperate, the error simply shows up where the APOD information normally lives. This update wasn’t about adding features—it was about making AstroPinax disappear. Open a new tab, start typing immediately, and let the universe sit quietly in the background.

Devlog 2, 3 an Update 3.5:

AstroPinax is starting to feel like a real browser new tab instead of just a NASA APOD viewer. The biggest change is the search bar. It works like a normal Google search, but if you type something like github.com, it’ll take you straight there instead. It also autofocuses when you open a new tab, so you can just start typing immediately. I also redesigned the layout. The calendar now lives in the top bar, making it easy to jump to any Astronomy Picture of the Day since 1995 without taking up space. The APOD section got a much cleaner layout with a bigger image, better spacing, and easier navigation. After that, I spent a lot of time polishing the experience. AstroPinax now has a proper dark mode with an animated starfield that fades in behind the UI. Definitely not a necessary feature, but it makes opening a new tab feel a lot cooler. I also fixed one thing that had been bothering me from the start: the page shouldn’t scroll. Everything now fits perfectly inside the viewport, the footer stays pinned to the bottom, and only the APOD description scrolls when it’s too long. Today’s cleanup was mostly about making everything feel more solid. I fixed the layout so the image and information panels always stay the same height, cleaned up the typography with better sizing and spacing, and refactored the codebase by removing all the AI-looking comments and making it read like something I’d naturally write. There aren’t a ton of flashy new features this time around, but AstroPinax feels noticeably more polished, both to use and to build. Slowly becoming something I’d actually want as my default new tab.

Starting a new project.
It’s called AstroPinax. The idea is simple: every time I open a new tab, I want to see something that reminds me how ridiculously big the universe is instead of another blank page.

Today’s progress:• Hooked it up to NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day API, so it can load any APOD since June 16, 1995.

1. Added a date picker so you can jump to any day, plus Previous, Next and Today buttons for easy navigation.

2. Finished the base UI with a custom theme using soft greys, warm oranges and a little sudotads green because I couldn’t resist

3. I also tried to make everything responsive, with a big hero image and the explanation tucked underneath.

Starting small, shipping often. Let’s see where this goes.