Crest field guide

A browser made of Spaces.

Crest gives work, home, research, and private browsing separate places to live. Switching Spaces changes the browsing context—not just the color of the window.

The short version: each Space keeps its own signed-in sessions, cookies, history, tabs, pinned sites, passwords, permissions, website data, appearance, and sync identity.

Looking for step-by-step help? The new Crest Help Center has searchable installation, settings, and troubleshooting guides. This field guide remains the compact product overview.

Spaces

A Space is both an identity and a boundary. Use the Space switcher to move between them; Crest restores the tabs and session that belong to the destination Space.

A Space keeps	What that means for you
Signed-in sessions	Your Work accounts do not automatically sign you into the same sites in Personal.
History and archive	Research, recently closed tabs, and recovered pages stay with the place where you used them.
Tabs and pinned sites	Every Space opens with its own working set and familiar destinations.
Crest Passwords	Suggestions match both the current website and the Space you are browsing in.
Appearance and controls	Banners, permissions, website data, and other preferences remain contextual.

Make a Space recognizable

Think of every Space as a banner. Open the Space editor to choose its colors and crest; the full sidebar wears that identity and carries it into the Space switcher, making a context change visible before you read its name.

Banner or Traditional Gradient

Banner mode uses distinct color fields and heraldic patterns for an expressive, unmistakable Space. Traditional Gradient mode preserves the familiar Arc-style theme: blend one to three colors into a smooth atmosphere, then adjust its direction, strength, readability, and optional texture.

Private Spaces

A Private Space is temporary. Its website data is non-persistent and it stays out of normal history, restoration, archive, and synchronization.

Tabs, pins, and the archive

Crest gives tabs different roles so the sidebar does not become one endless list.

Pinned and saved

Pin the destinations you return to constantly. Save tabs that should remain available but do not need to stay in the active working set.

Current, recent, and archived

Current tabs are what you are using now. Recent items make short-term recovery easy, while Archive keeps older closed work available without crowding the sidebar.

Tab identity

Tab icons normally follow the current website. You can pull and keep an icon, choose an emoji, or use Clear Icon to return the tab to automatic website icons.

Quick Window and Peek

Quick Window

Quick Window carries forward the idea behind Arc's Tiny Arc. On Mac, links opened from other apps can arrive in a lightweight browser instead of immediately joining your durable tabs. Choose the right Space and it uses that Space's signed-in session and Crest Passwords; close it when you are done, or keep it by opening it as a full tab.

Peek

Peek opens a link above the page you are reading. Close it to return immediately, or open it in the current or another Space when it earns a permanent place.

Moving to Crest

On Mac, Crest can discover Arc, Zen, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox and turn their browsing data into a visual import review. Choose one or more sources, then work through every Space or profile before anything is committed.

Source	What Crest can bring over
Arc	Spaces, tabs, folders, colors, icons, and passwords.
Zen	Spaces, Essentials, pinned tabs, folders, open tabs, and colors.
Chrome	Profiles, bookmarks, open tabs, and passwords.
Safari	Bookmarks, windows, and open tabs.
Firefox	Windows, open tabs, and pinned tabs.

Review before anything moves

Keep or remove individual tabs and folders, choose whether a source becomes a new Space or joins an existing one, and include supported passwords only when you want them. The before-and-after preview updates as you make decisions.

Customize during setup

Open Customize Space from the review to rename the destination and edit its colors, crest, and Banner or Traditional Gradient presentation before importing.

Mac first, then everywhere: direct browser migration happens in Crest for Mac. Once imported, your Spaces and tabs can sync to iPad and iPhone with iCloud.

Extensions

Install most standards-based Chrome extensions directly from their Chrome Web Store pages. Compatibility varies where an extension depends on Chrome-only APIs or a native companion.

Extensions belong to a Space and a device. Each installation keeps independent permissions, storage, enablement, pinning, and site access, so configuring a tool in Work does not silently change Personal or another device.

Ways to install on Mac

Chrome Web Store: Crest verifies signed CRX3 packages, opens a native review sheet for permissions, website access, source, and compatibility, then installs the package into the selected Space.
Signed Safari Web Extension apps: use Scan for Apps or Choose App. A signed Safari app’s WebExtension resources can load without making its third-party native companion portable. Loading the bundle is not proof that its native features work in Crest.
Unpacked WebExtensions: load an unpacked package as a developer and manual installation path.

Installed extensions can expose pinned actions, WebExtension popups, options pages, and keyboard commands. These controls stay with the Space and device that owns the installation.

When an extension reaches a WebKit limit

Crest observes background runtime failures and shows Needs attention with a plain-language explanation. Technical JavaScript details remain collapsed unless you open them for troubleshooting.

Two distribution boundaries: the sandboxed App Store build supports WebKit-backed WebExtensions but blocks nativeMessaging. Crest Direct implements Chrome native messaging only for verified Chrome Web Store installations whose exact allowed_origins identity matches a registered host. Unpacked extensions and Safari-app native handlers are not eligible.

Direct 1Password for Safari result

Crest can load the UI and ordinary WebExtension resources from 1Password for Safari 8.12.29.1, but its background call to browser.runtime.sendNativeMessage for request-os-version is rejected by WebKit. That Safari route is not functional in Crest; signing in, unlocking, and filling cannot be promised through it.

1Password measured path: 1Password 8.12.30.21 installed as Running, rendered its setup UI, opened my.1password.com in a normal Crest tab, and launched 1Password-BrowserSupport through Crest Direct. To finish, open and unlock 1Password, then choose Settings → Browser → Add Browser, select Crest in /Applications, and authorize it. That final trusted-browser, unlock, and autofill step was not completed during validation.

Crest Direct is not a public release yet: the arm64 unsandboxed build still needs Developer ID signing, notarization, Gatekeeper validation, and an update mechanism before it can be offered for download.

Safari content blockers and legacy Safari App Extensions are not WebExtensions and are not supported. wBlock’s toolbar/userscript component is a Safari Web Extension, but its primary blocking engine depends on five Safari-only content-blocker extensions; installing the component cannot reproduce full wBlock behavior.

See the current signed-package compatibility matrix on the product page. For setup and troubleshooting, open Crest Help & Guides.

Passwords and privacy

Crest Passwords are saved in the system Keychain and suggested only for matching websites. Viewing, copying, or exporting sensitive information can require device authentication.

Website permissions are handled per site and remain tied to their Space. Private Spaces use temporary website storage and do not join your ordinary browsing record.

Deletion is explicit: clearing a site's data, removing saved credentials, and deleting an entire Space are separate actions, each showing the scope before it proceeds.

History, data, and sync

History that respects context

History belongs to the current Space. Opening History or Archive shows the browsing record for that context instead of mixing every part of your life together.

Move between devices

When synchronization is enabled, durable Space details and browsing organization can follow you between your Apple devices. Passwords remain protected by the system Keychain.

Bring data in—or take it with you

Run the visual browser migration from setup or Settings on Mac. Crest can also export a portable archive, letting you keep a validated copy of your browsing organization.

Tools and settings

Move quickly

Use the command palette to search the web, find an open tab, and move through Crest from the keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts can be customized in Settings.

Work with the page

Reader mode, find, content blocking, downloads, page sharing, export, popup handling, and failure recovery stay close to the address bar and page controls.

Permissions and site controls

Site permissions can be reviewed or cleared from Settings. Reader mode, content blocking, downloads, and page tools stay attached to the Space where you use them.

Mac, iPad, and iPhone

The same Spaces and browsing model carry across all three platforms, while the controls adapt to the screen around them.

Platform	How Crest fits
Mac	A spacious sidebar, keyboard-first commands, Quick Window, Peek, and multi-window browsing.
iPad	The full Space structure in an adaptive layout with touch navigation and Peek.
iPhone	The web page stays primary while the full sidebar opens as a dedicated view and slips away after you choose a tab.