diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 066af52830ade..5baf8b1326f25 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1140,6 +1140,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-general-category",
  "unicode-segmentation",
  "unicode-width",
+ "url",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1217,6 +1218,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "indoc",
  "log",
  "once_cell",
+ "open",
  "pulldown-cmark",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
@@ -1283,7 +1285,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "tokio",
  "tokio-stream",
  "toml",
- "url",
  "which",
 ]
 
@@ -1609,6 +1610,16 @@ version = "1.17.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "6f61fba1741ea2b3d6a1e3178721804bb716a68a6aeba1149b5d52e3d464ea66"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "open"
+version = "3.2.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "2078c0039e6a54a0c42c28faa984e115fb4c2d5bf2208f77d1961002df8576f8"
+dependencies = [
+ "pathdiff",
+ "windows-sys",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "parking_lot"
 version = "0.11.2"
@@ -1657,6 +1668,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "windows-sys",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "pathdiff"
+version = "0.2.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "8835116a5c179084a830efb3adc117ab007512b535bc1a21c991d3b32a6b44dd"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "percent-encoding"
 version = "2.2.0"
diff --git a/helix-core/Cargo.toml b/helix-core/Cargo.toml
index 10de738f80b8c..159adf5ca0e95 100644
--- a/helix-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ log = "0.4"
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1.0"
 toml = "0.7"
+url = "2.3.1"
 
 imara-diff = "0.1.0"
 
diff --git a/helix-core/src/lib.rs b/helix-core/src/lib.rs
index e3f862a6054c4..2fe9b23907147 100644
--- a/helix-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/helix-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 pub use encoding_rs as encoding;
+pub use url;
 
 pub mod auto_pairs;
 pub mod chars;
diff --git a/helix-term/Cargo.toml b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
index 603f37d39ab8f..2be366e78a9ea 100644
--- a/helix-term/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-term/Cargo.toml
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ ignore = "0.4"
 pulldown-cmark = { version = "0.9", default-features = false }
 # file type detection
 content_inspector = "0.2.4"
+# openning URLs
+open = "3.2.0"
 
 # config
 toml = "0.7"
diff --git a/helix-term/src/commands.rs b/helix-term/src/commands.rs
index d1dc92236cf0a..07a0e20437ad6 100644
--- a/helix-term/src/commands.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/commands.rs
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ use helix_core::{
     textobject,
     tree_sitter::Node,
     unicode::width::UnicodeWidthChar,
+    url::Url,
     visual_offset_from_block, LineEnding, Position, Range, Rope, RopeGraphemes, RopeSlice,
     Selection, SmallVec, Tendril, Transaction,
 };
@@ -302,7 +303,7 @@ impl MappableCommand {
         goto_implementation, "Goto implementation",
         goto_file_start, "Goto line number <n> else file start",
         goto_file_end, "Goto file end",
-        goto_file, "Goto files in selection",
+        goto_file, "Goto files/URLs in selection",
         goto_file_hsplit, "Goto files in selection (hsplit)",
         goto_file_vsplit, "Goto files in selection (vsplit)",
         goto_reference, "Goto references",
@@ -1134,6 +1135,16 @@ fn goto_file_impl(cx: &mut Context, action: Action) {
     for sel in paths {
         let p = sel.trim();
         if !p.is_empty() {
+            if let Ok(url) = Url::parse(p) {
+                if let Err(e) = open::that(url.as_str()) {
+                    cx.editor.set_error(format!(
+                        "Open file failed for url '{}': {:?}",
+                        url.as_str(),
+                        e
+                    ));
+                }
+                return;
+            }
             if let Err(e) = cx.editor.open(&PathBuf::from(p), action) {
                 cx.editor.set_error(format!("Open file failed: {:?}", e));
             }
diff --git a/helix-view/Cargo.toml b/helix-view/Cargo.toml
index 17e07e9a2dd6a..658f9f6ed9a85 100644
--- a/helix-view/Cargo.toml
+++ b/helix-view/Cargo.toml
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ helix-vcs = { version = "0.6", path = "../helix-vcs" }
 
 # Conversion traits
 once_cell = "1.17"
-url = "2"
 
 arc-swap = { version = "1.6.0" }
 
diff --git a/helix-view/src/document.rs b/helix-view/src/document.rs
index 798b54006d97a..9d800f4251732 100644
--- a/helix-view/src/document.rs
+++ b/helix-view/src/document.rs
@@ -352,8 +352,8 @@ where
     *mut_ref = f(mem::take(mut_ref));
 }
 
+use helix_core::url::Url;
 use helix_lsp::lsp;
-use url::Url;
 
 impl Document {
     pub fn from(