diff --git a/docs/default.nix b/docs/default.nix
index 20974c2f..de7fb4b6 100644
--- a/docs/default.nix
+++ b/docs/default.nix
@@ -128,6 +128,8 @@ let
     };
     inherit revision home-manager-render-docs;
   };
+  html = home-manager-manual;
+  htmlOpenTool = pkgs.callPackage ./html-open-tool.nix { } { inherit html; };
 in {
   inherit nmdSrc;
 
@@ -150,7 +152,7 @@ in {
 
   manPages = home-configuration-manual;
 
-  manual = { html = home-manager-manual; };
+  manual = { inherit html htmlOpenTool; };
 
   # Unstable, mainly for CI.
   jsonModuleMaintainers = pkgs.writeText "hm-module-maintainers.json" (let
diff --git a/docs/html-open-tool.nix b/docs/html-open-tool.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..081616dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/html-open-tool.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+{ writeShellScriptBin, makeDesktopItem, symlinkJoin }:
+{ html, pathName ? "home-manager", projectName ? pathName
+, name ? "${pathName}-help" }:
+let
+  helpScript = writeShellScriptBin name ''
+    set -euo pipefail
+
+    if [[ ! -v BROWSER || -z $BROWSER ]]; then
+      for candidate in xdg-open open w3m; do
+        BROWSER="$(type -P $candidate || true)"
+        if [[ -x $BROWSER ]]; then
+          break;
+        fi
+      done
+    fi
+
+    if [[ ! -v BROWSER || -z $BROWSER ]]; then
+      echo "$0: unable to start a web browser; please set \$BROWSER"
+      exit 1
+    else
+      exec "$BROWSER" "${html}/share/docs/${pathName}/index.html"
+    fi
+  '';
+
+  desktopItem = makeDesktopItem {
+    name = "${pathName}-manual";
+    desktopName = "${projectName} Manual";
+    genericName = "View ${projectName} documentation in a web browser";
+    icon = "nix-snowflake";
+    exec = "${helpScript}/bin/${name}";
+    categories = [ "System" ];
+  };
+in symlinkJoin {
+  inherit name;
+  paths = [ helpScript desktopItem ];
+}