Introduction

Tabs++ is a high-performance productivity layer for Google Chrome — treating your browser as a persistent workspace. It ensures that your pinned tabs, grouped tabs, and session state survive accidental closures, browser crashes, and resource exhaustion.

With 90+ features spanning tab protection, workspace management, media tools, focus timers, system controls, and a global Command Palette, Tabs++ turns your browser into a Browser OS.

Getting Started

Installation

Recommended: Install directly from the Chrome Web Store:

Add to Chrome

Developer install (from source):

1. Clone the GitHub repository or download the source.
2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/.
3. Enable Developer mode in the top right corner.
4. Click Load unpacked and select the extension folder.

Your First Steps

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+K (Mac: Cmd+Shift+K) to open the Command Palette.
2. Start typing to search open tabs, history, and bookmarks.
3. Type > to enter Action Mode — the prefix for all commands.
4. Type ! to trigger Search Bangs for external sites.
5. Open the extension popup (toolbar icon) to configure which features are enabled.

Protection Engine

The core of Tabs++ is the real-time protection engine. It silently monitors your tabs in the background and ensures protected tabs survive any accident.

What Gets Protected

• Pinned Tabs — If you close a pinned tab, Tabs++ instantly recreates it at its baseline URL.
• Grouped Tabs — Any tab inside a Chrome Tab Group is considered "protected." If closed, it is restored back into its exact group and original position.

How Protection Works

• Memory Baseline System: Tabs++ tracks the "ground truth" of your workspace in a high-speed background Map. This stores the URL, index, window ID, group ID, group title, and group color for every protected tab.
• Deterministic Hibernation: Restored tabs are created and instantly "discarded." They appear in your tab strip but use zero CPU and zero RAM until you click them.
• URL-First Reconciliation: After a browser restart, Chrome assigns brand-new Tab IDs. Tabs++ re-binds stored baselines to new Tab IDs by matching canonical URLs — so protection is fully preserved across restarts.
• Startup Hibernate: On browser launch, all background tabs are automatically discarded to save RAM.

Inheritance Protection

New tabs opened from protected (pinned/grouped) tabs are automatically ungrouped when they navigate to a different domain. This prevents your organized groups from being polluted by temporary navigation tabs.

Session Vault

While the protection engine handles real-time accidents, the Session Vault handles system-level failures and deliberate cleanups.

• Tabs++ takes periodic snapshots of your workspace state to chrome.storage.local.
• If Chrome fails to restore your sessions on startup, you can summon the Vault to revive everything.
• When closing an entire window, all its protected tabs are bulk-saved to the vault.
• When closing multiple tabs at once (batch close), they are archived to the vault instead of being individually restored.
• When an entire group is deliberately closed, its tabs go to the vault.

> Restore Vault

You can also restore or clear the vault from the extension popup Settings tab.

Auto-Grouping

Tabs++ includes a background intelligence engine that automatically organizes high-frequency domains into themed groups as you browse. Enable it via the Smart Groups toggle in the popup.

Thematic Rules

When enabled, any new tab matching a rule is automatically added to an existing group or a new group is created. The group name matches the category (e.g., "Dev", "AI").

Auto-Collapse

When enabled, Tabs++ automatically collapses tab groups once all their tabs have been discarded (hibernated). This maximizes horizontal space in the tab strip while keeping your logical groups one click away.

Collapse triggers after the last active tab in a group is discarded. Groups that still have a loaded (non-discarded) tab remain expanded.

Enable via the Auto-Collapse toggle in the popup.

Organization Commands

All commands are accessible via the Action Engine (> prefix) in the Command Palette.

Command Palette

The Command Palette is the central hub of Tabs++. Access your entire browser state via Ctrl + Shift + K (Win/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + K (Mac).

What It Searches

• Open Tabs — All tabs across all windows, with fuzzy matching on title and URL.
• Bookmarks — Your entire bookmark collection.
• Browser History — Recently visited pages.
• Recently Closed — Tabs and sessions you recently closed.
• Actions — All Tabs++ commands and tools.
• Google Suggestions — Live search suggestions from Google.
• Saved Tab Sets — Your saved workspaces appear in search results.

Navigation

• Arrow Up/Down — Navigate between results.
• Enter — Activate the selected result (switch tab, open URL, execute action).
• Escape — Close the palette or cancel a pending command prompt.
• Shift+Click on a result in media mode — Toggle selection.

Action Engine (>)

Type > in the palette to enter Action Mode. This gives you access to 50+ system commands. Type part of a command name to filter — fuzzy matching is supported.

Performance Commands

Focus Commands

Safety & Control

Dynamic Commands

Some commands accept inline arguments directly in the palette:

Search Bangs (!)

Skip the middleman. Type a ! prefix followed by the bang code to search external sites directly from the palette.

Usage: !yt lofi beats searches YouTube for "lofi beats". !gh tabsplusplus searches GitHub.

Tab Sets & Workspaces

Tab Sets let you save, launch, and swap entire workspaces — collections of protected tabs (pinned and grouped) with their group titles, colors, and positions preserved.

Save Commands

Load Commands

Workspace Types

• Workspace Set: Saves only protected tabs (pinned and grouped).
• Complete Set: Saves all tabs in the window, including unprotected ones.
• Group Set: Saves only the tabs within a specific group.

Tab Sets are also manageable from the Sets tab in the extension popup, with Summon, Replace, and Delete buttons for each set. Import/Export is also available there.

Smart Palette Tools

The palette automatically detects math, units, colors, and text transformations. No prefix needed — just type and see the result. Press Enter to copy to clipboard.

Math Calculator

Type expressions like 25 * 4, 1024 / 8, or 3.14 + 2. Supports +, -, *, /.

Unit Converter

• px ↔ rem: Type 32px to see rem value, or 2rem to see px value. Based on configurable root font size (default 16px).
• Physical Units: Type 10in, 25cm, 6ft, 100mm, or 2m to see conversions to all other units.

Color Converter

Type any hex code like #ff0000 or #333 to instantly see the RGB and HSL values. Press Enter to copy.

Case Converter

Encoding Tools

Lorem Ipsum Generator

Tab Volume Control

Set the perfect audio levels for music, videos, or any tab with audio — without hunting for the browser's native mixer.

Commands

Feedback

When the palette is closed, a slide-in on-page toast confirms your volume level. When the palette is open, the volume is shown directly in the input bar.

Enable via the Tab Volume Control toggle in the popup.

Media Extractor

A high-performance engine to scan, filter, and batch download images and videos from any page.

How To Use

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+K).
2. Type > Extract Media and press Enter.
3. The palette switches to Media Mode — a masonry grid of all detected images and videos.
4. Click to select/deselect items. Use Enter to download all selected.

Smart Filtering

Type a query in the palette to filter results in real time using a hybrid natural-language parser:

Enable via the Extract Media Assets toggle in the popup.

Picture-in-Picture Player

Pop out any video (YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Netflix, etc.) into a floating window that stays on top of all other windows.

> PiP

Or use the PiP Player card in the popup Tools tab. Enable via the autoPiP toggle.

Pomodoro Timer

Stay focused without leaving your browser. A minimalist, glassmorphic timer that syncs across every single tab.

Commands

Custom Duration

Type timer 10 (without the > prefix) in the palette to start a custom 10-minute timer.

Type > pomo 30 via the dynamic command system for a 30-minute custom Pomodoro.

Features

• Desktop Notifications: Get notified when a session ends, even if Chrome is minimized.
• Cross-Tab Sync: The timer pill appears in the bottom-right corner of every open tab. All tabs show the same countdown.
• Click to Stop: Click the timer pill in any tab to cancel.
• Auto-Transition: Work sessions end with a "Time for a break!" notification. Break sessions end with "Ready to start working again!"

Enable via the Pomodoro Timer toggle in the popup.

Focus View (Reader Mode)

Strip away ads, sidebars, and distractions with one click. Tabs++ renders a clean, high-contrast, monochromatic reading interface for any article.

> Focus View

Alias: > read, > reader.

Features

• Smart Content Extraction: Heuristic-based detection finds the main article content and ignores navigation, ads, and sidebars.
• Premium Typography: Serif body text at 21px, sans-serif headers, and optimized line spacing for comfortable reading.
• Dark/Light Mode: Automatically follows your system preference.
• Image Support: All article images are preserved and displayed at full width.
• Close Button: A fixed close button in the top-right corner returns you to the original page.

Enable via the Focus View toggle in the popup.

Zen Fullscreen

Enter true fullscreen mode with all browser UI hidden — tabs, address bar, bookmarks bar, and window chrome.

> Zen Fullscreen

This is equivalent to the browser's native fullscreen (F11) but accessible directly from the palette.

Split View

Quickly tile the current tab and the previous tab side by side. The current window resizes to half its width on the left, and a new window opens with the same URL on the right.

> Split View

Color Eyedropper

Pick any color from anywhere on the screen. Tabs++ captures a screenshot, lets you click any pixel, and returns the Hex, RGB, and HSL values.

> Eyedropper

Alias: > color, > picker, > hex.

The palette closes, a screenshot is captured after a 350ms delay, and a crosshair cursor appears over the full-page image. Click to pick. Press Escape to cancel.

Enable via the Eyedropper toggle in the popup.

Full-Page Screenshot

Capture the entire scrollable page as a single PNG — including content below the fold and lazy-loaded images.

> Screenshot

The content script drives the capture loop: it scrolls down in viewport-sized increments, asks the service worker to capture each slice via captureVisibleTab, stitches them together on a canvas, and triggers a download.

Enable via the Full-Page Screenshot toggle in the popup.

Smart Converter & Math

The Command Palette doubles as a zero-UI calculator, unit converter, and color translator. No prefix needed — Tabs++ auto-detects what you're typing.

Each result appears as an action in the palette — press Enter to copy it to your clipboard.

Enable via the Smart Converter toggle in the popup.

Utility Commands

Chrome Deep Links

Tabs++ maps dozens of internal Chrome settings pages to easy keywords. Type > followed by the command to open that settings page in a new tab.

Tab Hibernation

Modern browsers consume gigabytes of RAM. Tabs++ solves this by forcing background tabs into a "Discarded" (hibernated) state. Restored tabs use zero CPU and zero RAM until you click to focus them.

Manual Hibernation

• > Hibernate All — Discard all background tabs globally. Also bound to Ctrl+Shift+H.
• > Hibernate Window — Sleep all background tabs in the current window.
• > Hibernate Pinned — Force sleep on all pinned tabs.
• > Hibernate Current — Sleep the active tab immediately.

Smart Auto-Hibernate

When enabled, Tabs++ automatically discards tabs that have been idle for a configurable duration (default: 1 hour). This runs on a periodic alarm and only affects unprotected, non-active tabs.

Configure the threshold: > hibernate time 30m or > hibernate time 2h.

Enable via the Smart Hibernate toggle in the popup.

Startup Hibernate

When Chrome starts, Tabs++ immediately discards all background tabs — so the browser opens light and fast.

Auto-Archive (Ruthless Clean)

To prevent tab sprawl, Tabs++ monitors unprotected (non-pinned, non-grouped) tabs. By default, any unprotected tab that hasn't been accessed for 12 hours is automatically closed and archived to the Session Vault.

• Configurable: Adjust the threshold via > clean time 2h or > clean time 30m.
• Protected Tabs Exempt: Pinned tabs and grouped tabs are never auto-closed.
• Vault Integration: Closed tabs are saved to the vault so they can be restored later.

Enable via the Ruthless Clean toggle in the popup.

Transient Peek

Explore links without bloating your workspace. Shift+Click any link to open it in a centered popup overlay window.

• The Peek window is a borderless popup sized at 85% of your current window.
• While peeking, the parent page gets a subtle blur overlay.
• If the content is useful, click the Promote to Workspace button in the bottom-right corner to move it back into your main window as a regular tab.
• If not, simply close the Peek window — the parent page un-blurs automatically.

Smart Auto-Peek

Enable Cross-Domain Peek in the popup Settings tab to automatically open cross-domain links in peek windows. Auto-peek is smart — it skips navigational sites (search engines, social media, video, shopping) where peeking doesn't make sense. Reference sites like Wikipedia, MDN, and Stack Overflow still auto-peek normally.

• Type > peek block site to disable auto-peek on the current site.
• Type > peek unblock site to re-enable auto-peek on the current site.
• Shift+Click always peeks regardless of auto-peek or blocklist.

New Tab Page

Tabs++ replaces the standard Chrome New Tab Page with a minimalist, premium dashboard.

Features

• Clock & Date: Large, clean time display with weekday and full date.
• Dynamic Backgrounds: Choose from 4 designs — Mesh Blobs, Complex SVG Blobs, Grid Mask, or Grid Focal Point. Each reacts to your chosen accent color.
• Accent Color Picker: Click the color dot in the bottom-left to change the primary accent hue. The background design adapts dynamically.
• Full Palette Integration: The search input at the center of the NTP is the full Tabs++ Command Palette. Search tabs, history, bookmarks, or trigger actions — directly from the new tab page.
• Auto-Focus: The NTP automatically focuses the search input on load, so you can start typing immediately.

Default NTP Toggle

Enable the Default NTP card in the popup Tools tab to redirect new tabs to your chosen search engine homepage instead of the Tabs++ dashboard. The redirect is instant with zero visual flash. All extension features (palette, PiP, peek, etc.) continue to work on normal pages.

Search Engine

Type > search engine in the palette to pick from 5 engines: Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, Brave, and Perplexity. All search queries, suggestions, and raw Enter searches use your chosen engine. The NTP redirect (when enabled) also opens your chosen engine's homepage.

Popup & Settings

The extension popup — accessible via the toolbar icon — is your quick-access control center. It has three tabs:

Settings Tab

Toggle the core protection and automation features on/off:

Tools Tab

Enable/disable individual power tools:

Sets Tab

Manage your saved Tab Sets — summon, replace, delete, export, and import.

Focus Guard

Focus Guard prevents new tabs from accidentally "inheriting" the protected state of their parent. If you open a link from a grouped or pinned tab, Tabs++ ensures the result is a standalone tab, keeping your core workspace clean.

When Focus Guard NTP is enabled: if you close an active tab, Tabs++ redirects focus to a clean New Tab Page instead of jumping to the nearest tab. This prevents accidentally re-focusing a previously hibernated protected tab.

Enable via the Focus Guard toggle in the popup.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Palette Navigation

Advanced Workspace Logic

Eviction Graveyard

When moving dozens of tabs at once, Chrome can trigger race conditions. The Eviction Graveyard is a race-condition buffer that tracks tabs in the process of being restored or moved, preventing "ghost" tabs or infinite restoration loops.

Group Closure Tracker

When closing tabs individually, Tabs++ must distinguish between "user is closing one tab" and "user is closing the entire group." The Group Closure Tracker counts how many tabs from a group are closed within a 250ms window. If all tabs are closed (deliberate full-group close), the tabs go to the vault. If only one is closed, it gets restored.

Window Launch Lock

When launching a Tab Set into a new window, Tabs++ uses a Window Launch Lock that suppresses the auto-grouping engine for all tabs in that window. This prevents the auto-grouping engine from racing against the set's own grouping logic.

Ghost Group Prevention

When closing or replacing a workspace, Tabs++ manually disassembles every tab group before closing the tabs. This prevents Chrome's native "Restore Tab Group" feature from saving redundant duplicates to history.

Recreation Registry

When restoring a tab into a group, Tabs++ uses a Recreation Registry to cache group-creation promises. This prevents duplicate API calls when multiple tabs are being restored into the same group simultaneously.

Baseline Reconciliation

After a browser restart, Chrome assigns new Tab IDs but retains the same URLs. Tabs++ performs a URL-First Reconciliation pass: for each stored baseline whose old Tab ID no longer exists, it checks whether any living tab shares the same canonical URL. If yes, the baseline is re-bound to the new Tab ID — protection is fully preserved across restarts.

Privacy & Data Integrity

Tabs++ is built for local-first privacy. Your browsing habits stay on your machine.

• No Syncing: Your Workspace Sets, Group Baselines, and Vault snapshots are stored locally using chrome.storage.local. They are never uploaded to any cloud service.
• No Tracking: Tabs++ does not include analytics, telemetry, or any third-party data collection.
• Search Isolation: Search suggestions use the public Google Suggest API via HTTPS. No account data or authentication is shared.
• History Access: The palette searches your local Chrome History for convenience, but this data never leaves your browser context.
• No External Servers: Tabs++ communicates with no external servers other than the Google Suggest API (for palette search suggestions).

Technical Architecture