Keep tabs on your tabs.
Tab Out is a Chrome extension that replaces your new tab page with a dashboard of everything you have open. This fork also organizes your real Chrome tab strip with native tab groups, semantic rules, and manual custom groups that auto grouping will not touch.
Forked from zarazhangrui/tab-out.
No server. No account. No tab-data uploads. Just a Chrome extension.
- Auto groups in Chrome itself not just on the Tab Out page. Tabs are placed into native Chrome tab groups in the tab strip.
- Semantic tab grouping for AI, Dev, Docs, Work, Finance, Reading, Social, Video, and Shopping.
- Manual custom groups for tabs you want to control yourself. Once a tab is added manually, auto grouping skips it.
- One-click group controls to group now, expand all groups, collapse all groups, or open Tab Out in Chrome's side panel.
- Shared grouping rules so the Tab Out dashboard and Chrome's native tab groups use the same names.
- Current tab focus keeps the page you are looking at visible at the top, moves its group to the front, and centers it in the side panel.
- Tab-aware actions focus, close, or save the exact tab you clicked, even when several tabs share the same URL.
- Resource Saver pauses inactive tabs in place to release page memory while protecting the current, pinned, and audible tabs.
- Quick Return keeps sleeping and recently closed tabs easy to reach without taking over the page. Tabs closed from Chrome or Tab Out are captured automatically; collapse the list, restore everything in one click, or select closed tabs to restore or remove in bulk. Up to 200 closed tabs are retained locally for 72 hours.
- 33 Dunhuang background colors let you switch the dashboard palette from a compact, collapsible color picker, with your choice saved locally.
- Local override hooks for personal homepage, semantic, and custom rules without changing the main extension code.
Send your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) this repo and say "install this":
https://github.com/link-king/tab-out
The agent will walk you through it. Takes about 1 minute.
- See all your tabs at a glance on a clean grid, grouped by domain
- Homepages group pulls Gmail inbox, X home, YouTube, LinkedIn, GitHub homepages into one card
- Native Chrome tab groups automatically organize tabs in the real Chrome tab strip
- Semantic grouping pulls AI, Dev, Docs, Work, Finance, Reading, Social, Video, and Shopping tabs together
- Manual custom groups let you put specific tabs where you want them, and auto grouping leaves them alone
- One-click controls group tabs now, expand all groups, collapse all groups, or open Tab Out in the side panel
- Current tab strip shows the active page and its group, with a shortcut to jump to that group or close only that tab
- Resource Saver pauses safe inactive tabs with
chrome.tabs.discard, while current, pinned, and audio-playing tabs stay awake - Quick Return automatically captures tabs closed from Chrome or Tab Out, then puts them beside sleeping tabs in one collapsible list with restore-all and multi-select restore/remove actions for up to 200 closed items retained for 72 hours
- 33 Dunhuang background colors provide a compact appearance picker that remembers your selected palette
- Group-aware restore reopens a recently closed tab in its previous Chrome group when possible
- Chrome Task Manager guide shows Mac users the correct menu path for live CPU diagnosis instead of opening a blocked
chrome://page or showing guessed percentages - Automatic side-panel refresh follows tab switches, new tabs, navigations, and closed tabs while the panel is open
- Shared rules keep the Tab Out dashboard and Chrome's native tab groups using the same names
- Personal grouping config lets you add local homepage, semantic, or custom rules without changing the core extension
- Close tabs with style with swoosh sound + confetti burst
- Duplicate detection flags when you have the same page open twice, with one-click cleanup
- Click any tab to jump to it across windows, no new tab opened
- Save for later bookmark tabs to a checklist before closing them
- Localhost grouping shows port numbers next to each tab so you can tell your vibe coding projects apart
- Expandable groups show the first 8 tabs with a clickable "+N more"
- Local storage tab data stays in
chrome.storage.local; Tab Out does not upload your tab list or saved items - Pure Chrome extension no server, no Node.js, no npm, no setup beyond loading the extension
1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/link-king/tab-out.git2. Load the Chrome extension
- Open Chrome and go to
chrome://extensions - Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle)
- Click Load unpacked
- Navigate to the
extension/folder inside the cloned repo and select it
3. Open a new tab
You'll see Tab Out.
You open a new tab
-> Tab Out shows your open tabs grouped by manual, semantic, or domain rules
-> The active page appears in a Current tab strip at the top
-> Its group is moved to the front and the matching tab is centered in the side panel
-> Homepages (Gmail, X, etc.) get their own group at the top
-> Chrome's native tab groups get the same names
-> Manual custom groups stay separate from auto grouping
-> Pause inactive tabs to release page memory without closing the whole session
-> Sleeping and recently closed tabs stay visible in Quick Return
-> Restore a closed tab back into its previous Chrome group
-> Click any tab title to jump to it
-> Close groups you're done with (swoosh + confetti)
-> Save tabs for later before closing them
Everything runs inside the Chrome extension. There is no external server, account, analytics, or remote API for your tab data. Saved tabs, Quick Return items, appearance settings, auto-group settings, and manual custom groups are stored in chrome.storage.local. Chrome-provided favicon URLs may still be loaded by the browser when icons are available.
The Current tab view updates from Chrome tab events while the new-tab page or side panel is visible. Actions use Chrome tab IDs when available, so closing or saving one duplicate page does not affect its siblings.
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Extension | Chrome Manifest V3 |
| Native grouping | chrome.tabs + chrome.tabGroups |
| Tab lifecycle | chrome.tabs.discard |
| Side panel | chrome.sidePanel |
| Storage | chrome.storage.local |
| Sound | Web Audio API (synthesized, no files) |
| Animations | CSS transitions + JS confetti particles |
MIT
Original project: zarazhangrui/tab-out, built by Zara. This fork is extended and maintained by link-king.