TabSpace

TabSpace is a privacy-conscious Chrome extension for organizing open and saved tabs into persistent spaces and groups. It provides a full-page dashboard, real Chrome tab controls, portable backups, compatible exports, and optional private GitHub Gist synchronization.

Project website · Latest GitHub release · Release notes

Features

• Replace Chrome's default new-tab page with the TabSpace dashboard
• Discover and reconcile open Chrome tabs without duplicates
• Activate, close, pin, search, alias, and add emoji avatars to tabs
• Create, rename, recolor, reorder, and safely delete spaces and groups
• Use Ctrl/Cmd/Shift selection and move multiple tabs at once
• Import explicitly selected Toby, Tabme, or TabSpace JSON
• Merge imports or atomically replace organization after confirmation
• Export a canonical TabSpace backup, Netscape Bookmarks HTML, OneTab text, or Markdown
• Synchronize the canonical backup through a private GitHub Gist
• Keep organization local by default in chrome.storage.local

Install the GitHub release

1. Open the latest GitHub release.
2. Download tabspace-v0.1.2.zip from Assets.
3. Extract the ZIP to a permanent folder. The selected folder must directly contain manifest.json.
4. Open chrome://extensions in Chrome.
5. Enable Developer mode.
6. Select Load unpacked and choose the extracted folder.
7. Open a new tab. TabSpace now provides Chrome's default new-tab page.

Chrome does not automatically update unpacked extensions. For a future release, download and extract the new ZIP over the existing folder, then select Reload on the TabSpace card in chrome://extensions.

The release also provides tabspace-v0.1.2.zip.sha256. Verify it with:

Get-FileHash .\tabspace-v0.1.2.zip -Algorithm SHA256

or:

sha256sum tabspace-v0.1.2.zip

Compare the output with the checksum file before loading the extension.

Project website and documentation

The GitHub Pages site is available at https://nanasis.github.io/TabSpace/. It provides the product overview, privacy model, installation summary, and links back to the repository and latest release.

Development requirements

• Chrome with Manifest V3 support
• Node.js 22.12 or newer
• npm 12
• Microsoft Edge is used by the configured local Playwright test; adjust playwright.config.ts if another Chromium channel is required

Development

npm install
npm run dev

Available commands:

Command	Purpose
npm run dev	Start the Vite development server
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run typecheck	Run strict TypeScript checks
npm test	Run Vitest unit and component tests
npm run test:e2e	Run the production-dashboard Playwright workflow
npm run build	Build and verify the unpacked extension in dist/
npm run package	Build and create release/tabspace-v0.1.2.zip
npm run validate	Run lint, types, tests, build verification, and E2E

Install a source build locally in Chrome

1. Run npm install and npm run build.
2. Open chrome://extensions.
3. Enable Developer mode.
4. Select Load unpacked.
5. Choose this repository's dist/ directory.
6. Open a new Chrome tab to use TabSpace as the default new-tab page. The toolbar icon also opens or focuses an existing TabSpace dashboard.

After changing source code, rebuild and select Reload on the TabSpace extension card. Chrome allows only one extension to control the new-tab page; if another extension already does so, Chrome may ask which override to keep.

Usage

Spaces and groups

Newly opened tabs appear in the sidebar only; they are not added to GroupSpace automatically. Groups and Ungrouped are persistent bookmark collections created by explicit user actions. Drag an open sidebar tab onto a group, onto New group to create a default group, or onto the top Collect ungrouped target to create an Ungrouped card. The Ungrouped section is hidden until it contains collected cards. Closing a Chrome tab removes it only from the sidebar and keeps any collected card, group, alias, and icon. Reopening the same URL reconnects the live tab to that existing card. The sidebar lists every currently open tab in the dashboard's Chrome window, regardless of which TabSpace space or group owns it. Use the row X to close a live Chrome tab without changing any collected bookmark card. Tab cards can also be dragged between groups or to the Ungrouped target. Use the space toolbar to create or switch spaces. Deleting a group moves its tabs to Ungrouped. Deleting a space keeps its Chrome tabs open and moves their records ungrouped to the first remaining space. The final space cannot be deleted.

Search, layout, and tab actions

Search matches aliases, titles, domains, and URLs. Select a card title to activate/open the tab. Edit opens a dashboard-styled editor for the alias and card icon: keep the default site icon, choose an emoji, or upload a local image up to 192 KB. Custom images remain in local storage and TabSpace backups. The card footer provides Edit and Pin actions with hover descriptions. The top X deletes the bookmark card instead of moving it to Ungrouped and never closes an associated browser tab; an open tab remains available in the sidebar and can be collected again later. Change the avatar from its icon, drag cards between groups, or use Ctrl/Cmd/Shift selection for bulk movement.

GroupSpace uses one consolidated toolbar: spaces remain aligned on the left, while search, collection/group actions, and active-space controls are aligned on the right. Under Settings → Tab card density, choose Dense to use the full GroupSpace width and dynamically fit more cards per row while preserving Compact card width, padding, and gaps. Choose Compact to retain the original bounded responsive layout. Existing comfortable settings are migrated to Compact automatically.

Import and export

Open Settings → Import data. Choose TabSpace, Toby, or Tabme from the styled provider bar before selecting or dropping a JSON file; TabSpace intentionally does not guess the provider. Use the separate Settings → Export data action when downloading backups or compatible formats.

• Toby: organization, account, and list-array JSON exports using collections (lists) and links (cards)
• Tabme: backup profile using spaces, folders/collections, and items; direct links and nested groupItems are flattened into their containing TabSpace group. See the sanitized fixture at src/transfer/fixtures/tabme-backup.json
• TabSpace: canonical tabspace-backup.json

Review the preview and warnings, then choose Merge or confirmed Replace. After a successful import, the dialog closes and the imported workspace appears immediately. Imported favicon URLs are sanitized and retained, with a conventional site favicon fallback. Unsupported or unsafe non-HTTP(S) tab URLs are skipped and reported. The sanitized Toby fixture is at src/transfer/fixtures/toby-export.json.

Exports preserve space/group hierarchy where the target format permits it. Backup and export files contain tab titles and URLs and should be treated as sensitive.

Private GitHub Gist synchronization

1. Open GitHub token creation, or navigate to GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic).
2. Choose Generate new token (classic), enter a descriptive note such as TabSpace, and choose an expiration.
3. Select only the gist scope. No repository scope is required.
4. Generate and copy the token; GitHub displays it only once.
5. Open TabSpace Settings and paste it into Private GitHub Gist sync, then select Connect.
6. TabSpace searches that GitHub account for the newest valid private Gist containing tabspace-backup.json. If one exists—such as a backup created on another device—the existing Gist ID and history version are linked automatically and Pull becomes available immediately.
7. If no backup exists, choose Create private Gist. Use Push update to save later changes and confirmed Pull to restore the remote backup on another device.

Never post, commit, or send a token in chat. If one is exposed, revoke it immediately under GitHub Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens and create a replacement.

The token is held only in chrome.storage.session, is cleared when disconnected or the browser session ends, and is never stored in the canonical document or export. TabSpace persists only the Gist ID, last-sync time, and Gist history version. A remote version check prevents silently overwriting a changed Gist.

Private Gists are not end-to-end encrypted. GitHub can process their contents, including sensitive tab titles and URLs.

Permissions

• tabs: discover tab metadata and perform requested activation, close, and pin actions
• storage: persist organization locally and hold a GitHub token for the current browser session
• https://api.github.com/*: create, update, and retrieve a private Gist when the user enables synchronization

TabSpace does not inject scripts into websites and does not request browsing-history permission.

Data safety

• Runtime validation rejects malformed documents and undeclared secret fields.
• Outdated documents migrate in place.
• Invalid local documents recover to a safe My Space state while retaining only non-sensitive recovery metadata.
• Backups omit Chrome runtime IDs, credentials, and synchronization metadata.
• No sample Work, Research, or Personal spaces are seeded.

Known v1 limitations

• Chrome is the only supported browser target.
• A Tabme export that differs from the documented fixture profile may require a parser update because Tabme does not publish a stable public JSON schema.
• Imported saved tabs are represented in the dashboard and open when selected; imports do not automatically open every URL.
• GitHub authentication uses a user-provided classic token with only the gist scope rather than an OAuth application.
• Cross-device synchronization occurs only when the user explicitly pushes or pulls.

Packaging

npm run package

The ZIP places manifest.json at its root and can be inspected or submitted as a release artifact. Never commit browser profiles, tokens, exported backups, or other files containing private tab data.

License

MIT