Tabify

Tabify is a Chrome extension for organizing browser tab groups into active and saved views.

It is designed for people who work across many contexts, such as Jira tickets, research topics, or task-based workflows, and want an easier way to find, revisit, and manage tab groups over time.

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Motivation

While working across multiple Jira tickets and research contexts, tab groups tend to accumulate quickly. Chrome supports tab grouping, but it does not provide a strong workflow layer for:

• searching groups
• revisiting previously seen groups
• preserving context over time
• managing groups at scale

Tabify was created to explore that missing layer and serve as a learning project in Chrome extension development.

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Current Features

• View currently open tab groups in the popup
• Persist previously seen tab groups as saved groups
• Search across both Open Groups and Saved Groups
• Navigate to an open tab group directly from the popup
• Store tab-group metadata locally using chrome.storage.local
• Maintain internal identifiers (tbfId) for group tracking

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Current Limitations

• Saved Groups are listed but cannot yet be restored/opened
• Group matching currently relies on groupTitle, so different groups with the same title may be merged incorrectly
• Tracking is still popup-driven, so groups created and closed before opening the extension popup may be missed

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MVP 1 Publish Blockers

• Restore/open Saved Groups
• Add background-based group tracking using Chrome tab-group events
• Improve group identity beyond title-only matching so saved/open group mapping is more reliable

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MVP 2 Roadmap

• Workflow status management in the new popup UI
• Custom workflow status types
• Bulk select and delete for groups
• Better UI polish for empty states, hover behavior, and interaction feedback
• Improved restore UX for saved groups

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Project Structure

tabify/
├── manifest.json
├── popup.html
├── popup.js
├── popup-data.js
├── popup-render.js
├── background.js
├── styles.css
└── README.md

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Installation

1. Clone this repository locally, or download and extract the project ZIP
2. Open Chrome
3. Go to chrome://extensions
4. Enable Developer mode
5. Click Load unpacked
6. Select the project root folder containing manifest.json
7. Pin Tabify from the Chrome extensions menu if you want quick access from the toolbar

If you make code changes locally, return to chrome://extensions and click Reload on the Tabify extension to test the latest version.

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Current Showcase Path

• Source available through GitHub
• Chrome Web Store publication planned after MVP 1 blockers are resolved