Installation

1. Install from the Chrome Web Store, or clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/michelabboud/tabkebab-chrome-ext.git

2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions
3. Enable Developer Mode (toggle in the top-right corner)
4. Click Load unpacked and select the TabKebab folder
5. The TabKebab icon appears in your toolbar

Opening the Side Panel

• Click the TabKebab icon in the toolbar, or
• Right-click the icon and select "Open side panel"
• Pin the icon for quick access: click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar, then pin TabKebab

The side panel opens on the right side of your browser and stays open as you browse.

First Launch

On first launch, TabKebab opens to the Tabs view showing all tabs in your current window. The four main views are:

Header

The header shows the TabKebab logo, a version badge, quick links to GitHub and the Privacy Policy, a help button (?), and a gear icon for Settings.

Global Stats Bar

Below the navigation bar, a fixed stats bar displays three cards:

Navigation Bar

Four tabs switch between the main views. The active tab is highlighted with an accent underline. Each view retains its scroll position.

AI Command Bar

When AI is configured, a multi-line command bar appears below the stats bar. Type natural language commands and press Enter to send (or Shift+Enter for a new line).

The Tabs view is the primary workspace. It has a toolbar row and four sub-views.

Toolbar

• Refresh — reload the tab list
• Sub-view buttons: All | Domains | Groups | groups editor
• Find Duplicates — scan all windows for duplicate tabs
• Kebab dropdown — sleep (discard) tabs by scope
• Stash dropdown — stash and close tabs by scope
• Group dropdown — organize tabs into Chrome groups

Sub-view: All Tabs

Shows every tab in the current window as a flat list with favicon, title, URL, and status indicator.

Sub-view: By Domain

Tabs grouped by their domain name. Each domain section shows the domain name and tab count badge, and is collapsible.

Sub-view: By Chrome Group

Tabs organized by native Chrome tab group with color dot and name. Includes collapsible group headers.

Sub-view: Groups Editor

A unified editor for managing tab groups with Custom Groups (drag-and-drop, smart search), Chrome Tab Groups, and Ungrouped Tabs.

Grouping Tabs

The Group dropdown offers: By Domain, Smart (AI), and Ungroup All. Grouping shows a 4-phase progress indicator: Snapshot, Solving, Planning, Executing.

Finding Duplicates

The Duplicates sub-tab shows a red badge with the count of extra duplicate copies. Click Scan for Duplicates to refresh. Results include checkboxes and bulk-close with undo support.

Window Cards

Each card displays the window number, tab count badge with color coding (green/yellow/red thresholds), and a focused window indicator.

Actions

• Click a window card to focus that window
• Consolidate button merges all tabs from all windows into the current window
• Tab counts update in real time

Stashing saves tabs and closes them, freeing browser resources while preserving your work.

Creating a Stash

Use the Stash dropdown: Stash Window, Stash by Group, Stash by Domain, or Stash All.

Stash List

Stashes appear as cards with name, tab count, favicon previews, source badge (Window/Group/Domain/All), restored badge, and timestamp.

Restoring a Stash

Click Restore. Small stashes (under 20 tabs) open at once. Large stashes use pipeline restore with batched creation, background loading, and a progress bar.

Other Actions

• Export — download as JSON
• Delete — permanently remove (with confirmation)

Sessions capture a complete snapshot of your browser state — all windows, tabs, groups, and metadata.

Saving a Session

Type a name and click Save (or press Enter). The snapshot is saved to chrome.storage.local.

Auto-Save

TabKebab automatically saves a session on browser start and at regular intervals (default: every 24 hours). Auto-saves keep the last 7 days, with at least 2 always preserved.

Restoring a Session

Click Restore to open in new windows matching the original layout. Click Restore here to open all tabs in the current window. Already-open tabs are skipped.

Session Actions

• Export — download as JSON
• Delete — remove with 8-second undo via toast

"Kebab" means discarding a tab — Chrome keeps it in the tab strip but unloads it from memory. The tab reloads when you click on it.

How to Kebab

The Kebab dropdown offers: Kebab Domain, Kebab Group, Kebab Window, or Kebab All.

Keep-Awake List

Some tabs should never be discarded (email, calendars, real-time tools). Default protected domains include: gmail.com, calendar.google.com, outlook.com, slack.com, teams.microsoft.com, discord.com, and others.

Manage the list in Settings > Tab Sleep: add, remove, use AI suggestions, or reset to defaults.

Auto-Kebab

In Settings > Automation, set Auto-kebab idle tabs to a number of hours. Tabs idle longer are automatically discarded. The keep-awake list is respected.

Auto-Stash

Set Auto-stash inactive tabs to a number of days. Tabs inactive for longer are automatically stashed and closed.

TabKebab can create organized bookmarks from your current tabs in three formats.

Bookmark Formats

Destinations

HTML Bookmark Page

Enable HTML bookmarks to Drive to upload a self-contained, browsable HTML page with tab navigation, live search, collapsible groups, and dark/light mode.

When an AI provider is configured, the command bar appears at the top of the panel.

Supported Commands

How It Works

Your command and current tab list (titles + URLs) are sent to the AI provider. The AI returns structured actions which TabKebab executes. Commands never send page content, cookies, passwords, or browsing history.

Connecting

1. Go to Settings > Google Drive
2. Click Connect Google Drive
3. Sign in with your Google account
4. Enter a profile name (e.g., "Work", "Personal")
5. Once connected, the status shows your profile name and last sync time

Folder Structure

Google Drive/
  TabKebab/
    {profile name}/
      tabkebab-sync.json
      tabkebab-settings.json
      sessions/
      stashes/
      bookmarks/
      archive/

Syncing

• Sync Now — manually push all data to Drive
• Auto-sync — set an interval in hours
• Data pushed: sessions, stashes, bookmarks, settings

Retention & Cleanup

Auto-delete files older than N days (default: 30). Override with "Never delete from Drive". Files are archived before overwrite.

Available Providers

API Key Security

• Keys encrypted with AES-GCM 256-bit using PBKDF2 (100,000 iterations)
• Optional passphrase; otherwise a per-profile install ID is used
• Decrypted keys held in session storage (cleared on restart)
• Plaintext keys are never written to disk

Response Caching

AI responses are cached locally (LRU, max 200 entries, 24-hour expiry) to avoid redundant API calls.

General

Tab Limits

Automation

Bookmarks

Google Drive

Full Export

In Settings, use Export All to download a JSON file containing all sessions, stashes, custom groups, settings, and the keep-awake domain list.

Full Import

Use Import to load a previously exported JSON file. This merges with existing data (doesn't overwrite unless there are conflicts).

Individual Exports

• Session export: click the export icon on any session card
• Stash export: click the export icon on any stash card

Keyboard Shortcuts

Tips for Power Users

• Pin the side panel for persistent access while browsing
• Use domain grouping first to organize, then refine with AI smart grouping
• Set auto-kebab to 4-8 hours to automatically free memory from forgotten tabs
• Enable auto-bookmark on stash so you never lose track of stashed tabs
• Connect Google Drive across multiple computers for cross-device sync

Performance Tips

• For 100+ tabs, prefer domain grouping over AI grouping (faster, no API call)
• Kebab tabs regularly to keep memory usage low
• Stash old tabs instead of keeping them open
• Pipeline restore handles large sessions gracefully — let it complete

"Tab not responding" after restore

Large session restores create many tabs at once. The pipeline restore mitigates this, but Chrome may be sluggish momentarily. Wait for the progress bar to complete.

AI features not appearing

• Ensure you've selected a provider and entered a valid API key in Settings
• Check that the API key has credits/quota remaining
• For Chrome Built-in AI, verify the required flags are enabled in chrome://flags

Google Drive not syncing

• Check that you're signed into Chrome with the same Google account
• Click Disconnect then Connect to re-authenticate
• Ensure your Google account has available Drive storage

Stash data not appearing

Stashes are stored in IndexedDB, which is per-profile. If you switched Chrome profiles, your stashes are in the other profile's storage.

Extension not loading

• Verify Developer Mode is enabled in chrome://extensions
• Check for errors in the extension's service worker console
• Ensure all files are present

API key issues

• If you set a passphrase, you'll need to re-enter it after Chrome restarts
• If you forgot your passphrase, remove the API key and add it again
• Keys are encrypted at rest — they can't be recovered from storage