A tab organiser I built. Not currently live.
I built and previously published TabCluster to group every open tab by site, show the groups before applying them and save whole workspaces. It is no longer live. This case study preserves its interface and the tab-grouping work behind it.
The problem
Research, docs, email and three half-finished shopping carts, all in one tab strip. Finding anything means squinting at favicons. Chrome has tab groups, but setting them up by hand every morning is its own chore. I built TabCluster so one click would do it. The extension is now a past project.
Before
With TabCluster
A grouping call that failed without a word on any window that wasn’t focused.
How it works
The workflow I built. TabCluster is no longer live, so these screens are redrawn from its last version.
Under the hood
One button that groups every tab by domain using the Tabs and Tab Groups APIs, serialising and restoring session state. A chrome.windows.update pre-flight focuses the window first, because grouping fails without it. Pinned tabs, chrome:// pages and tabs that are still loading each get their own rules.
One click
Reads every open tab
Pinned, chrome:// and loading tabs set aside
A colour-coded group per site
Decisions
Each decision lists the reason for it and what it gave up.
Why
Tracking which tabs moved, merged or closed is error-prone. A full rebuild is O(n) and always correct.
Trade-off
Slightly slower with 100+ tabs, though not noticeably.
Why
It’s predictable, instant and offline. People know exactly what the rule is.
Trade-off
It can’t group by topic across different sites.
A bug worth telling
chrome.windows.update, group its tabs, then give focus back to the window you were in.What I tried first
What I learned
Screens
Features
One-click grouping by site, with duplicate detection inside each group.
Nothing changes until you press Group. No automatic surprises.
Save and restore entire tab layouts for each project.
Pin, mute and close straight from the popup.
Plus right-click menu integration for power users.
Clean popup with automatic light and dark themes.
Your data
The original extension ran entirely in the browser, with no analytics and no external servers, and saved its settings with Chrome storage. This page documents that past implementation; TabCluster is no longer live.
No. I built and previously published TabCluster, but it is no longer on the Chrome Web Store or available for new installations. This page remains as a portfolio case study.
A Chrome extension that grouped every open tab by site in one click, showed the groups before applying them, and saved whole workspaces to restore later.
No. It showed a preview of the groups first, and nothing changed until you pressed Group Them.
No. It ran entirely in the browser, with no analytics and no external servers. The screens here are redrawn from its last version, 1.2.10, and show only what it did.
Milestones
One click groups every open tab by site.
A preview before anything moves, workspaces you can save and bring back, and a fresh icon.
It stays on this site as a record of what I built.
I built and previously published TabCluster. It now remains as a past project and engineering case study.
The same one-click tidy-up for a crowded tab bar, with a new look in your toolbar.
For businesses
Websites, Shopify stores, Chrome extensions and Android apps, designed and engineered with the same care as my own products.
Booking new projects
I read every message myself and reply within a day or two with honest next steps.
Your message is on its way. I’ll reply to within a day or two.
