Tab Share

A browser extension that turns a group of open tabs into one shareable link -- and whoever you send it to opens it in any browser with no extension, no account, and no sign-up.

• Pick a window, a tab group, or a pasted list -> one link, copied to your clipboard.
• The recipient needs no extension. The whole page list rides inside the link (everything after the #); their browser opens it as a slideshow / grid / list and sends the list to no one.
• No account, no server, no database. The extension makes no network requests; nothing is tracked, on either side.
• Optional: password-protect the link, or shorten it with the Tab Share shortener -- the short link opens the same way, still no extension.

Browsers: Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Arc, and Firefox (plus forks like Zen / LibreWolf). Desktop today; mobile is on the roadmap -- see the support matrix.

Install

Store	Link
Chrome Web Store (Chrome / Edge / Brave / Opera / Vivaldi / Arc)	Add to Chrome (1.0.0-beta.11)
Firefox Add-ons (Firefox and forks)	Get the Add-on (1.0.0-beta.11)

Or install it yourself (about two minutes) on any supported browser.

Status: 1.0.0-beta.11 is live on both the Chrome Web Store (listing) and Firefox Add-ons (approved and listed) -- German and Spanish throughout, plus localized store listings. Tested end-to-end on Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Zen. Or run your own copy with docs/SELF-HOSTING.md.

_{Screenshots are simulated mockups of the UI.}

What it does

1. Click the toolbar button. Pick your pages from:
   • Windows -- the current window's tabs, pre-checked; a picker appears if more than one window is open;
   • Tab Groups -- pick a browser tab group and + Add it (combine several);
   • Paste Links -- one URL per line, or pull in the current window's tabs.
2. Reorder / trim / rename the list. The list and the name survive closing the popup. Optionally set a password.
3. Create share link -> it's copied to your clipboard automatically.
4. The recipient opens it in any browser. Four views, switched from Change View:
   • Slideshow -- framed page, side + bottom arrows, first/last, keyboard nav, a clickable segmented pager, jump-to-page;
   • Preview Grid -- large tiles with a live preview where the site allows it;
   • Grid -- compact cards, numbered, full URL on hover;
   • List -- a copyable numbered list (copy all, or links only). Per-view search filters by title / site / URL. Select mode adds checkboxes to any view and opens the checked pages in this window, a new window, or a new tab group. Open all pages opens every (filtered) page. Light / dark toggle, dark by default.

Browser support

One MV3 codebase, two manifests (dist/chrome, dist/firefox). Sending a link is the extension; opening one is the static viewer and works in any modern browser, mobile included, with no extension.

Browser	Create links	Tab Groups source	Tested
Chrome / Chromium	✅	✅	✅ end-to-end
Edge	✅	✅	⬜ same engine as Chrome; not separately click-tested
Brave	✅	✅	⬜ should work; a localhost shortener may need a Shields exception (moot on HTTPS)
Opera	✅	✅	✅ end-to-end
Vivaldi	✅	✅	⬜ TBD
Arc	✅	✅	⬜ TBD
Firefox (≥ 139)	✅	✅	✅ end-to-end
Zen	✅	✅	✅ end-to-end
LibreWolf / Waterfox / Floorp / Mullvad	✅	✅	⬜ TBD (other Firefox forks)
Firefox for Android	⬜ blocked	❌ no tab-groups API on Android	⬜ roadmap -- tabGroups must become optional first
Safari	⬜ manifest + dist/safari/ ready, Xcode conversion not done	❌ no tabGroups API in Safari; degrades gracefully (feature-detected)	⬜ xcrun safari-web-extension-converter + Xcode needed -- macOS-only, can't build or test from this repo's Linux dev setup
Chrome / Safari on iOS & Android	❌ no extension support	--	--
Opening a shared link (any of the above + mobile)	--	--	✅ responsive viewer, no extension needed

✅ works · ⬜ expected to work / not yet verified · ❌ not possible

How one link can carry everything

The collection (page URLs + titles) is compressed with lz-string and written into the URL fragment -- the part after #. Browsers never transmit the fragment, so:

• no backend, no database, no accounts;
• the extension makes no network requests (unless you turn on a URL shortener);
• the viewer makes none (unless you leave the site-icons option on, which fetches favicons from icons.duckduckgo.com);
• the link is self-contained (~500 chars for 5 pages, ~1.5 KB for 30);
• "+" is swapped out of the token so chat apps can't mangle it.

A small static page (viewer/) decodes the fragment in the recipient's browser and renders the views. You host it anywhere -- see docs/SELF-HOSTING.md.

Password-protected links

Tick Protect with a password and the whole collection is encrypted in your browser (WebCrypto: PBKDF2-SHA-256, 210 000 iterations -> AES-256-GCM) before it goes in the link. The recipient types the password into the viewer to decrypt locally -- the password is never stored or sent. Lose it and the link can't be opened.

Minimal links

Tick Minimal link to drop page titles and the timestamp from the link -- URLs only, roughly half the characters -- and strip known ad / analytics query params (utm_*, fbclid, ...) from every URL. The viewer falls back to the site name, so the link still opens and navigates. A normal link is untouched -- same URLs you gave it. Details and the backward-compatibility notes: docs/MINIMAL-LINKS.md.

The one honest limitation

Most big sites (Google, banks, X, YouTube, ...) send X-Frame-Options / CSP headers that forbid being embedded in another page. viewer/frame-hosts.js classifies hosts from a header probe of the ~730 most-visited / most-shared domains (rebuild it with tools/frame-probe/):

• framing-friendly (Wikipedia, MDN-style docs, many reference and dev sites) preview inline automatically;
• known blockers show a clean card with just "Open this page";
• everything else shows the card plus an opt-in "Try live preview" -- and if that preview never loads, the viewer drops it and remembers the host for the session.

The grid views, Open all pages, and Select -> open sidestep framing entirely.

If the recipient also has the extension

When a Tab Share link is opened in a browser that has the extension, a button appears in the viewer's toolbar -- Open with Tab Share -- offering to open the collection natively: into the current window, a new window, or a tab group, or to save it to history with a title. Everyone else just gets the slideshow. It's a content script that runs only on the viewer page (statically, just the packaged viewer host); point the extension at your own viewer and the options page asks you to approve that one host first. Hide the button from its own menu or the options page; bring it back from the viewer's settings menu.

The Tab Share suite

A 40-page collection is ~4 KB of link -- fine to send, unwieldy to paste. The Tab Share shortener turns one into s.kaikay.de/swift-amber-otter. It's a small zero-dependency Node service (also a Cloudflare Worker) that:

• takes multi-kilobyte links, fragment intact, where TinyURL / is.gd choke;
• redirects straight to the viewer, so the short link still opens in any browser with no extension -- same as the full link;
• only ever redirects to an allow-listed viewer host, so it can't become an open redirector;
• keeps no IP, no geolocation, no cookies -- aggregate day counts only, and never sold;
• is self-hostable in a couple of minutes.

Recommended. In Options -> Shorten links, pick Tab Share shortener -- it's pre-filled with the public instance at s.kaikay.de, which allow-lists the built-in viewer, so it works with no setup. Off until you turn it on, still opt-in per link. docs/CUSTOM-SHORTENER.md covers the other options (da.gd, TinyURL, a custom endpoint) and how they compare on what they log.

Permissions (deliberately tiny)

Permission	Required?	Why
tabs	yes	Read URL + title + icon of the current window's tabs, only on button click.
storage	yes	Remember your viewer URL, setup choices, last 50 links, on-device (storage.local).
tabGroups	yes	The Tab Groups source, and creating a group on import (a content script can't request it at runtime).
scripting	yes	Register the import banner for a self-hosted viewer URL you set.
host access to a non-default viewer URL	optional, asked when you save one	Show the import button on your own viewer host.
host access to a shortener	optional, asked when you enable one	Send the generated link to da.gd / TinyURL / your own endpoint.

No static host_permissions. One content script, scoped to the packaged viewer host only (plus any host you opt into). A minimal background worker (import actions + content-script registration). No remote code. No data collection. User-facing statement in PRIVACY.md.

Repo layout

shared/            canonical codec + helpers (lz-string, share-codec, monogram)
extension/
  manifest.chrome.json / manifest.firefox.json
  src/             popup + options + background worker (plain HTML/CSS/JS)
  src/content/     import-banner.js -- viewer-page "open with the extension" button
  icons/           icon.svg + generated PNGs
viewer/            self-contained static site (slideshow / preview grid / grid / list)
  frame-hosts.js   header-probed allow/deny list for auto-previewing sites
tools/frame-probe/ regenerates that list from live response headers
docs/              SELF-HOSTING, BUILD, SECURITY, THIRD-PARTY, CUSTOM-SHORTENER, MINIMAL-LINKS
assets/            artwork -- icon, promo tiles, simulated screenshots, og-card (svg sources; PNGs via `npm run icons`)
dev/               mocked-chrome harness for eyeballing the UI (not shipped)
scripts/           build / sync / icons / selftest / dev-server

Quick start

npm test                 # codec round-trip tests
npm run dev              # preview popup + options + import button at localhost:8778
npm run build            # dist/chrome + dist/firefox + dist/viewer
npm run serve:viewer     # serve the real viewer at localhost:8777, append #<token>

Load dist/chrome/ (Chromium) or dist/firefox/manifest.json (Firefox) unpacked. Full instructions for every OS / browser without a store: docs/SELF-HOSTING.md. Dev workflow: docs/BUILD.md.

Status

1.0.0-beta.11 is live on both the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons, and tested end-to-end on Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Zen: link creation from every source, the four viewer views, navigation, the segmented pager at 14 and 50 pages, per-view search, selection mode, theme toggle, password unlock, the empty-link state, and the companion import button / reversible-hide flow. viewer/ deploys to GitHub Pages via .github/workflows/deploy-viewer.yml; the privacy policy is published at /privacy.html alongside it. See CHANGELOG.md for what's changed and ROADMAP.md for what's planned (notably an offline safer-links filter).

Support

If Tab Share is useful to you, you can support development on Ko-fi:

License

Licensed under the GNU AGPL-3.0 -- free to use, study, share, and modify, but any modified version you distribute or run as a network service must be offered under the same license with source available. Bundles lz-string (MIT) -- see docs/THIRD-PARTY.md. Report security issues per docs/SECURITY.md.