tabnext

Open new tabs next to the current tab — not at the far end of the tab strip — and show a live count of open tabs on the toolbar icon.

A Manifest V3 replacement for the late "Open Tabs Next to Current" (MV2, disabled by Chromium in 2025). Built for Brave; works in any Chromium browser (Chromium ≥ 121).

• No permissions. The extensions page says "requires no special permissions" — tabnext never reads URLs, titles, or history.
• No build step, no dependencies. Two files. The repo is the extension.

Install

From the Chrome Web Store (easiest): tabnext on the Chrome Web Store — works in Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, anything Chromium ≥ 121.

From source (no store, no waiting):

1. git clone https://github.com/timbeach/tabnext
2. Open brave://extensions (or chrome://extensions)
3. Turn on Developer mode (top right)
4. Load unpacked → select the tabnext directory

Either way, pin the icon if you want the tab-count badge visible. The badge is per profile — each profile counts its own tabs.

The story behind it: tabnext — Open New Browser Tabs Next to Your Current One

How it works

One background service worker, event-driven, asleep between events:

• Placement: on tab creation, the new tab is moved to just after the active tab (or, for tabs created already-active like Ctrl+T, after the previously used tab). The move waits 150 ms and is skipped if the tab joined a tab group, was closed, or was part of a creation burst. Windows are "quiet" for 2 s after creation, and bursts (creations < 300 ms apart) extend the quiet — so session restore keeps its tab order and its tab groups intact.
• Tab groups: grouped tabs are never moved. Opening a tab from inside a group places it in that group, next to you.
• Badge: every tab open/close/attach/detach recounts chrome.tabs.query({}) into the badge.

Manual test checklist

• Ctrl+T opens next to the current tab
• Middle-clicked link opens next to the current tab
• Link from an external app opens next to the current tab
• Session restore preserves tab order
• Session restore keeps tabs in their tab groups
• Ctrl+T from a tab inside a group opens next to it, in the group
• New window (Ctrl+N) behaves normally
• Badge tracks open/close across two windows
• A second profile counts independently

License

MIT