# TabsPack

> A browser extension that exports every open tab to a single file and restores
> them exactly as they were, in Chrome, Edge or Firefox. Windows, tab order,
> pinned tabs and tab groups all survive the round trip. Free, MIT licensed, and
> your tabs never leave your device.

TabsPack is made by palworks.ai. Site: https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/
Source: https://github.com/PalWorks/tabspack
Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tabspack-cross-browser-ta/bgomldlmhkecjeceibdphdkoencnghjm

## What it is

A browser extension, Manifest V3, for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla
Firefox. It solves three problems: having too many open tabs to close safely,
moving a working session from one browser to another, and recovering a session
after a crash or after a tab suspender extension is removed.

## Key facts

- Price: free. No paid tier, no account, no advertising, no data collection.
- Licence: MIT. Full source published.
- Browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox. One source tree builds all three.
- File format: `.tabspack.json`, plain JSON against a published JSON Schema
  whose canonical address resolves:
  https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/schema/tabspack.v1.schema.json
- Privacy: requests no host permission at install, so it cannot reach any
  address on the internet. Tabs are never transmitted. The only network request
  it can make is a support message the user writes and presses Send on, which
  the browser gates behind its own optional-permission prompt.
- No content scripts, no remote code, no analytics, no telemetry, no account.
- An export never contains cookies, session tokens, authorization headers or
  form data. It cannot be used to sign in as the user.
- Crash recovery, from 1.1.0: a rolling recovery copy of the open tabs and the
  last five browser sessions, on from install, and automatic snapshots on an
  interval with a rolling limit, off until turned on. Kept on the device only. After a crash TabsPack offers the missing
  tabs in a preview and never restores on its own.
- Reference reader and writer on npm: `npm install tabspack`, with `read`,
  `write`, `validate` and the JSON Schema, compiled from the extension's source.

## What survives a round trip

Windows and their position, size and state. Every tab's address, title and
position in order. Which tabs were pinned, active, muted or unloaded. Tab
groups with their title, colour and collapsed state. Opener relationships.

## What it imports

Its own `.tabspack.json`, OneTab exports, Session Buddy JSON and CSV, Tab
Session Manager exports, Netscape HTML bookmarks, Markdown link lists, flat
JSON, and plain lists of URLs. The format is detected by reading the file, not
by its extension, and the user sees what was found before anything opens.

## What it exports

`.tabspack.json` (everything survives), a plain list of URLs, flat JSON, and
CSV. The interface states what each lossy format discards before it is chosen.

## Notable behaviours

- Restored tabs open unloaded by default: 200 real pages restore in about nine
  seconds and 199 stay asleep until clicked.
- It reads the real address back out of tabs parked by suspender extensions
  such as The Great Suspender, on both export and import.
- Browser-internal pages that extensions may not open are kept in the file and
  listed on a page after restore, rather than being dropped.
- Private and incognito windows are excluded unless the user enables it in both
  the browser and the extension.
- It reports how old the open tabs are, in bands, from the last-used time the
  browser supplies, and can leave tabs untouched for a month, three months, six
  months or a year out of the export. The filter is off by default. A pinned tab
  is never treated as old, and a tab with no last-used time is counted in a band
  of its own and never dropped: absence of a date is not evidence of age.

## Pages

- [Home](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/): what it does, how it works, the privacy position, formats.
- [Pricing](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/pricing/): free, and why.
- [FAQ](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/faq/): nineteen questions answered in full.
- [About us](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/about/): who builds it and what it refuses to do.
- [Contact us](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/contact/): support@palworks.ai, the in-extension form, GitHub issues.
- [Privacy policy](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/privacy/): version 1.2.
- [Terms of use](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/terms/)
- [Security](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/security/): disclosure process and the design decisions behind the attack surface.
- [Cookie notice](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/cookies/): there are none.
- [Full detail for models](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/llms-full.txt)

## Optional

- [Format specification](https://github.com/PalWorks/tabspack/blob/main/docs/SPEC.md)
- [JSON Schema](https://palworks.github.io/tabspack/schema/tabspack.v1.schema.json), served at the address it declares as its own `$id`
- [Decision records](https://github.com/PalWorks/tabspack/blob/main/docs/DECISIONS.md)