TabVault

Stash and restore your browser tabs. A fast, private, Manifest V3 tab manager for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

TabVault is a from-scratch rewrite inspired by (and forked from) the archived better-onetab project. It drops the old self-hosted sync server, Google Drive integration, and third-party analytics in favour of a lean, local-first extension built on Manifest V3.

Features

• Store selected / all / all-windows tabs into named lists
• Restore lists in the current window or a new one
• Keyboard shortcuts and toolbar context menu
• Import / export (JSON and OneTab-compatible text) — imports old better-onetab backups
• Optional light sync via chrome.storage.sync
• No tracking, no remote code, no backend

Tech stack

• Manifest V3 (service worker background)
• Svelte 5 + TypeScript
• Vite + @crxjs/vite-plugin
• webextension-polyfill for cross-browser APIs

Project structure

src/
├── background/        # MV3 service worker (commands, context menus, messaging)
├── lib/               # framework-agnostic core logic (storage, lists, tabs, exchange)
├── stores/            # reactive Svelte stores over chrome.storage
├── popup/             # toolbar popup app
├── options/           # full-page list manager + settings
├── app.css            # shared styles
└── manifest.config.ts # MV3 manifest (Chrome/Edge + Firefox variants)
public/
├── icons/             # extension icons
└── _locales/          # i18n messages (en, zh_CN)

Install in Chrome

1. Build the extension:

npm run build

2. Open Chrome and go to:

chrome://extensions

3. Enable Developer mode in the top-right corner.

4. Click Load unpacked.

5. Select the generated dist-chrome folder.

TabVault should now appear in your Chrome toolbar. You can pin it from the extensions menu for easier access.

Development

npm install
npm run dev              # Chrome/Edge, HMR
npm run dev:firefox      # Firefox

Then load the generated dist-chrome (or dist-firefox) directory as an unpacked extension:

• Chrome/Edge: chrome://extensions → enable Developer mode → Load unpacked → select dist-chrome
• Firefox: about:debugging → This Firefox → Load Temporary Add-on → pick dist-firefox/manifest.json

Build

npm run build            # dist-chrome
npm run build:firefox    # dist-firefox
npm run build:all        # both

Quality

npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm test

License

MIT. Original better-onetab code © 2018–2019 Wang Jie; TabVault modifications © 2026 TabVault contributors.