Tab Walker

Tab Walker is a fast, keyboard-first browser extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox that provides an in-page tab switcher, omnibox search overlay, and window manager. It lists open tabs in Most Recently Used (MRU) order and searches across open tabs, browser history, bookmarks, and the web.

Features

• In-Page Overlay: Press Alt+Y to toggle the fast search switcher overlay over any active page.
• MRU Tab Navigation: Access all open tabs sorted by most recently used order across all windows with an unlimited, smooth-scrolling list.
• Unified Omnibox Search: Real-time filtering for open tabs, plus debounced search across browser history, bookmarks, URL navigation, and web search.
• System Theme & Dynamic Icons: Follows your operating system's color scheme (system by default), with support for explicit light and dark themes and dynamic toolbar icon adaptation.
• Overlay Scaling & Zoom: Dynamically scale the overlay UI with Ctrl + / Ctrl - / Ctrl 0 to fit your display preferences.
• Backdrop Blur & Visual Polish: Configurable backdrop blur (0–20px) and overlay opacity with a modern craft UI design system.
• Focus Shielding: Isolated event trapping stops host page keystroke hijacking on single-page apps (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude) while the overlay is open.
• Draggable Card: Drag the card header to reposition the search window. Position offsets persist across sessions.
• Shadow DOM Isolation: Renders inside #tab-walker-host Shadow DOM to prevent host-page CSS bleed or style conflicts.
• Cross-Browser Parity: Dual-extension builds supporting Chrome (Manifest V3) and Firefox (WebExtensions).

Documentation

• ARCHITECTURE.md — Extension architecture, components, state management, and message protocol.
• SEARCH.md — Search scoring, priority tiers, matching logic, and highlighting.
• CUSTOMIZATION.md — Settings options, design tokens, CSS classes, and style customization examples.

Project Structure

tab-walker/
├── chrome-extension/         # Chrome extension (Manifest V3)
│   ├── background.js         # Service worker (MRU tab order, history/bookmark search)
│   ├── content.js            # Content script (Shadow DOM overlay UI)
│   ├── manifest.json         # Extension manifest
│   ├── icons/                # Toolbar icons (light and dark variants)
│   └── settings/             # Settings popup (HTML, JS, CSS)
├── firefox-extension/        # Firefox extension (WebExtensions)
│   ├── background.js         # Background script
│   ├── content.js            # Content script (Shadow DOM overlay UI)
│   ├── manifest.json         # Extension manifest
│   ├── icons/                # Toolbar icons (light and dark variants)
│   └── settings/             # Settings popup (HTML, JS, CSS)
└── docs/                     # Technical documentation
    ├── ARCHITECTURE.md
    ├── SEARCH.md
    └── CUSTOMIZATION.md

Installation

Google Chrome (or Chromium)

1. Open chrome://extensions/.
2. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top-right corner).
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the chrome-extension directory.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on....
3. Select firefox-extension/manifest.json.

Keyboard Shortcuts & Controls

• Alt+Y: Toggle overlay switcher.
• ArrowUp / ArrowDown: Navigate up/down through result list.
• Enter: Activate selected tab, open history/bookmark, or execute web search.
• Escape: Clears search query if input has text; closes overlay if input is empty.
• Ctrl + / Ctrl =: Increase overlay scale (+5% per step).
• Ctrl -: Decrease overlay scale (-5% per step).
• Ctrl 0: Reset overlay scale to default (100%).
• Click Overlay Backdrop: Closes the overlay.
• Drag Header: Repositions the search card on the screen.