TabBurrow

Your tabs, saved in one click, yours forever. No account required. Free on-device AI organizing, with cloud sync and sharing when you want them.

TabBurrow is an open-source, local-first tab and bookmark manager for Chrome. One click saves a tab, a selection of tabs, or a whole window into a collection; everything works instantly with zero signup, and nothing leaves your device unless you choose to sign in. On a capable desktop Chrome, AI organizing runs on-device with Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano, free, private, no key. Sign in later for cloud sync, cloud AI, and shareable collection pages.

Why TabBurrow

• Local-first, no forced account. Every save, organize, and restore action works instantly on a fresh install. Data lives in your browser's IndexedDB; nothing is required to sign up, and nothing syncs anywhere unless you opt in.
• AI auto-organize, with a preview. One click groups and tags your tabs into collections, and you approve the exact diff before anything changes; nothing is ever applied automatically. On a capable desktop Chrome it runs on-device (Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano): free, and nothing leaves your browser. The cloud path (Claude) covers any device and sends only titles and URLs, never page content.
• Open source, AGPL-3.0. Every line is public: the popup, the dashboard, the sync engine, the AI organize function. Audit it, fork it, or self-host the whole stack on your own infrastructure.
• Distinctive editorial design. The tab-manager category is uniformly white/gray SaaS. TabBurrow isn't: Deep Green ground, warm orange accent, editorial type, a burrow motif throughout.

Free vs PRO vs Self-host

Feature	Free	PRO	Self-host
Local saving & collections	Unlimited, forever	Unlimited	Unlimited
Drag-and-drop organizing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sessions & crash restore	Yes	Yes	Yes
Search, import & export	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cloud sync across devices	No	Yes	Yes (your Supabase)
Shareable collection pages	No	Yes	Yes (your Supabase)
AI organize, on-device (Gemini Nano)	Free, unlimited*	Free, unlimited*	Free, unlimited*
AI organize, cloud (Claude)	30 runs/month	Unlimited (fair use)	Your Anthropic key
Price	$0	$3.99/mo or $29/yr	$0 to us

* On-device AI needs a Chrome that can run Gemini Nano (roughly Chrome 138+, a decent GPU or 16 GB RAM, and ~22 GB free disk). Everything else in the Free column has no hardware caveat.

Quickstart

Install from the Chrome Web Store: coming soon.

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/lbwalton/tabburrow.git
cd tabburrow
pnpm install
pnpm --filter extension build

Then load it unpacked:

1. Open chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode (top right)
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select apps/extension/.output/chrome-mv3

Requires Node 22+ and pnpm 11 (via corepack; the repo pins packageManager). No environment variables are needed for a local build; see SELF_HOSTING.md if you also want cloud sync, AI organize, and sharing running against your own Supabase project.

Architecture

Monorepo (pnpm workspaces):

tabburrow/
├── apps/
│   ├── extension/       # WXT + React + TypeScript + Tailwind (Manifest V3)
│   │   ├── entrypoints/
│   │   │   ├── popup/       # quick save + quick access
│   │   │   ├── dashboard/   # full-page management UI (own tab)
│   │   │   └── background.ts # service worker: sync engine, session snapshots
│   │   └── lib/          # pure logic, unit tested
│   └── web/              # Next.js (App Router) on Vercel: marketing site,
│       ├── (marketing)/  #   share pages (s/[slug]), account/billing entry
│       ├── s/[slug]/
│       └── account/
├── packages/
│   ├── core/              # shared types, storage schema, sync + merge logic
│   └── ui/                # design tokens + shared React components
├── supabase/
│   ├── migrations/        # Postgres schema + RLS policies
│   └── functions/         # Edge Functions: ai-organize, checkout-session,
│                           #   stripe-webhook
├── docs/                   # specs, plans, self-hosting guide
└── stories/                 # implementation stories + fix stories (bug bash)

extension and web both depend on core (data model, sync, merge logic) and ui (design tokens + components) as workspace packages; there is one source of truth for both, not two implementations.

Self-hosting & contributing

• SELF_HOSTING.md: run your own Supabase project, deploy the Edge Functions, and build the extension against your own keys.
• CONTRIBUTING.md: dev setup, test commands, commit conventions, and PR expectations.

Project status

TabBurrow is built in the open, one story at a time; every commit maps to a story in stories/stories.json, each with its own acceptance criteria.

v1.0 is feature-complete and live-tested: the full local extension (popup hub, dashboard with drag-and-drop, sessions and crash restore, fuzzy search, import/export, keyboard shortcuts), on-device AI organizing via Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano, and the full cloud layer (auth with email codes and Google, cross-device sync, cloud AI organize, share pages, and Stripe billing), verified by 560+ unit tests and an end-to-end suite that drives the real built extension in Chrome, including a live Stripe test checkout and a live AI organize.

Now: the Chrome Web Store listing is being prepared for review. Until it's live, install by building from source (above).

No fake stars, no fake user counts, no testimonials here. Watch the repo or check stories/stories.json for real, current progress.

License

AGPL-3.0. Forks that host TabBurrow as a service must publish their changes; that's the deal that keeps this genuinely open source while protecting the hosted TabBurrow business.