tabplate.The complete reference
Text-only companion to the interactive field guide. Updated 17 October 2026 for v0.11.26.
Find your flow
A small field guide to a calmer browser. Start simple, try a little magic, and make the space yours.
A LITTLE GUIDANCE. A LOT LESS FRICTION.
Good things deserve
a place to land.
Your links, ideas and everyday tools, in one calm little corner of the internet.
✦ Try a little MagicYour first five minutes
- Open a new tab
Install the desktop Chrome extension, then open a new tab. There is no account to create.
- Give a project a home
Start with one board and a few broad groups. You can rename a board or group by double-clicking its name.
- Bring a few links
Add a link, save open tabs, or drag the little favicon circles into a group.
- Keep a copy you control
Export your first backup once the board feels useful. Local snapshots are helpful; an external file protects you if a browser profile disappears.
What would you like to do?
You are in the guidePlaygrounds use made-up examples in this page’s memory. They cannot read, change or restore your real Chrome tabs or Tabplate data.
Workspaces, boards & areas
A simple hierarchy. Enough structure to find things, without turning your browser into a filing job.
Think from big to small
Explore a sample workspace
✦ PLAYGROUND / SWITCH THE BOARDSample data only
Try the two boards. Groups belong to their own board.
When to add an area
Use Add area when one board needs a second section. Keep active groups in Main and occasional references elsewhere. Areas live inside a board; they are not new workspaces.
Move a whole group
Open its three-dot menu and choose Move to board / area. Select the destination board. If that board has more than one area, choose the area too. The group keeps its contents and appearance.
You can also drag a group using its header or bottom bar. The middle stays available for interacting with items. Dropping a group onto another board opens the destination chooser.
Start with less structureTry one board with three or four meaningful groups before adding more layers. A divider is often better than another tiny group.
Magic & Lucky
Gather first. Find the themes. Make room. Then let the links land.
Magic organize arranges links into relevant groups on the current board. Its settings let you adjust the source and grouping rules. Lucky is a shortcut for an empty board: it starts with frequently visited sites from a 90-day history window after the required Chrome permission is granted.
Lucky needs enough materialIt is offered on an empty board and needs at least six distinct eligible sites, with Chrome visitCount of two or more. Chrome’s visitCount can include older visits to a recently visited page. This is not an exact visit counter limited to the last 90 days.
Let the sample links land
✦ PLAYGROUND / A LITTLE LOCAL MAGICSample data only
A handful of open ideas
Eight sample links. Three useful shelves. Give it a try.
Better groups, fewer shelves
A good group describes a purpose, rather than repeating a domain. For example, E-Commerce can hold Shopify and an Amazon divider above Amazon, Seller Central and Amazon Ads. A site family with several related links is a better candidate for a divider than a separate group for every URL.
Local rules can miss context. Treat the result as a useful starting point: rename groups, move a link, add a divider, or adjust your custom rules.
What “Magic” actually means
The current version uses local rules, domains and titles. It does not call a remote AI model or upload browsing history. History-based collection saves root site addresses, without private paths and query strings. Imported open tabs and manually saved links can retain their full URLs locally.
About the animation
Groups appear first, then favicon plates travel between them. The extension limits simultaneous flying elements. Reduced-motion preferences are respected. The demo here illustrates the interaction; it is not running the extension’s real organizer.
Stay in controlThere is no continuously running background history watcher. History and open-tab access are optional; skipping the first-run offer is fine.
The circular tab rail
Grab a little plate. Give it a place. Keep the original tab right where it was.
Open your window’s tabs
The right-side tab rail mirrors web tabs from the same Chrome window. Grant optional tab access when you choose to use it. The small circles show browser-provided favicons; hovering reveals more detail.
Try the plate gesture
✦ PLAYGROUND / DRAG A LITTLE PLATESample data only
🎨 DesignDrag a circle here, or select one and click here.
Keyboard: select a circle with Enter, then activate the group. Esc cancels the selection.
What gets saved?
Dropping a plate saves the selected tab’s URL and title in the group. It does not close or move the original browser tab. The drag image stays circular, with the favicon.
Cancel or go back
Esc cancels an unfinished drag. ⌘Z on Mac or Ctrl Z on Windows/Linux can undo the supported last tab-rail addition. Undo is not a universal history of every edit. If needed, use the trash or a snapshot.
The demo is intentionally isolatedThe circles above are sample buttons. Real tab access works only in the installed extension, not on this help website.
Groups, moving & renaming
Keep related things together, then make small changes without opening a big settings screen.
Quick rename
Double-click a group or board name to edit it inline. Press Enter to save, or Esc to cancel. Group names also support F2 when focused. The group’s menu remains outside the editing field.
Collapse and come back
Collapse a group when you want more room. Clicking its collapsed name or three-dot control expands it again.
Rearrange the board
Drag a group by the top header or bottom bar. Avoid the middle: it is reserved for links, checkboxes and notes. To move between boards or areas, choose Move to board / area from the group menu, or drop the group on another board.
Choosing a destination
The destination picker separates the board and area. Area selection appears when that board has more than one area. With only Main, there is nothing extra to choose. Cancelling leaves the group where it was.
A group is a containerMoving the group keeps its links, notes, dividers, identifiers and appearance together. Moving a single link is a different action.
Notes, to-dos & dividers
Let the small bits of thinking live beside the links they belong to.
Add something besides a link
Use Note / to-do / section at the bottom of a group. New items start with a simple default title — note, to-do or divider — which you can edit.
Choose the right kind
A named divider separates related links inside a group. For example, use Amazon and Shopify dividers inside E-Commerce. It gives structure without creating a separate group for each service.
Try a tiny to-do
Keep it light
Use a note to explain why a link matters. Use a divider when several items form a clear family. Split into a new group only when it becomes a useful shelf in its own right.
Favorites & finding links
The important bits, closer. Across all your workspaces.
Favorites are global
Star a saved link, then open Favorites from the left rail. It collects favorites across every workspace. It has no separate board tabs and is not tied to the workspace you last opened.
The location label helps you find the original item. Favorites are references to saved links, rather than a second independent copy.
Search without digging
Use the search field or ⌘K / Ctrl K. Search considers saved links across the relevant view; searching inside Favorites stays within that collection. This website’s search shortcut searches the guide instead.
Stay where you left off
Reloading a tab while you are in Favorites keeps that tab in Favorites. The last section is remembered per browser tab; separate tabs can have different views.
No reset neededFavorites no longer has a Reset button. Remove a star on the relevant link when you want it out of the collection.
Make it feel like you
Quiet colors, familiar icons, and a layout that gives the work room to breathe.
Theme and language
Use the controls near the search field to change light/dark appearance and language. English is the default. Ukrainian, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese are also available.
Board appearance
Open the board’s dropdown and choose its appearance settings. Change the name, emoji or uploaded icon, accent and translucent background. The background applies to the area containing the groups. A small reset control returns appearance settings to their defaults.
Your own accent
The icon accent chooser offers five presets and a custom color picker. The accent tints the icon treatment and related visual details; it does not recolor the artwork inside a multicolor emoji or uploaded logo.
Room for more links
Use the compact links control when you want a denser view. Long boards scroll horizontally inside their area. Groups keep their own scrollable content, so the bottom add controls stay available.
Icons are not all the sameBoard/group emoji and uploaded artwork are appearance choices. Website favicons belong to saved links and have their own privacy and loading behavior. See
the favicon guide.
When a favicon is missing
A letter is a fallback, not a broken link. Here is how icons are found.
Where the icons come from
Tabplate can use built-in artwork, uploaded images and Chrome’s local favicon store. Optional direct website fetching can discover other favicons and site icons. It is off by default, including for older settings that predate the choice.
If you see an initial instead
- Check that the link is right
A saved address can work perfectly even if its site has no usable icon.
- Check Site icons settings
If you want automatic discovery, explicitly enable fetching from websites and accept Chrome’s optional site-access request.
- Refresh the icon
Use the available icon refresh action for the link or refresh website icons from settings. A cached failure may otherwise remain for a while.
- Expect a few fallbacks
A site can block requests, omit icons, return an incompatible file or require authentication. Tabplate keeps a letter fallback rather than blocking the page.
What does fetching share?
Icon requests go directly to the saved site and its discovered asset servers. Those services can see your IP and the requested asset address. Tabplate omits cookies, credentials and referrers. It does not send private paths from the saved page to discover the icon.
Tab rail vs saved linksThe right-side rail mirrors favicons supplied by Chrome for open tabs. It does not need direct website icon fetching. A good rail favicon and a letter on a saved link can therefore coexist.
Privacy & permissions
Your saved content belongs in your browser. You decide what else gets access.
What stays local
Boards, groups, links, notes, tasks, your local profile and preferences are stored in this Chrome profile. Tabplate does not sell them or upload them to a Tabplate data server. There is no account-based sync or analytics integration in the extension.
Optional means optional
Opening the first-run offer does not itself read your history. When an empty board is visible and history access already exists, Lucky may make a bounded local availability check. Import begins when you start it.
Your controls
You can revoke permissions through Tabplate or Chrome, disable website icon fetching, export your data and clear local content. Turning fetching off aborts application requests, clears its fetched-icon cache and asks Chrome to remove the optional website access. A request already received by a server cannot be undone.
Local is not a vault
The application does not add its own encryption at rest. Device security, browser profiles and downloaded backup files remain your responsibility. Deleting an item can leave a recoverable copy in trash or local snapshots until those are removed.
About this guide websiteIts examples and search run locally in the page. No real tabs or history are accessed, and no analytics is added. The hosting provider may process ordinary connection logs; private previews may require the hosting service’s sign-in. See the
extension privacy policy for the full product statement.
Backup, export & recovery
Keep a way back. Keep a copy outside the browser, too.
Four different safety nets
Practice a small recovery
✦ PLAYGROUND / A WAY BACKSample data only
A snapshot of these three sample links is ready. Try removing one.
Choose what to export
- One board
Open its dropdown and choose Export board.
- Every board in a workspace
Open the workspace dropdown and choose Export all boards.
- A full external backup
Use the full export in settings/recovery when you want the entire local state. Keep the resulting file somewhere outside the Chrome profile.
Board/workspace exports omit your local profile name and avatar. They still contain saved content and preferences: inspect the file before sharing it.
Restore carefully
Open the recovery center with B, or its rail control. You can inspect local snapshots or import a backup file and review its preview before confirming. A full restore can replace the current state; export the current version first if you need to keep it.
If the page reports damaged data
Do not uninstall or clear the browser profile. Tabplate verifies checksums and tries the previous valid state and local checkpoints. If none are valid, it offers recovery instead of silently replacing the repository with empty data. Keep a diagnostic export and your external backups.
A local snapshot is not an external backupUninstalling the extension or losing a Chrome profile can remove the database and its snapshots together. Export before uninstalling, changing profiles or important migrations.
Keyboard shortcuts
A few useful gestures, right where your hands already are.
In the extension
Single-letter shortcuts do not run while you are typing into an input. Double-click a board or group name for quick rename; focused group names also support F2.
In this guide
⌘K / Ctrl K opens local documentation search. Esc closes search, cancels a sample selection or stops a demo. All sample buttons can be reached with Tab.
A little troubleshooting
Start with the smallest fix. Keep the data safe.
The usual questions
Lucky is missing or disabled.
It is intended for an empty board and needs enough eligible sites. If history permission is missing, Chrome must grant it first. A sparse history may not meet the six-site threshold. Try Magic with saved links or open tabs instead.
A favicon is still just a letter.
Check the favicon guide. Chrome’s local store may not have it, direct fetching may be off or the site may block icon discovery. A letter is a safe fallback.
The tab rail is empty.
It mirrors web tabs from the same Chrome window and needs optional tab permission. Browser-internal pages are not normal web tabs. This feature cannot access real tabs from a website preview.
Where did another workspace’s Favorites go?
Favorites are global. A missing item may no longer be starred, may be filtered by your search, or may have been deleted at its original location.
A new tab briefly shows an older board.
A bounded local display snapshot can appear before the verified repository finishes loading. Other open tabs or changed data can make it briefly stale. It is a display cache, not the source used to recover data.
My other computer has different boards.
There is no account-based cloud sync in this version. Use export/import to move data between Chrome profiles.
I cannot delete the last workspace.
Tabplate keeps at least one workspace. Create another one before removing the current last workspace.
A safe order for investigating
- Export what you can
Keep a current file and an earlier known-good backup.
- Try a normal refresh
For a local unpacked update, reload the extension card and then the open Tabplate page. Keep the same installation folder and profile.
- Check permissions and settings
A disabled optional permission affects that feature, not all saved content.
- Use recovery before resetting
Inspect local snapshots or a backup import. Avoid uninstalling as the first troubleshooting step.
Reporting a problemDescribe what you clicked, what you expected and your extension/Chrome version. Share only a redacted screenshot or diagnostic file you have inspected. For support, email
support@tabplate.com.
How the project stays healthy
A transparent engineering note: what exists, what matters most, and what should come next.
Five priorities for Tabplate
These are engineering priorities for this product, not measured quality scores.
A small architecture map
model.mjs validates the data model. storage.mjs manages local transactions, checksums and checkpoints. backup.mjs handles portable backup formats. Organizer, motion, tab rail and drag modules provide focused behavior. app.mjs connects UI rendering, dialogs and commands.
The implementation is dependency-light. The main UI module and accumulated style overrides are the biggest maintainability pressure points. The next useful split is rendering → commands → dialogs, with explicit module contracts. More files alone do not make the system more modular.
Test the promises, not the line count
The current audit ran 63 unit tests successfully and separate browser checks for performance and responsive geometry. That is not a coverage percentage or proof that every interaction is tested. Coverage instrumentation and a routine CI gate have not yet been established.
Prioritize corruption recovery, interrupted writes, concurrent tabs, import/export, upgrades, permission denial, drag cancellation and Undo. Then cover keyboard navigation, long names, languages and small screens. Keep an explicit manual smoke checklist for operating systems and the real Chrome permission dialogs.
What the engineering wiki should hold
A module map with ownership and contracts; data shape and migration rules; privacy/network flows; recovery playbook; test matrix; release checklist; and short decision records explaining tradeoffs. User help and engineering notes have different audiences and should stay distinct.
Version three different things
Product release: the Chrome manifest version, currently 0.11.26. Data format: the schema/backup compatibility version. Repository revision: an increasing number for state changes. None of these replaces a source-control commit and release tag.
Recommended next steps: a tracked source repository with an off-device remote; release tags and a changelog; old-backup fixtures for compatibility tests; and migration checkpoints before writing new formats. Downloaded release ZIPs are useful artifacts, but cannot replace source history.
Two independent backup plans
User-content backups protect boards. Source-code backups protect development. Both need a copy outside the local machine, controlled by their owner, plus a tested restore procedure. A checksum detects accidental changes; it does not encrypt or authenticate a file.
Status, not a promise of completed workThis page describes the audit and recommended priorities as of 17 October 2026. Building this guide does not mean the proposed refactor, CI setup or expanded test coverage has already been implemented.
Version & current limits
Know what is in the box today.
Current extension: 0.11.26
The latest change adds destination-area selection when a group is dragged to another board or workspace. Boards with more than one area offer the area chooser. Moving retains the whole group and cancelling leaves it unchanged.
Recent improvements
- Quick board and group renaming by double-click.
- Global Favorites, with reload persistence and no Reset button.
- Round favicon plates, drag cancellation and supported Undo.
- Custom accent colors and calmer light-theme styling.
- Magic/Lucky group appearance and bounded landing animations.
- Six UI languages and cached startup display.
What is not included
No account-based cloud sync, team collaboration, remote AI service, native phone app or link-availability scanner. A valid saved URL is not a guarantee that a destination is safe or online.
About this field guide
Guide v1.0 · reviewed against extension 0.11.26 on 17 October 2026. Demo content is illustrative and separate from the installed extension. Updates to a website do not automatically update an unpacked extension.
Installing the previewThe
main website explains preview installation. Use a real Chrome Web Store listing when one is published; this guide does not invent a Store URL.