Last updated: 2026-08-28
Tabby is a Chrome extension for consolidating, deduplicating, sorting, and closing your open tabs. The short version: everything Tabby knows about your tabs stays in your own browser. Tabby has no server, no account, no analytics, and nothing it reads is sent anywhere.
Tabby reads the metadata of the tabs you have open — URL, title, window, tab group, pinned state, whether the tab is playing audio, and when it was last active. It needs those to do its job: it can only tell you that two tabs are the same page, sort tabs so related pages sit together, or show you a review list of what you have open, if it can see the addresses and titles.
Tabby does not read the contents of the pages you visit. It injects no content scripts and has no host permissions, so it never sees page text, form fields, keystrokes, clicks, cookies, or anything inside a page.
Everything below lives in your browser's own extension storage. None of it is transmitted anywhere. (Two further session-only keys exist beyond this table: a debug snapshot buffer that is off unless you enable Developer debug logging, and a small registry of auto-created group ids. Both are cleared when Chrome closes.)
| What | Where it lives | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Your settings — normalization rules, tracking-parameter list, keep policy, review surface, grouping and sweep options | chrome.storage.sync |
Until you change or reset them |
Review snapshot and undo buffer — the tabs in the current review, plus the tabs you just closed so u can bring them back |
chrome.storage.session |
Cleared when Chrome closes |
| Records log — what Tabby recommended, what you closed, and (if you turn it on) the navigation trace | chrome.storage.local |
Until you clear it; capped at the 1,000 most recent entries |
| Stashes — up to 30 saved sets of tab URLs and titles you parked with "stash & close" | chrome.storage.local |
Until you delete them; survives restarts |
| Usage counters — plain counts, such as how many tabs you closed or how many times you used undo | chrome.storage.local |
Until you clear them |
Your settings contain no secrets — no keys, tokens, or credentials. They are synced by Chrome across the devices you are signed into, the same way Chrome syncs your other extension settings, for your use alone.
Stashing also writes ordinary Chrome bookmarks. "Stash & close" (the
⇧S key or the right-click menu) saves the stashed tabs straight into a
top-level folder called Tabby Stash, and pressing Export on a saved stash
writes it there too, as its own subfolder. They are your bookmarks after that:
Tabby does not manage or delete them, and they sync wherever your bookmarks
already sync.
The records log is not hidden from you. The Tabby options page has a Records section showing how many entries the log holds and a Clear records button that empties it for good.
Uninstalling Tabby removes everything in the table above. Bookmarks you exported to the Tabby Stash folder stay in your bookmarks — delete them yourself if you want them gone.
Navigation Trace is an optional setting that helps you see how redundant tabs get created. When it is on, Tabby records the from-URL and to-URL of main-frame page navigations, plus Chrome's transition type, into the same local records log described above.
- It is off by default.
- The
webNavigationpermission it needs is optional and is requested at the moment you flip the toggle. Chrome shows you the prompt. Turning the toggle off hands the permission back. - The trace entries never leave your device, and you can see the count and clear them from the options page like any other record.
Tabby deliberately keeps private browsing out of anything that outlives the private session:
- No incognito tab's URL or title is written to any persistent store — not the records log, not the navigation trace, not stashes, not bookmark exports.
- The one thing that does briefly hold private-window tabs is the
session-only undo buffer, so that undo still works if you close tabs in a
private window. It lives in
chrome.storage.session, is wiped when Chrome closes, and is never written to disk-backed storage or sent anywhere.
Tabby makes no network requests of its own, and transmits no data anywhere. There is no Tabby server to send anything to.
One honest caveat: the review list shows each tab's favicon, using the icon URL Chrome already gives Tabby. Rendering that image makes your browser fetch it from the site, exactly as it already does to draw the tab strip. Tabby neither sends nor receives any data of its own in that exchange.
- No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, or usage reporting.
- No advertising, and no profiling.
- No accounts, sign-in, or collection of personal information by the developer.
- No selling, renting, or sharing of your data with anyone. The developer never receives it in the first place.
- No remote code. All of Tabby's JavaScript ships inside the extension package; nothing is fetched or evaluated at runtime.
- tabs — read the URL, title, and position of your open tabs to build the cleanup plan and the review list, and move or close them when you commit.
- tabGroups — see and preserve your existing tab groups, so a group moves as one unit instead of being dissolved, and create the groups the auto-group feature offers.
- storage — keep the settings, records, stashes, and undo buffer described above in your browser.
- sessions — restore a tab you just closed with its back-forward history, which is what makes undo feel like the close never happened.
- bookmarks — check whether an open tab is already bookmarked (the "bookmarked" badge), and write the Tabby Stash folders when you export a stash.
- sidePanel (optional) — show the review list in Chrome's side panel. Requested only if you choose the side panel as your review surface.
- webNavigation (optional) — record the navigation trace described above. Requested only when you turn that toggle on.
Tabby requests no host permissions at all, of any kind. It cannot read or act on the websites you visit.
Tabby's use of information received from Chrome APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Questions or concerns: mjacobs@apache.org, or open an issue at https://github.com/mjacobs/tabby/issues.