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Tab Lifecycle Manager

Closing a tab doesn't mean losing it. It means telling the system what to do with it.

Tab Lifecycle Manager is a Chrome extension + local server + MCP plugin that gives your browser tabs four lifecycle states: Active, Snoozed, Queued, and Watching. Instead of hoarding 100+ tabs as reminders, reading queues, and status dashboards, you manage them through explicit state transitions.

How It Works

stateDiagram-v2
    direction LR
    [*] --> Active: Open tab
    Active --> Snoozed: Snooze
    Active --> Queued: Queue
    Active --> Watching: Watch
    Snoozed --> Active: Alarm fires
    Queued --> Active: Pull next
    Watching --> Active: Change detected
    Active --> [*]: Close

The Four States

State What it means How it returns
Active Open in the browser, business as usual Already there
Snoozed Tab closed, reopens at a scheduled time Chrome Alarm fires, tab reopens automatically
Queued Tab closed, waiting in an ordered list You click "Next" when ready
Watching Tab closed, extension polls for content changes Notification when the watched element changes

Three Components

Meeting Mode

Snooze all unpinned tabs with one click. A blank tab stays in each window. When the meeting ends, all tabs restore to their original windows.

Quick Start

# Install
git clone https://github.com/ugiordan/tab-manager.git
cd tab-manager && npm install

# Build and load extension
npm run build -w packages/extension
# Load packages/extension/dist/ in chrome://extensions (Developer mode)

# Start bridge (optional, for MCP access)
npm run bridge:start

:octicons-arrow-right-24: Full installation guide