Archtabs — Chrome Vertica

Vertical tabs for Chrome's side panel — the kind that don't eat half your screen. Tried Vertical Tabs and felt cramped, or VertiTab and felt overloaded? ArchTabs is the middle path: Compact mode, Spaces, snapshots, command bar, optional Connect AI.

WHY ARCHTABS IS DIFFERENT

Most chrome vertical tabs extensions either cost you half a page or pile on AI features you didn't ask for. ArchTabs is built so vertical tabs don't cost you the page: Compact and icon-only modes shrink rows aggressively, while Spaces, snapshots, and a command bar wait quietly until you need them.

If you came from arc-style browsing and want the workflow without leaving Chrome, ArchTabs gives arc refugees Spaces, a command bar, and snapshots in the side panel — without an account, without a separate browser.

IMPORTANT — WHAT CHROME ACTUALLY LETS US DO

ArchTabs lives in Chrome's native side panel. Chrome's top tab bar stays — extensions cannot hide it. Chrome also controls the minimum side-panel width, so we cannot make the panel narrower than Chrome allows. Compact and icon-only modes are how we fit more tabs into the width Chrome gives us. We tell you up front because pretending otherwise is the #1 source of 1★ reviews on competing vertical tabs chrome extensions.

WHAT YOU GET

VERTICAL TABS
Readable tab titles and favicons in Chrome's side panel. Switch tabs, close tabs, pin tabs, drag to reorder, and archive tabs you do not need right now.

COMPACT, COSY, OR ICON-ONLY
Three density modes for the chrome sidebar tabs view. Compact mode is the direct answer to the #1 complaint on competing vertical tabs extensions: "wastes screen space". Icon-only mode goes further when you want maximum content width.

SPACES
Split tabs into contexts like Work, Personal, Research, or Shopping. Switch Spaces from the sidebar or keyboard. Spaces is the same idea arc-style browsers popularised, recreated as a chrome vertical tabs extension.

COMMAND BAR
Press Cmd/Ctrl+K inside ArchTabs or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K globally to open a fuzzy command bar. Search open tabs by default. @bookmark, @history, and @recent are optional and only ask for permission when you turn them on.

SNAPSHOTS
Save the current window state before experiments, research sessions, or cleanup. Restore later when you need it. No more "I lost all my tabs after Chrome crashed".

TAB GROUPS AND ARCHIVE
ArchTabs uses Chrome's native tab groups for grouped work and an Archive group for older tabs. Unpinned, ungrouped tabs can be auto-archived after 14 days of inactivity.

OPTIONAL CONNECT AI
ArchTabs has an optional AI command mode for tab-management requests such as closing duplicates, grouping tabs, saving snapshots, or creating Spaces. Connect your own provider key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, or local Ollama. No AI provider is contacted until you add a key/model and send an AI request. For that request, the selected provider receives your typed instruction plus the tab titles and URLs, Space names, and tab group names needed to complete the action. Page contents, form fields, cookies, passwords, and site storage are never sent.

WHY ARCHTABS

- Lightweight by default. Power features stay out of the way until summoned.
- No account required. No sign-up wall.
- No content scripts injected into your pages.
- Website browsing stays local unless you explicitly use optional Connect AI.
- Local-first settings, Spaces, and snapshots.
- Honest about Chrome's side-panel limits.

PERMISSIONS EXPLAINED

- tabs: show your open tabs in the side panel and switch between them.
- tabGroups: create and update Chrome tab groups for Spaces and Archive.
- sidePanel: display ArchTabs in Chrome's native side panel.
- storage: save Spaces, settings, and snapshots locally.
- alarms: run idle-tab archive/suspend checks.

Host permissions:

- google-analytics.com: send anonymous install/update/feature-use events. Events do not include tab URLs, tab titles, or page contents.
- api.openai.com, api.anthropic.com, api.groq.com, api.deepseek.com, openrouter.ai: call the AI provider you configure when you submit an AI command. Your provider receives only the tab-management context needed for that request.
- localhost / 127.0.0.1: optional local Ollama requests when you configure a local model.

Optional permissions (asked only when you opt in):

- bookmarks: only when you enable @bookmark search in the command bar.
- history: only when you enable @history search in the command bar.
- sessions: only when you enable recently closed tab restore/search.

No website host permissions. No content scripts. No page content reading. No account.

MAINTENANCE & SUPPORT

- Public CHANGELOG in the repo, linked from this listing.
- Feedback link visible in the side panel footer and on this page.
- 48-hour response target on negative reviews and GitHub issues.

Built by Ilshat Nazargulov.