I built a New Tab replacement for developers drowning in tabs

#chrome #productivity #typescript #webdev

Every developer I know has the same problem: too many tabs, no context, and a vague sense of dread every time they open a new one.

I'd open a new tab and stare at Chrome's default page — a blank slate with zero information about what I was working on. Was it the PR I needed to review? The Figma file from yesterday? The Stack Overflow answer I had open?

So I built TabLobby — a Chrome/Brave extension that replaces your New Tab page with an actual workspace.

What it does

Every time you open a new tab, instead of a blank page you see:

All your open windows — grouped, labeled, with every tab visible at a glance
Saved collections — capture your current context (project tabs, research tabs, anything) with one click. Restore it later exactly as you left it.
Live search — ⌘K across all open tabs, saved sessions, and collections instantly
Duplicate detection — red DUP badge when you've got the same URL open twice (happens more than I'd like to admit)
Drag & drop — move tabs between windows, reorder them, with undo support (Ctrl+Z)
Bookmark manager — right panel with your full bookmark tree, pin frequently used folders
Dark mode — warm amber accent, not the harsh blue-white most extensions default to

The stack

Built with React + TypeScript, Chrome Manifest V3, Vite, and @dnd-kit for drag & drop. Self-hosted DM Sans font (no Google Fonts CDN in extensions), PostHog for analytics, and a full Playwright test suite running in GitHub Actions CI.

The hardest part wasn't the UI — it was getting drag & drop to feel right. Tabs need to snap back with a rubber-band animation when dropped, not just teleport. Spent an embarrassing amount of time on cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1) at 580ms.

The "aha" moment I was building for

Open a new tab → see exactly where you left off → continue without losing 30 seconds reconstructing your mental model.

That's it. Not a productivity system. Not another todo app. Just: you open a new tab, you know what you're doing.

Update — v1.4.0: Your lobby, your way

Shipped a few weeks in — here's what's new:

My TabLobby page — click the avatar pill in the topbar to open a calm personal hub. Greeting, settings, and a live preview of your current window in one place.
Display name — tell TabLobby what to call you. You're back, Louis. Stored locally, never sent anywhere.
Time-ago on tab cards — now, 5m, 2h on every live tab so you know which ones are still warm.
Favicon cluster on window pills — first 3 favicons surface in the window row. Recognize windows at a glance instead of reading the label.
Restore confirmation toast — gentle peach confirmation with exact tab count when you restore a session.