Arc Tabs

About

Arc Tabs 🌀

A Chromium extension that automatically manages inactive tabs — inspired by Arc browser's tab auto-archiving.

 Works with Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, and any Chromium-based browser.

 Features

 - Three operating modes — Off (disabled), Manual (review & close yourself), Auto (closes stale tabs on browser startup)
 - Smart inactivity tracking — Monitors tab focus and navigation; survives browser restarts with cross-session timestamp inheritance
 - Domain protection — Keep specific domains open forever (e.g. github.com, gmail.com)
 - Per-domain actions — Keep (protect domain), Snooze (reset timer), Close
 - Bulk actions — Close All / Snooze All inactive tabs at once
 - Configurable thresholds — Inactivity period (30 min – 48 hours) and check interval (1 – 60 min)
 - Accent color picker — 6 pastel themes (Violet, Rose, Sky, Mint, Peach, Coral)
 - Pinned tab safety — Pinned tabs are never tracked or closed
 - Badge indicator — Extension icon shows count of pending closures
 - Session restore compatible — Works seamlessly with "Continue where you left off"

How it works

The background service worker monitors tab activity and records timestamps. Every few minutes (configurable), an alarm checks for tabs inactive beyond your threshold. Inactive tabs are grouped by domain and flagged for review, with a count badge on the extension icon.

Three modes control behavior:

 - Off — Extension is disabled, no tracking, no badge
 - Manual — Inactive tabs are flagged and shown in the popup for you to review and close yourself
 - Auto — Same as Manual during your session, but stale tabs are automatically closed when you restart your browser

Click the extension icon to open the popup:

 - Tabs view — See all inactive tabs grouped by domain, expand any domain to see individual tab titles and last active time
 - Protected view — Manage domains that are never auto-closed (add or remove with one click)
 - Settings — Set your inactivity threshold, check interval, and pick an accent color

Privacy

Arc Tabs stores everything locally. No data is ever sent to a server. No analytics. No third-party tracking. All tab records, settings, and domain lists are saved in chrome.storage.local and never leave your machine.