Tab Closer

A Chrome/Chromium extension that automatically closes stale tabs based on inactivity time.

Features

• Auto-close stale tabs - Automatically closes tabs that haven't been active for a configurable period (24h, 48h, or custom)
• Activity-based tracking - Tracks when you last viewed each tab, not when it was opened
• Tab protection - Protect important tabs from being auto-closed via:
  • Right-click on page content → "Protect/Unprotect This Tab"
  • Toggle in the extension popup
• Auto-protection - Pinned tabs and configured domains are automatically protected
• Silent operation - Runs quietly in the background with 5-minute check intervals

Installation

From Source (Developer Mode)

1. Clone or download this repository
2. Open your browser and navigate to chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode (toggle in top-right corner)
4. Click Load unpacked
5. Select the tab-closer folder
6. The extension icon should appear in your toolbar

Usage

Extension Popup

Click the extension icon to:

• View all tabs in the current window with their "age" (time since last active)
• See which tabs are protected (green background)
• See which tabs are stale and will be closed soon (orange background)
• Toggle protection for any tab
• Access settings via the gear icon

Settings

Open the options page to configure:

• Stale threshold - Choose 24 hours, 48 hours, or a custom value
• Auto-protect pinned tabs - Enable/disable automatic protection for pinned tabs
• Protected domains - Add domains that should never have tabs auto-closed (e.g., github.com, gmail.com)

Protection Status Indicators

In the popup, tabs show badges indicating their protection status:

• Active - Currently focused tab (never closed)
• Pinned - Pinned tab (auto-protected if enabled)
• Domain - URL matches a protected domain
• Protected button - Manually protected

How It Works

1. The extension tracks the last time each tab was activated (switched to)
2. Every 5 minutes, it checks all tabs against the stale threshold
3. Tabs exceeding the threshold are closed unless they are:
   • The currently active tab
   • Manually protected
   • Pinned (if auto-protect pinned is enabled)
   • On a protected domain

Browser Compatibility

This extension uses Manifest V3 and should work with:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Brave
• Dia Browser
• Other Chromium-based browsers

License

MIT