TabCatcher
A browser extension for people who open 47 tabs and call it "research".
TabCatcher is a tiny browser extension that rounds up all your feral open tabs and herds them into a neat Markdown file — titles, URLs, descriptions, and all. Works on Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, and Edge.
What it does
You click a button. Your tabs become a .md file. That's it. That's the whole thing.
More specifically:
- Counts your open tabs and windows so you can feel something
- Lets you choose which windows or tab groups to catch — ignore the noise, export the signal
- Fetches
<meta>descriptions from each page (optional — it does slow things down a smidge) - Groups tabs by window if you're the type who organizes chaos into labeled chaos
- Stamps the export with a timestamp so future-you knows exactly when past-you had 74 tabs open at 2am
Installation
This extension isn't on the stores (yet). Load it manually:
- Clone or download this repo
Then follow the steps for your browser:
Chrome / Chromium
- Go to
chrome://extensions/ - Enable Developer mode (toggle, top-right)
- Click Load unpacked and select this folder
- Pin the extension to your toolbar
Microsoft Edge
- Go to
edge://extensions/ - Enable Developer mode (toggle, left sidebar)
- Click Load unpacked and select this folder
- Pin the extension to your toolbar
Firefox
- Go to
about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox - Click Load Temporary Add-on...
- Navigate into this folder and select
manifest.json - The extension loads until Firefox restarts — for a permanent install, sign and submit it to AMO
Note: Tab group selection is a Chrome/Edge feature. On Firefox you'll see windows only — that's expected.
Usage
- Click the TabCatcher icon in your toolbar
- Check or uncheck which windows (and tab groups, on Chrome/Edge) to include
- Pick your export options
- Hit Export Tabs
- Save the
.mdfile somewhere you'll definitely find it later
Export options
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Include page descriptions | On | Grabs meta description / og:description from each tab |
| Group by window | Off | Splits the export into sections per browser window |
| Include timestamp | On | Adds the date/time to the top of the file |
Output format
The exported file looks something like this:
# Browser Tabs Export
**Exported:** Tuesday, April 1, 2026 at 2:14 AM
**Total Tabs:** 52
---
- **How to center a div - Stack Overflow**
- URL: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...
- Description: The definitive resource for div-centering discourse
- **cute cat videos - YouTube**
- URL: https://youtube.com/...
Permissions
TabCatcher asks for only what it needs:
tabs— to read tab titles and URLsscripting— to extract page descriptions from each tabdownloads— to save the.mdfile to your diskactiveTab— standard popup permission
Contributing
Found a bug? Have a feature idea? Open an issue or a PR. All tabs welcome.
Built because browser bookmarks are a lie we tell ourselves.