TabzChrome Guide

TabzChrome is a Chrome extension providing full Linux terminals in your browser sidebar with persistence, profiles, and browser automation.

When to Use This Skill

Trigger on questions about:

Profile creation and management
Terminal spawning and API integration
MCP browser automation tools
Debugging terminal issues
Recent features and changes

Quick Reference

Profiles

Profiles are templates for spawning terminals with saved settings (theme, font, directory, startup command).

To create a profile:

Open Settings (⚙️) → Profiles tab
Click "Add Profile"
Set name, category, theme, font size
Optional: working directory (empty = inherits from header)
Optional: startup command (e.g., lazygit, htop)

Key features:

Smart directory inheritance from header
Categories with 9 colors (collapsible)
Import/Export as JSON
Drag-drop reordering in dashboard

Integration

Spawn API - Create terminals programmatically:

TOKEN=$(cat /tmp/tabz-auth-token)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8129/api/spawn \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name": "Worker", "workingDir": "~/projects", "command": "claude"}'

Custom triggers - Add to any HTML element:

<button data-terminal-command="npm run dev">Start Dev</button>

For full API documentation, read references/api-endpoints.md.

MCP Tools

20 tools for browser automation: screenshots, clicks, downloads, network capture.

Quick example:

mcp-cli info tabz/tabz_screenshot       # Check schema first
mcp-cli call tabz/tabz_screenshot '{}'  # Capture viewport

Category	Tools
Tab Management	`list_tabs`, `switch_tab`, `rename_tab`
Screenshots	`screenshot`, `screenshot_full`
Interaction	`click`, `fill`, `execute_script`
Downloads	`download_image`, `download_file`, `cancel_download`

For complete tool reference, read references/mcp-tools.md.

Debugging

Essential commands:

ps aux | grep "node server.js" | grep -v grep  # Backend running?
tmux ls | grep "^ctt-"                          # List terminals
curl http://localhost:8129/api/health           # Health check

For common issues and solutions, read references/debugging.md.

Recent Features

Version	Key Feature
1.1.16	tabz-guide plugin, tui-expert agent
1.1.15	Context window % on tabs, audio alerts
1.1.14	3D Focus Mode
1.1.13	View as Text

For full changelog, read references/changelog.md.

Advanced Topics

Ghost Badge (Detached Sessions)

To free tab space while keeping sessions alive:

Right-click tab → "👻 Detach Session"
Ghost badge (👻) appears in header with count
Click badge → Reattach or Kill sessions

Claude Status Tracking

Tabs show live Claude status with emoji indicators:

🤖✅ Ready/waiting
🤖⏳ Thinking
🤖🔧 Using tool
🤖🤖 Subagents running

Voice pool: Select "Random (unique per terminal)" to distinguish multiple Claude sessions.

Renderer Toggle

Toggle WebGL/Canvas in header (GPU icon):

Canvas (default): Works everywhere, supports light mode
WebGL: GPU-accelerated, dark mode only

File Locations

Paths relative to TabzChrome installation directory.

File	Purpose
`README.md`	User guide
`docs/API.md`	REST API reference
`CHANGELOG.md`	Version history
`tabz-mcp-server/MCP_TOOLS.md`	MCP tools reference
`docs/PLUGIN.md`	Plugin/hook setup

Essential Commands

# Backend
./scripts/dev.sh                  # Start backend (tmux session)

# Build
npm run build                     # Build extension

# MCP
mcp-cli info tabz/<tool>          # Check schema (REQUIRED)
mcp-cli call tabz/<tool> '{...}'  # Call tool

# API
curl http://localhost:8129/api/health

For detailed information on any topic, read the corresponding file in references/.

tabz-guide