tabGroups

This permission is essential for any extension that acts as a "tab manager" or "session manager" with support for modern tab grouping features.

Examples:

• An extension that automatically groups tabs by domain.
• A "workspace" extension that saves and restores windows with their tab groups intact.
• A productivity tool that collapses tab groups when they are not in use.

{
  "name": "My Tab Group Manager",
  "version": "1.0",
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "permissions": [
    "tabGroups",
    "tabs"
  ]
}

Note: The tabs permission is almost always required alongside tabGroups to do anything useful.

Why is it not risky?

This permission lets an extension organize your tabs into groups, including naming and coloring them. It is used by tab manager extensions to help you stay organized.

This is a safe permission. It does not give the extension any ability to see the content of your tabs or your browsing history. While a poorly made extension could be annoying by messing up your tab organization, it cannot access your personal data.

This example finds all tabs from developer.chrome.com and moves them into a new, blue-colored group named "Chrome Dev".

// background.js

chrome.action.onClicked.addListener(groupDevTabs);

async function groupDevTabs() {
  try {
    // Find all the relevant tabs
    const tabs = await chrome.tabs.query({ url: "https://developer.chrome.com/*" });
    if (tabs.length === 0) {
      console.log("No dev tabs found to group.");
      return;
    }
    const tabIds = tabs.map(tab => tab.id);

    // Group the tabs
    const groupId = await chrome.tabs.group({ tabIds: tabIds });
    console.log(`Created group with ID: ${groupId}`);

    // Update the group's appearance
    await chrome.tabGroups.update(groupId, {
      title: "Chrome Dev",
      color: "blue"
    });
    console.log("Updated group properties.");

  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Failed to group tabs:", error);
  }
}