chrome-tab-cleaner

Chrome Tab Cleaner

Analyze the user's real Chromium-based browser on macOS, classify every open tab, and close the junk after the user confirms. Closing is reversible (Cmd+Shift+T) and never touches browsing history.

Engine: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/chrome_tabs.py — stdlib Python 3 + osascript, no dependencies. (Under Codex the same file is at ${CODEX_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/chrome_tabs.py; if neither env var is set, call it by its path.)

Workflow

1. Guard against an automation browser. chrome-devtools-mcp and similar MCP servers launch a separate Chrome under ~/.cache/chrome-devtools-mcp/chrome-profile. When running, it can hijack AppleScript's Apple Events so you only see its 1–2 throwaway tabs. Detect and, if present, stop only that disposable instance first:

   pgrep -f "chrome-devtools-mcp/chrome-profile" && \
     pkill -f "user-data-dir=.*chrome-devtools-mcp/chrome-profile"
   

   This never touches the user's daily browser (which runs with no --user-data-dir). The MCP server relaunches its own Chrome on demand later.

2. Analyze (read-only).

   python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/chrome_tabs.py" analyze
   

   Present the category table. If the total is implausibly small (0–2) while the user insists they have many tabs, go back to step 1. For a different browser pass --browser "Brave Browser" (or Microsoft Edge, Chromium).

3. Ask which tier to close, safest first:

   • junk — blank new-tab pages, search-result pages, translate pages, and exact-duplicate URLs (first kept). Zero-risk.
   • browsing — adds social/feed tabs: X/Twitter, Product Hunt, WeChat articles, YouTube/Reddit/Discord/Xiaohongshu/TikTok/Instagram, and surplus localhost dev servers.
   • aggressive — everything except the work-dashboard allow-list (Vercel, Sentry, Supabase, Fly, Braintrust, Cloudflare, Feishu, App Store Connect, OpenRouter, PostHog, Langfuse, Upstash, GCP, Anthropic/OpenAI/Claude). Also closes GitHub and misc tabs — confirm explicitly.

   Tiers compose: --tier junk --tier browsing. You can also target one category by key: blank, search, translate, duplicate, x, producthunt, wechat, social, localhost, github, other.

4. Dry-run, then execute. Always show the dry-run count first; only add --execute after the user confirms the number.

   python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/chrome_tabs.py" close --tier junk
   python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/chrome_tabs.py" close --tier junk --execute
   

Rules

• Never run --execute without explicit user confirmation of the count.
• Never clean the chrome-devtools-mcp automation profile.
• The work-dashboard allow-list is the user's livelihood — aggressive preserves it.
• Reassure the user that closes are reversible (Cmd+Shift+T, history intact), but still confirm before large closes.

Customize

Users can add ~/.config/chrome-tab-cleaner/config.json with browser, work_hosts, work_host_suffixes, social_hosts (each extends the defaults), or edit the lists / classify() ladder in scripts/chrome_tabs.py.