GitHub - dkaslovsky/tabgrab: A small command-line tool to extract or restore the URL of every open tab in the current browser window on macOS.

tabgrab

A small command-line tool to extract or restore the URL of every open tab in the current browser window on macOS.

Overview and Usage

tabgrab is a macOS-specific command-line tool to:

output the URL of all open tabs of the current browser window (tabgrab grab)
reopen tabs in a new browser window from a list of URLs (tabgrab tabs)

$ tabgrab -h
tabgrab: extract and restore URL tabs to and from the active browser window

Usage:
  grab:		extracts the URL from each tab of the active browser window
  tabs:		opens the provided URLs as tabs in a new browser window
  close:	closes tabs based on URL matching
  version:	displays application version information

Run `tabgrab <subcommand> -help` for subcommand usage and flags

Extract URLs from open tabs with the grab command:

$ tabgrab grab -h
`grab` extracts the URL from each tab of the active browser window

Usage of grab:
  -browser string
    	browser name (default "chrome")
  -clipboard
    	use clipboard for input/output
  -file string
    	path for output file containing newline-delimited list of URLs
  -max int
    	maximum number of tabs (default 100)
  -prefix string
    	optional prefix for each URL
  -quiet
    	disable console output
  -template string
    output format specifying tab URL with {{.URL}} tab name with {{.Name}} (default "{{.URL}}")
  -verbose
    	enable verbose output

Restore tabs from a list of URL with the tabs command:

$ tabgrab tabs -h
`tabs` opens the provided URLs as tabs in a new browser window

Usage of tabs:
  -browser string
    	browser name (default "chrome")
  -browser-args string
    	optional space-delimited arguments to be passed to the browser
  -clipboard
    	use clipboard for input/output
  -disable-prefix-warning
    	disables warning for potentially mismatched prefix flag and URL prefixes (default false)
  -file string
    	path to file containing newline-delimited list of URLs, ignored if -urls or -clipboard flag is used
  -max int
    	maximum number of tabs (default 100)
  -prefix string
    	optional prefix for each URL
  -urls string
    	newline-delimited list of URLs, typically the output from the grab command, ignored if -clipboard flag is used
  -verbose
    	enable verbose output

Close tabs based on URL matching with the close command:

$ tabgrab close -h
`close` closes tabs based on URL matching

Usage of close:
  -browser string
    	browser name (default "brave")
  -clipboard
    	use clipboard for input/output
  -match string
    	space delimited list of strings for matching tab URLs to close
  -max int
    	maximum number of tabs (default 100)
  -no-match string
    	space delimited list of strings for non-matching tab URLs to close
  -prefix string
    	optional prefix for each URL
  -verbose

The following environment variables can be used to change default flag values:

TABGRAB_BROWSER: sets the default for the browser flag
TABGRAB_BROWSER_ARGS: sets the default for the browser-args flag
TABGRAB_PREFIX: sets the the default for the prefix flag
TABGRAB_TEMPLATE: sets the the default for the template flag

Examples

Using stdout

Extract all open tabs from the browser's current window (defaults)

$ tabgrab grab
https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/tree/main
https://www.espn.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/

Extract at most 2 open tabs from the current Safari window and output with a specified prefix

$ tabgrab grab -browser safari -max 2 -prefix "- "
- https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/tree/main
- https://www.espn.com/

Output template

Extract the name and URL from all open tabs and output in markdown format

$ tabgrab grab -template "[{{.Name}}]({{.URL}})"
[ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.](https://www.espn.com/)
[Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/)

Combine the above with a prefix

$ tabgrab grab -template "[{{.Name}}]({{.URL}})" -prefix "* "
* [ESPN - Serving Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere.](https://www.espn.com/)
* [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/)

A prefix can instead be included in the template string if so desired, but must be specified using the -prefix flag when restoring tabs with the tabs command.

Using the clipboard

To extract all open tabs to the clipboard:

$ tabgrab grab -quiet -clipboard

URL tabs can then be restored from the clipboard:

$ tabgrab tabs -quiet -clipboard

Using a file

$ tabgrab grab -quiet -file "my-tabs.txt"

URL tabs can then be restored from the clipboard:

$ tabgrab tabs -quiet -file "my-tabs.txt"

Multiple outputs

Output is written to each of stdout, the clipboard, and a specified file by including both the -file and -clipboard flags and removing the -quiet flag.

Close tabs

Close tabs with URLs containing "foo":

$ tabgrab close -match "foo"

Close tabs with URLs containing "foo" and "bar":

$ tabgrab close -match "foo bar"

Close tabs with URLs not containing "foo":

$ tabgrab close -no-match "foo"

Close tabs with URLs containing "foo" but not containing "bar":

$ tabgrab close -match "foo" -no-match "bar"

Support status for common browsers

ChatGPT Atlas - supported
Chrome - supported (default)
Brave - supported
Comet - supported
Safari - supported
Firefox - not supported due to compatibility issues with the method used for extracting tab URLs

Installation Options

Download a pre-built binary (see releases):

ARM:

$ curl -o tabgrab -L https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/releases/latest/download/tabgrab_darwin_arm64

AMD:

$ curl -o tabgrab -L https://github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab/releases/latest/download/tabgrab_darwin_amd64

Install using Go:

$ go install github.com/dkaslovsky/tabgrab@latest

Build from source by cloning this repository and running go build in the tabgrab root directory.

Security

tabgrab makes no guarantees about security and executes shell commands/Apple Scripts to open browser applications.