Tabber Browser Bridge is a companion extension for Tabber (spookyfish.com/tabber), a Windows app that replaces Alt-Tab with a fast, visual window switcher.
This extension does nothing on its own — it only works together with the Tabber desktop app. Once both are installed, your Firefox tabs appear in Tabber's switcher as individual previews you can jump to directly, instead of being hidden behind one generic "Firefox" entry.
What it does: • Sends your open tab list (titles, URLs, favicons) to the Tabber app running on your computer over a local connection — this never leaves your machine or reaches Spooky Fish's servers. • Lets Tabber activate, close, or preview a tab you select in the switcher.
This extension is a companion bridge for Tabber, a paid Windows desktop app that replaces Alt-Tab (https://spookyfish.com/tabber, free trial available). The extension has no independent UI or behavior of its own — it exists solely to relay tab data to the Tabber app running locally.
nativeMessaging: The extension connects to a native messaging host named com.tabber.host.firefox (installed alongside the Tabber desktop app, source not part of this submission). It sends the open tab list (titles, URLs, favicons) over stdio and receives commands to activate/close a tab. This data is never transmitted over the network — it stays entirely on the user's machine, which is why browsingActivity was declared under Data Collection Permissions rather than none.
<all_urls> host permission: Used only for chrome.tabs.captureVisibleTab(), so Tabber can show a live thumbnail of the active tab. This is requested progressively, not on install — the extension starts with basic permissions only, and the user must explicitly click "Enable live tab previews" in the extension's popup (popup.js), which calls chrome.permissions.request().
Testing without Tabber installed: Without the native host present, browser.runtime.connectNative() will fail and the extension retries with backoff (visible in the console as repeated connection attempts every ~2-10s, and a keepalive alarm every ~24s) — this is expected, not a bug. To see full functionality, Tabber's Windows trial can be installed from the link above.
Source is plain, unminified JavaScript with no build step — background.js, popup.js, and popup.html are the complete, human-readable source, shared (kept in sync) with the Chrome/Edge Web Store versions of this extension.
nativeMessaging: The extension connects to a native messaging host named com.tabber.host.firefox (installed alongside the Tabber desktop app, source not part of this submission). It sends the open tab list (titles, URLs, favicons) over stdio and receives commands to activate/close a tab. This data is never transmitted over the network — it stays entirely on the user's machine, which is why browsingActivity was declared under Data Collection Permissions rather than none.
<all_urls> host permission: Used only for chrome.tabs.captureVisibleTab(), so Tabber can show a live thumbnail of the active tab. This is requested progressively, not on install — the extension starts with basic permissions only, and the user must explicitly click "Enable live tab previews" in the extension's popup (popup.js), which calls chrome.permissions.request().
Testing without Tabber installed: Without the native host present, browser.runtime.connectNative() will fail and the extension retries with backoff (visible in the console as repeated connection attempts every ~2-10s, and a keepalive alarm every ~24s) — this is expected, not a bug. To see full functionality, Tabber's Windows trial can be installed from the link above.
Source is plain, unminified JavaScript with no build step — background.js, popup.js, and popup.html are the complete, human-readable source, shared (kept in sync) with the Chrome/Edge Web Store versions of this extension.