Tabstronaut excels in tab management for VS Code by enabling users to archive and retrieve specific tab groups. It ensures frequently-used or feature-specific tabs are systematically stored for future access.

Support the creator

Love this extension? You can support its development with a small donation - completely optional! Your support helps me keep creating and improving tools like this.

Features

• Create tab groups instantly
  • Collect your current or all open tabs into organized groups with a single click.
• Drag-and-drop mastery
  • Drag a group onto another group to reorder, onto a tab to nest it inside that group, or onto empty space to promote it to the top level.
• Share and revisit your workspaces
  • Save tab groups for later, export them to share, or bring back archived sets whenever inspiration strikes.

Tips

Check out @tabstronaut_dev for Tabstronaut tips and how-to videos.

Quick Access to Tabstronaut's Context Menu

You can quickly access the Tabstronaut's context menu without having to right-click. Simply press Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Alt+A on macOS. You can also open this menu from the title bar of the Tabstronaut view, the right-click menu or the 'More Actions...' menu.

Instantly Restore Tab Groups with Keybindings

Tabstronaut now supports keybindings to restore tab groups. Here's how to make the most out of them:

• Restore the First Tab Group: Ctrl+Alt+1 (or Cmd+Alt+1 on macOS)
• Restore the Second Tab Group: Ctrl+Alt+2 (or Cmd+Alt+2 on macOS)
• ... and so on, up to the ninth group with Ctrl+Alt+9 (or Cmd+Alt+9 on macOS).

Extension Settings

To tailor Tabstronaut to your preferences:

• Click the "..." (More Options...) button in the Tabstronaut title bar and click "Settings".

OR

• Open VS Code Settings: Ctrl+Shift+P → "Preferences: Open Settings (UI)" and search for "Tabstronaut".

Your changes will be saved automatically.

Privacy

Tabstronaut includes a tab group suggestion feature that learns which files you tend to open together. Here is exactly what it does and does not do.

What is always true regardless of AI:

• What is tracked: The file paths of tabs you have open in VS Code, and how often those files appear open at the same time.
• Where it is stored: Entirely on your local machine, inside VS Code's built-in workspace storage (workspaceState).
• File contents are never read under any circumstances.

You can clear all tracked data at any time by running Tabstronaut: Clear Tab Usage Data from the command palette.

AI-powered naming (optional):

If you have a VS Code language model provider installed (such as GitHub Copilot), Tabstronaut will use it to generate a better group name. In that case:

• What is sent: Only the bare file names of the suggested files (e.g. Button.tsx, Input.tsx) — never full paths, never file contents.
• Where it goes: To whichever language model provider you have enabled in VS Code. For GitHub Copilot this means Microsoft's servers, subject to your existing Copilot agreement.

The suggestion item shows a sparkle icon when AI naming is active, and a lightbulb icon when using the local heuristic only.

Settings:

Both features can be controlled independently in VS Code Settings (search for "Tabstronaut"):

• Enable Tab Group Suggestions — master switch. Turn this off to disable all usage tracking and suggestions entirely.
• Enable AI Group Naming — turn this off to keep suggestions but use only the local heuristic for naming. No data will leave your device.

Known Issues

If you encounter any other problem, please open an Issue on the GitHub repository.

Release Notes

For a detailed list of all updates in bullet point format, see our Change Log.