2ManyTabs MCP

List, group, deduplicate, and bulk-close browser tabs with natural language — from any MCP client.

A Chrome extension acts as a thin proxy for chrome.tabs. A Node.js MCP host handles all the logic (filtering, grouping, dedup) and talks to your AI client over stdio. Everything runs locally on loopback.

Browsers

Works with any Chromium browser:

Firefox and Safari are planned.

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Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+
• Local port 9876 available

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Step 1 · Install the MCP Host

Pick your client below. They all run the same server — just different config locations.

Verified Clients

Claude Code

claude mcp add 2manytabs-mcp -- npx -y 2manytabs-mcp-host

Claude Desktop

Add to your config file:

OS	Path
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux	~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2manytabs-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "2manytabs-mcp-host"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

VS Code / GitHub Copilot Chat

Create .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace (or add to your user settings.json under "mcp"):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2manytabs-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "2manytabs-mcp-host"]
    }
  }
}

See the VS Code MCP docs for details.

Cursor

Open Settings → MCP and add a new server, or create/edit .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2manytabs-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "2manytabs-mcp-host"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Open Settings → Cascade → MCP, or create/edit mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2manytabs-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "2manytabs-mcp-host"]
    }
  }
}

See the Windsurf MCP guide for details.

Continue

Add to .continue/config.json (or create .continue/mcpServers/2manytabs-mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "2manytabs-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "2manytabs-mcp-host"]
    }
  }
}

See the Continue MCP docs for details.

Cline

Open the MCP Servers panel in Cline and add a new server:

• Command: npx
• Args: -y 2manytabs-mcp-host

Or edit the Cline MCP config JSON directly with the same block used above. See the Cline MCP docs for details.

Hermes Agent

hermes mcp add 2manytabs-mcp --command "npx -y 2manytabs-mcp-host"

Restart your session (/reset or start a new hermes invocation), then verify:

hermes mcp list
hermes mcp test 2manytabs-mcp

Config lives at ~/.hermes/config.yaml under the mcp section.

Should Also Work

These clients support MCP but we haven't tested them directly. The same JSON config block should work — just drop it into the client's MCP config file:

Client	Notes
LibreChat	MCP agent/tool server support documented
ChatGPT	MCP connectors exist; local stdio flow unverified
Sourcegraph Cody	MCP via OpenCTX; setup syntax unverified
Genkit	genkitx-mcp plugin can consume MCP servers
Zed	Tool support is experimental — prompts/resources only in some builds

If your client speaks MCP over stdio, it will work. Point it at npx -y 2manytabs-mcp-host and you're set.

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Step 2 · Load the Browser Extension

1. Go to chrome://extensions/ (or edge://extensions/, brave://extensions/, etc.)
2. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top-right)
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select the extension/ directory from this repo (or the unzipped release)
5. Click the extension icon in the toolbar — the popup should show Connected once the host is running

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What You Can Say

Just talk to your AI client:

• "Show me all my open tabs."
• "Find and close duplicate tabs."
• "Close everything matching 'youtube'."
• "Do a dry run of closing all tabs from reddit.com."
• "Group my tabs by domain and show the breakdown."

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Tools

The host exposes two tools:

list_tabs

Read-only. Returns a domain histogram with proportional bars and a per-domain listing with titles, pinned (📌), and audible (🔊) flags.

Param	Type	Default	Description
query	string	—	Substring filter on title or URL
group_by	"domain" · "window" · "none"	"domain"	How to group results
duplicates_only	boolean	false	Show only duplicate URLs

close_tabs

Closes tabs. Exactly one selection mode required:

Param	Type	Description
tab_ids	number[]	Close specific tab IDs
match	string	Close tabs matching this substring
duplicates	boolean	Close all duplicates (keeps first occurrence)
dry_run	boolean	Preview what would close without closing

open_tabs

Opens new tabs in the browser.

Param	Type	Description
urls	string[]	Array of URLs to open

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Architecture

  AI Client ◄──stdio──► MCP Host ──WebSocket :9876──► Browser Extension
                           │
                           ▼
                      Follower Hosts

• The extension is a thin proxy — query and close only. All logic lives in the host, so new capabilities ship without an extension update.
• Multiple AI clients can share one browser. Hosts self-organize: one binds port 9876 (owner), the rest proxy through it (followers). On owner death, followers re-elect automatically.
• The extension reconnects via chrome.alarms every 30s (MV3 idle behavior).

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Security

• Loopback only — the server binds to 127.0.0.1, not 0.0.0.0.
• Origin validation — only chrome-extension:// origins can connect. Web pages attempting loopback attacks get rejected with a 4003 close code.
• No cloud, no daemon — everything stays on your machine.

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Contributing

PRs welcome. Browser support is the biggest gap right now:

For a local dev setup, clone the repo and run bash install.sh.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.