Emacs Tab Switcher for Firefox

A Firefox extension that provides Emacs-like tab management with fuzzy search and quick switching. Features a centered overlay interface that appears on top of web pages.

✨ Features

Core Functionality

• Overlay interface - Appears at configurable screen positions
• Fuzzy search through all open tabs by title and URL with subtle highlighting
• Recency-based sorting - most recently used tabs appear first
• Smart fallback - works with or without Fuse.js library

Keyboard Navigation

• Ctrl+. (default) - Toggle tab switcher
• Ctrl+J/K - Navigate up/down (Emacs-style)
• Arrow keys/Tab - Alternative navigation
• Type to search - Filter tabs in real-time
• Enter - Switch to selected tab
• Escape - Close switcher

Customization

• 7 position options - Top/center/bottom × left/center/right
• 3 themes - Light (default), dark, system auto-detect
• Custom keybindings - Record any key combination
• Display limits - Control max items shown (5-50)
• Search sensitivity - Adjust fuzzy matching threshold

🚀 Installation

Temporary Installation (Development)

1. Download all files to a folder
2. Open Firefox and navigate to about:debugging
3. Click "This Firefox" in the sidebar
4. Click "Load Temporary Add-on"
5. Select the manifest.json file

Permanent Installation

Submit to Mozilla Add-ons store or self-sign the extension.

🎯 Usage

1. Press Ctrl+. (or your custom shortcut) to open the overlay
2. Type to filter tabs by title or URL
3. Navigate with Ctrl+J/K or arrow keys
4. Press Enter to switch to selected tab
5. Press Escape to close

⚙️ Configuration

Access settings through Firefox Add-ons Manager → Extension Options:

Position Settings

• Top/Center/Bottom × Left/Center/Right placement options
• Default: Top Center

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Browser shortcut: Ctrl+Period (configure in Firefox Add-ons Manager)
• Page-level shortcut: Custom recordable key combinations

Appearance

• Themes: Light, Dark, System (follows OS preference)
• Max items: Limit displayed tabs (5-50)
• Search sensitivity: Fuzzy matching threshold

Display Options

• Show URLs: Toggle URL display under tab titles
• Show window numbers: Display which window tabs belong to

🎨 Themes

• Light - Clean, professional appearance with subtle grays
• Dark - Easy on the eyes for low-light environments
• System - Automatically follows your OS dark/light mode preference

🔧 Optional: Hide Firefox Tab Bar

To use this as your primary tab interface:

1. Type about:config → Accept the risk
2. Search for toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets
3. Set to true
4. Go to about:support → Profile Folder → Open Folder
5. Create chrome folder in profile directory
6. Copy provided userChrome.css into chrome folder
7. Restart Firefox

📁 Extension Files

• manifest.json - Extension configuration and permissions
• content.js/css - Overlay interface and functionality
• background.js - Tab tracking and message handling
• options.html/js/css - Settings interface
• popup.html/js/css - Legacy popup interface
• fuse.min.js - Fuzzy search library (fallback to simple search if fails)
• userChrome.css - Optional Firefox tab bar hiding
• icon.png - Extension icon

🚫 Limitations

The extension cannot run on Firefox internal pages (about:*, moz-extension://) due to browser security restrictions. This is normal behavior for all Firefox extensions.

🤝 Contributing

This extension is designed to be lightweight, fast, and focused on the core tab switching experience with Emacs-inspired keybindings.