Zotero Tab Manager

Edge-style named, coloured, and collapsible tab groups for Zotero.

Features

• Group open PDF, EPUB, snapshot, and note tabs by task or research topic.
• Drag one tab on to another to create a named group.
• Drag a tab on to a group label, or on to one of its members, to join it.
• Place newly created groups at the far left, immediately after Library.
• Drag tab edges to reorder tabs and drag group labels to reorder whole groups.
• Drag a member out through its group label or the temporary arrow target to remove it from the group.
• Click a group label to collapse or expand its tabs.
• See a matching colour underline across every tab in a group.
• Rename, recolour, collapse, close, or dissolve a group from its context menu.
• See each group's exact colour in group and colour-selection submenus.
• Add and remove tabs through the normal tab context menu.
• Restore group definitions and tab membership with Zotero's session.
• Keep Zotero's original Library tab and native-style document tabs.
• Choose between Zotero Classic, Edge Rounded, Minimal Line, and Colour Wash group appearances from the plug-in preferences.
• Choose compact, standard, or wide document tabs and optionally hide group counts.
• Use light mode, dark mode, right-to-left layouts, reduced motion, and keyboard controls.
• Keep all tab-group processing local. Zotero only contacts the public update manifest when it performs its normal plug-in update check.

Requirements

• Zotero 7, 8, or 9.0.
• Windows, macOS, or Linux.

The current release is built and package-checked on macOS with Zotero 9.0.6 installed.

Installation

1. Download zotero-tab-manager-1.3.2.xpi from the release artefacts.
2. Open Zotero.
3. Choose Tools → Plugins.
4. Drag the .xpi file on to the Plugins window. You can also use the gear menu and choose Install Plugin From File….
5. Confirm the installation.

Zotero may ask you to restart after installation or an update.

Usage

Create a group by dragging

1. Open at least two documents in Zotero tabs.
2. Drag one tab directly on to another tab.
3. Enter a group name. A useful default name is already filled in, so you can simply confirm it.

The plug-in selects a colour that is not currently in use where possible and moves the new group to the far left, immediately after Library.

Reorder tabs and groups

• Drop a tab near the left or right edge of another tab to place it before or after that tab.
• Drop a tab in the centre of another tab to create a group or join its group.
• Drag a group label to move the complete group before or after another tab or group.
• To remove a tab from its group, drag it to either side of its own group label, or drop it on the arrow target that appears at the end of the tab bar.

Library remains fixed in its original Zotero position and is excluded from all plug-in drag operations.

Create or change a group from a menu

Right-click a document tab and open Add to group. Choose New group… or an existing group. When the tab already belongs to a group, the same context menu also offers Remove from group.

Manage a group

• Click the coloured group label to collapse or expand it.
• Double-click the label to rename it.
• Right-click the label to rename, recolour, collapse, close all member tabs, or dissolve the group.
• Drag another tab on to the label to add it.
• Drag the label itself to move the complete group left or right.

Closing every tab in a group removes the empty group. Dissolving a group keeps its tabs open and removes only the grouping.

Customise the appearance

1. Open Zotero → Settings on macOS or Edit → Settings on Windows and Linux.
2. Select Zotero Tab Manager in the settings sidebar.
3. Choose one of four group styles, a document-tab width, and whether group labels display their tab count.

The settings pane includes a live preview. Changes apply immediately to every open Zotero window without altering group membership.

Keyboard and mouse

• Enter or Space: select the focused tab.
• Left Arrow / Right Arrow: move focus along the visible strip.
• Delete: close the focused document tab.
• Shift+F10 or the context-menu key: open the tab menu.
• Middle-click: close a document tab.
• Mouse wheel over the tab strip: scroll horizontally.

Data and privacy

Group names, colours, and collapsed state are stored in Zotero preferences. A small namespaced group ID is stored in Zotero's normal session data for each member tab. The plug-in does not alter bibliographic items, annotations, PDF files, or the Zotero database. The plug-in code does not send user data over the network. Zotero may request the public updates.json file from GitHub as part of its standard plug-in update check.

Disabling or uninstalling the plug-in immediately restores Zotero's standard tab strip. Existing group metadata is harmless if the plug-in is later reinstalled.

Development

The project deliberately uses plain JavaScript and has no runtime or development package dependencies.

npm test
npm run check
npm run build
npm run validate:xpi

Run the full release check with:

npm run verify

The packaged XPI is written to dist/. See docs/architecture.md for the design and compatibility boundary.

Support and compatibility

Zotero does not yet expose a public tab-group API, so the plug-in uses a narrow adapter around the current Zotero_Tabs object. If a Zotero update changes the tab bar, please include the Zotero version, operating system, and clear reproduction steps in a bug report.

Acknowledgements

Zotero Tab Manager was conceived and directed by rg4sun, with development assistance from OpenAI Codex. Codex contributed to technical research, architecture, implementation, debugging, automated tests, documentation, packaging, and release engineering. Project requirements, design direction, review, and publication remained under human direction and oversight.

Licence

Zotero Tab Manager version 1.3.2 and later are available under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPL-3.0-only).

Every earlier version is also available under AGPLv3. Versions 0.1.0 through 1.3.1 were originally released under MIT and retain that historical grant. See LICENSING.md for the complete, legally accurate history.