🐑 herd

Herd your tabs. Never lose context again.

An open-source tab organizer that automatically groups your browser tabs by activity. Install the extension and forget about it — or connect it to your AI agent for context-aware organization.

The Problem

You open tabs for a meeting, a code review, a doc, a Jira ticket, Stack Overflow... and suddenly you have 47 tabs and no idea which ones belong together or why you opened them.

The Solution

herd groups your tabs automatically — by Code Review, Documentation, Incidents, Design, etc. Tell your AI agent "focus on auth migration" and related tabs get highlighted.

📂 Tab Groups:

  [yellow] 🎯 Current Focus (5 tabs)
       • PR #4421 - Migrate auth to MSAL
       • Auth migration design doc
       • Sprint Review Notes

  [green] Code Review (3 tabs)
  [red] Incidents (6 tabs)
  [purple] Documentation (2 tabs)
  [cyan] Dev Tools (2 tabs)

Quick Start

1. Install the extension

1. Open edge://extensions or chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode
3. Click Load unpacked → select the extension/ folder
4. Done. Your tabs are now grouped automatically every hour.

2. Configure (optional)

• Click the herd icon → tweak focus topics, trigger organize
• Right-click any tab → "Herd: Add tab to category" → pick a group
• Extension settings → manage all rules, colors, schedule

3. Connect to AI agent (optional, for power users)

cd ~/source/herd && npm install
node service/index.js  # Starts MCP + HTTP server

Add to your MCP config (Copilot CLI, Claude, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "herd": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/herd/service/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Now say: "organize my tabs, focus on the auth migration"

Features

Feature	How
Auto-group tabs by activity	Extension runs on timer (15m–2h)
Right-click → assign to category	Context menu on any tab
Custom rules (URL patterns)	Extension settings page
AI-powered focus	MCP tool: herd_set_focus
Natural language control	Via any MCP-compatible AI agent
Export/import rules	Share your config with teammates
Per-window grouping	Never moves tabs across windows

Architecture

┌──────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│ Browser Extension │◄────│  Local Service       │◄────│ AI Agent         │
│ (groups tabs)     │poll │  (Node.js)           │MCP  │ (Copilot/Claude) │
│                   │────►│  HTTP :9922 + stdio  │────►│                  │
└──────────────────┘     └─────────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘

• Extension — standalone, works without the service. Handles all tab manipulation.
• Service — bridges AI agents to the extension. Exposes MCP tools + HTTP API.
• AI Agent — interprets natural language, queries work context, calls MCP tools.

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
herd_organize	Organize tabs into groups (optional: set focus topics)
herd_list_tabs	List all tabs with classification
herd_set_focus	Set focus keywords (matching tabs → "Current Focus")
herd_add_rule	Add URL pattern to a category
herd_remove_rule	Remove a pattern or whole category
herd_get_rules	Get current classification rules
herd_status	Extension status, last run, schedule

Default Categories

Category	Matches	Color
Code Review	GitHub PRs, ADO PRs, GitLab MRs	🟢 green
Work Items	ADO boards, Jira, Linear	🔵 blue
Incidents	ICM, PagerDuty, ServiceNow	🔴 red
Design	Figma, Canva, Miro	🩷 pink
Documentation	wikis, docs.*, Notion, Loop	🟣 purple
AI & Copilot	M365 Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude	🟠 orange
Email	Outlook, Gmail	🟡 yellow
Meetings & Chat	Teams, Zoom, Slack	🔴 red
Dev Tools	localhost, Codespaces, vscode.dev	🔵 cyan

Configuration

All configuration happens through the extension UI:

• Popup → quick organize, set focus, toggle auto
• Options page → full rule management (add/edit/delete, colors, schedule)
• Right-click menu → instantly assign any tab to a category

Rules are stored in the browser and sync with your profile.

Contributing

PRs welcome! Ideas:

• Firefox support
• Publish to Edge/Chrome extension stores
• Native messaging (replace HTTP polling with direct pipe)
• Tab activity tracking (time-based staleness detection)
• WorkIQ integration module (auto-fetch focus from M365)
• Team-shared rule sets

License

MIT