ViperTab

A macOS-inspired new tab page for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and other Chromium-based browsers — glass-themed UI, helpful widgets, an editable dock, and a /-key Spotlight that searches the web, your bookmarks, and your open tabs. Part of the ViperShard family.

→ Download & install · Latest release · All versions

Features

• Menu bar — translucent glass bar with date/time and quick-access buttons.
• Glass widgets — clock, weather (Open-Meteo, no API key), notes (auto-saved), calculator, world clocks, and recently closed tabs.
• Dock — fully editable. Add, rename, re-icon, and remove your favorite shortcuts.
• Spotlight — press / (or ⌘/Ctrl + K, or click the menu-bar magnifier) to search bookmarks, open tabs, and the web.
• Wallpaper picker — drop in any image. Defaults to a Sequoia-style sunset gradient.
• Settings — °F/°C, 12h/24h, dock items.

Install (Load Unpacked)

1. Download the latest .zip from https://vipershard.github.io/ViperTab/ (or the Releases page).
2. Unzip anywhere.
3. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions, brave://extensions).
4. Toggle Developer mode on (top right).
5. Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder.
6. Open a new tab — ViperTab takes over. ✨

When the weather widget runs for the first time, the browser asks for location access. Allow it for live weather; deny it and the widget just stays blank.

Auto-updates

ViperTab checks UPDATE_CHECK_URL (defined at the top of script.js) on every new tab. If the version field in that JSON is newer than the installed manifest.json, an "Update available" banner appears at the top of the desktop with a download link.

To wire this up:

1. Push this folder to a public GitHub repo (default URL points at ViperShard/ViperTab).
2. Update version.json at the repo root every time you ship a release — bump version, set url to the latest .zip (Releases page works), put release notes in notes.
3. Bump manifest.json#version and tag/release.

UPDATE_CHECK_URL in script.js should point at the raw version.json URL (e.g. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/USER/REPO/main/version.json). Change it in your fork.

Important caveat: for installs done via Load Unpacked (the only option until you publish to the Chrome Web Store), Chrome will not download new code automatically. The banner tells the user to grab a new ZIP — they need to re-load it manually. Once you publish to the Chrome Web Store, real auto-updates kick in.

Sharing

Until ViperTab is on the Chrome Web Store, the easiest way to share it is:

1. Push this folder to a GitHub repo.
2. Use Releases to attach a .zip of the folder. Friends download, unzip, and follow the Load Unpacked steps above.
3. Or send them a direct link to the repo — git clone works too.

A polished one-click install requires publishing to the Chrome Web Store (one-time $5 developer fee, a few-day review). Once published, the share link becomes a single button.

File layout

.
├── manifest.json   # Chrome MV3 manifest
├── newtab.html     # The new-tab page
├── style.css       # Glass UI
├── script.js       # Widgets, dock, spotlight, settings
├── icons/
│   ├── vipershard-logo.png   # master logo asset
│   ├── favicon.png           # 32×32 browser-tab icon
│   ├── icon16.png            # toolbar icon
│   ├── icon48.png            # extensions page icon
│   └── icon128.png           # store / install icon
└── README.md

Permissions

Permission	Why
tabs	Show open tabs in Spotlight, switch to them on click.
bookmarks	Search bookmarks from Spotlight.
sessions	"Recently Closed" widget + restore.
storage	Persist notes, dock layout, wallpaper, preferences.

No data leaves your browser. Weather queries hit api.open-meteo.com (forecast) and api.bigdatacloud.net (reverse-geocoding city name) directly from your machine.

Hotkeys

Key	Action
/	Open Spotlight
⌘K / Ctrl+K	Open Spotlight
Esc	Close Spotlight / Settings
Number keys, + - * /, Enter	Calculator