FlowFav

Save favorite URLs, organize them into categories, and record/replay browser interactions.

FlowFav is a local-first workflow launcher for Chrome. Save frequently used pages as flows, organize them into categories, and record repetitive browser interactions once so you can replay them with a single click. ⚡ WHAT IT DOES • Save and organize favorite URLs into collapsible categories • Record real interactions: clicks, typing, form selections, checkboxes, scrolling, navigation, and new tabs • Replay flows three ways: fully automatic, step by step with manual confirmation, or as a dry run that only highlights what would be clicked • Chain multiple flows and run them sequentially or in parallel tabs • Smart replay that survives page navigations, waits for slow pages, and pauses politely when a site asks you to sign in • Export and import your flows as JSON backups 🔒 PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Everything stays on your machine: no account, no server, no analytics, no remote code • Site access is requested per site, only when you add or run a flow there — no blanket access to your browsing • Passwords, card numbers, one-time codes, and similar sensitive fields are never recorded, and playback refuses to type into them • Favicons come from Chrome's local cache, never from an external service 🎯 GREAT FOR • Opening your morning set of dashboards and tools in one click • Repetitive form-filling and multi-step navigation on internal tools • Walking through the same demo or test scenario, step by step • Anyone who repeats the same browser routine more than twice a week ⌨️ KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS While a flow runs step by step (or as a dry run), with the web page in focus: • Right Arrow — run the highlighted step. On the last step it reads Finish. • Down Arrow — skip this step and move on. • Right Arrow — also continues to the next flow when a chain pauses between flows. In the side panel: • Esc — close the open dialog or panel. • Enter — submit the form you are typing in. The arrow keys work while the web page has focus, not the side panel. That is the point: you can drive a whole flow without moving your hands or clicking anything. FlowFav claims both keys for the duration of a step run, so they will not scroll the page, move the text cursor, or walk a dropdown while a step is waiting. One deliberate exception: when a flow pauses on a sign-in page, the arrow keys go back to normal so you can type your credentials without FlowFav intercepting anything. Prefer to click? The same Skip and Next buttons sit in the side panel and on the page toolbar. 🚀 GETTING STARTED 1. Click the FlowFav icon in the Chrome toolbar. The side panel opens on the right and stays open as you navigate and switch tabs. 2. Click "+ New flow", give it a name and a URL. 3. That is already enough to use FlowFav as a launcher — click a flow's name to open it. Recording is optional and comes next. The first time you use FlowFav it offers to allow access to all sites. See SITE ACCESS below for what that means and how to change it later. 📋 THE SIDE PANEL Your flows are listed under collapsible categories. Each flow row has: • The flow name — opens the URL. • A red dot — Record. Shown when the flow has no recording yet. • A play triangle — Play. Replaces the record button once a recording exists. • A step icon — Step-by-step playback. • Three dots — More options: Rename, Re-record, Dry run, Move to another category, Delete. Right-clicking a flow name opens that same menu. ✏️ EDIT MODE The pencil icon toggles Edit mode, which reveals everything destructive or structural: • Drag handles for reordering flows and categories. A flow can only be dragged within its own category. • Delete buttons on flows. • Rename and delete actions on categories. • The Import, Export and Privacy buttons in the header. Turn Edit mode off to get back to a clean list. It also switches itself off if a session starts. 🔴 RECORDING A FLOW 1. Click the red dot on a flow, or use the three-dot menu and choose Re-record to replace an existing recording. 2. FlowFav opens the flow's URL in a new tab with a recording toolbar at the top. 3. Do the thing you want to repeat — click, type, pick from dropdowns, tick checkboxes, scroll, navigate, open new tabs. It is all captured. 4. Click Stop in the page toolbar when you are done. What is never captured: passwords, card numbers and CVV codes, one-time and two-factor codes, PINs, national ID and bank account numbers, API keys and secrets. FlowFav detects these by field type, autocomplete hint, label text and field name, in English and Dutch, and skips them. Playback will not type into them either. Detection is best effort, so treat it as a strong safety net rather than a guarantee. ▶️ PLAYING A FLOW: AUTOMATIC Click the play triangle. FlowFav replays the whole recording without stopping, adapting to each page: it waits for the page to be ready, watches for network activity to settle, and observes the page for the element it needs. It survives navigations — after every page load the flow picks up at the right step. If a step's target cannot be found, an error panel appears on the page with three choices: Retry Step, Skip Step, or Abort. 👣 PLAYING A FLOW: STEP BY STEP Click the step icon. FlowFav pauses before every action and shows you what it is about to do, so nothing happens until you say so. The side panel becomes a control surface: the flow name, a step counter, a progress bar, a live timeline of every step marked as past, current or upcoming, and Skip and Next buttons. The page gets a matching toolbar, and the target element is highlighted so you can see exactly what is about to be clicked. Press Right Arrow to run the highlighted step, Down Arrow to skip it. On the final step the button reads Finish instead of Next. Because you can see the page is ready before you advance, this mode does not wait for the network. It acts the moment you press the key. 🔍 PLAYING A FLOW: DRY RUN Open the three-dot menu and choose Dry run. Identical pacing to step-by-step, but FlowFav never clicks or types anything. It only finds and highlights each target element. Use it after a site redesign to check that a recording still matches the page, without risking a real action against a live system. 🔗 CHAINS A chain runs several flows as one unit. 1. Click the chain icon in the header, then "+ New chain". 2. Name it, choose "In sequence" or "In parallel", and tick the flows in the order you want them to run. 3. Save. In sequence runs one flow at a time, each starting when the previous one finishes. Only this mode offers "Execute in same tab", which reuses a single tab for the whole chain instead of opening a new one per flow. In parallel opens every flow at once in its own tab and runs them simultaneously. The chain finishes when the last tab does. Chain rows have their own Run and Run step-by-step buttons. In step-by-step mode a panel appears between flows announcing the next one: press Right Arrow to continue, or Stop chain to end there. 🔑 WHEN A SITE ASKS YOU TO SIGN IN If a login page appears in the middle of a flow, playback does not fail. It notices the password field, shows an amber toolbar, and waits. Sign in normally. FlowFav watches for the password field to disappear, works out where to resume — whether the sign-in was a redirect to another domain or a dialog on the same page — and carries on from the right step. While it is waiting, the arrow-key shortcuts are released so you can type and tab through the login form normally. 🛟 WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG Only one recording or playback can run at a time, so a session that gets stuck would otherwise block everything else. Two escape hatches exist: • The side panel shows a banner while any session is active, with a Stop button. It works even when the page toolbar is gone: an orphaned tab, a closed window, a reloaded extension. If a recording was in progress, the steps captured so far are saved rather than thrown away. • Sessions never survive a browser restart. Closing Chrome clears them. If FlowFav could not attach to a page — common when a flow is redirected through a sign-in provider or a link shortener it has not seen before — the banner says so and offers a Grant access button naming the exact site. Granting it resumes the session in place; you do not have to start over. 🌐 SITE ACCESS FlowFav ships with no standing access to any website. It asks for permission per site, at the moment it needs it, and Chrome remembers your answer. Because a recorded flow can travel across several domains, being asked repeatedly gets tedious, so allowing all sites is offered up front as a convenience. It is entirely optional. Declining costs you nothing but an occasional prompt. To review or change it, turn on Edit mode and open Privacy. That panel shows your current site access, how much local storage FlowFav is using, and offers Allow all sites, Revoke all site access, and Delete all FlowFav data. 💾 BACKING UP: EXPORT AND IMPORT Both live in Edit mode. Export writes every flow, category and chain to a JSON file in your Downloads folder. Note the warning it shows first: recordings replay literal keystrokes, so the file contains everything you typed during a recording in plain text. Sensitive fields were never recorded, but ordinary text was. Keep the file private. Import merges a file into what you already have. Nothing is overwritten, and imported items get fresh identifiers so they cannot collide with existing ones. FlowFav validates the file first and tells you exactly what is wrong if it will not load. One thing to expect: an import asks Chrome for access to every site the imported flows touch, which for a full backup can be a long list. FlowFav tells you the count before Chrome's dialog appears. Declining that dialog cancels the import and changes nothing, so if an import seems to do nothing at all, that prompt is the first thing to check. 🛡️ PRIVACY AND DATA Everything FlowFav stores lives in this Chrome profile, on this machine. There is no account, no server, no analytics, and no remote code. Nothing you save is transmitted anywhere: favicons come from Chrome's own local cache rather than an external favicon service. Recordings can contain page labels, element selectors, URLs and the non-sensitive values you typed. Delete all FlowFav data, in the Privacy panel, removes all of it.