Pinned Tab Escape

Protects pinned tabs from accidental navigation, restores them on startup, and manages tab focus when closing other tabs.

This is a small but extremely useful Chrome / Edge / Brave / etc. extension that protects and manages your pinned tabs. What does it do? The extension performs three key functions: 1. Pinned tab focus protection when closing tabs If you close the last unpinned tab, the extension automatically opens a new, empty tab as a buffer. This prevents any pinned tab from becoming active. 2. Restoring pinned tabs on startup (with two-step verification) The extension saves the URLs and order of your pinned tabs in the background (using chrome.storage.local) in an event-driven manner (whenever you pin, unpin, navigate, or reorder a tab). If the browser fails to restore your pinned tabs on startup due to an error, the extension will automatically do so 1.5 seconds after startup, and perform a secondary check at 4.0 seconds to avoid duplication. Warning: If you manually close or unpin a pinned tab during your session, the extension will remember this and will not restore it on the next startup. 3. Diverting navigation away from pinned tabs (protection against overwriting) If you are on a pinned tab, the extension prevents its content from being replaced by external navigation: External links: If you click on a link pointing to an external website within the pinned tab (e.g., Mastodon), it will automatically open in a new tab, leaving your pinned page untouched. Address bar and bookmarks: If you enter a new URL in the address bar or click on a bookmark while on a pinned tab, the extension diverts the navigation: the new page opens in a new tab, and the pinned tab reverts to its original URL. Allowed: Navigation within the pinned tab under the same domain works freely (e.g., switching between messages on Messenger).