Pattern Auto Tab Grouper

Enhanced version of auto-group-tabs with support for mid-pattern wildcards in URL matching.

Google Chrome extension that automatically adds tabs to configured groups based on URL patterns.

✨ What's New

This enhanced fork adds powerful pattern matching capabilities:

• ✅ Mid-pattern wildcards: Use patterns like example.*.com and 012345678909-*.console.aws.amazon.com
• ✅ Multiple wildcards: Support patterns like *.example.*.com for complex matching
• ✅ Exact level matching: Each * matches exactly one subdomain level
• ✅ Full backward compatibility: All existing patterns continue to work

Use Cases

Perfect for:

• AWS/GCP Console users with multiple accounts (e.g., 123456789-*.console.aws.amazon.com)
• Developers working across environments (e.g., dev.*.company.com, staging.*.company.com)
• Power users managing many similar domains with dynamic subdomains

Pattern Examples

Pattern	Matches	Doesn't Match
example.*.com	example.foo.com	example.com, example.foo.bar.com
*.example.*.com	sub.example.foo.com	example.foo.com, sub.example.com
012345678909-*.console.aws.amazon.com	012345678909-askjfe.console.aws.amazon.com	012345678909.console.aws.amazon.com
example.*.*.domain.com	example.a.b.domain.com (2 levels)	example.a.domain.com (1 level)

All original patterns still work:

• *.example.com - Any subdomain (including example.com itself)
• example.com - Exact domain match
• *://example.com - Any protocol (http or https)
• example.com/path/* - Path wildcards

📋 Original Project

This extension is based on auto-group-tabs by Florian Reuschel.

Original work Copyright (c) 2021 Florian Reuschel Modified work Copyright (c) 2025 Aleg Malinovsky

Licensed under the MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

Changes from Original

• Added support for asterisk wildcards in the middle of hostname patterns
• Each asterisk matches exactly one subdomain level (e.g., example.*.com)
• Updated pattern validation and regex generation logic
• Maintained full backward compatibility with existing patterns
• Comprehensive test coverage for new functionality

Development

This project is built with Vue and Vite.

Setup

Clone this project:

git clone https://github.com/alegmal/pattern-auto-tab-grouper.git
cd pattern-auto-tab-grouper

Install npm dependencies:

npm ci

Development of the Options UI

The fastest way to tinker with the extension's options page is to run the dev script:

npm run dev

This will start up the Vite dev server and serve the options page on localhost:6655. Having the options page directly in the browser allows for hot module reloading during development.

In this mode, Chrome extension APIs accessed during production (e.g. chrome.i18n and chrome.storage) use browser-based fallbacks.

Note: Use the device toolbar of Chrome's devtools to give the options page a proper viewport. Chrome's options overlays are 400px wide.

Testing in Chrome

To test the extension in Chrome, do a production build:

npm run build

This creates an extension subfolder which can be loaded in Chrome:

1. Navigate to chrome://extensions/
2. Enable "Developer mode" (toggle in top-right)
3. Click "Load unpacked"
4. Select the extension folder

Running Tests

Run the test suite:

npm test

This runs:

• TypeScript type checking
• ESLint code quality checks
• Unit tests (Vitest)
• Browser tests (Playwright)

Technical Implementation

Files Modified

The mid-pattern wildcard support required changes to:

1. src/util/helpers.ts - Pattern validation regex

   • Simplified host validation to accept asterisks anywhere
   • Removed restriction that only allowed *.hostname format

2. src/util/matcher-regex.ts - Regex generation logic

   • Added logic to split hostname on asterisks
   • Each * is converted to [^./]+ (matches one subdomain level)
   • Special handling for *.hostname to maintain backward compatibility

3. Test files - Comprehensive test coverage

   • Added tests for mid-pattern wildcards
   • Tests for exact level matching behavior
   • Backward compatibility verification

Pattern Conversion

Example: example.*.*.domain.com

1. Split on asterisks: ['example.', '.', '.domain.com']
2. Escape regex special chars: ['example\\.', '\\.', '\\.domain\\.com']
3. Join with single-level pattern: example\.[^./]+\.[^./]+\.domain\.com
4. Result matches exactly 2 levels between "example" and "domain"

License

MIT License

Original work Copyright (c) 2021 Florian Reuschel Modified work Copyright (c) 2025 Aleg Malinovsky

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Contributing

This is a personal fork. For the original project, see loilo/auto-group-tabs.

Issues and pull requests for the mid-pattern wildcard functionality are welcome on this repository.

Links

• This Repository: https://github.com/alegmal/pattern-auto-tab-grouper
• Original Project: https://github.com/loilo/auto-group-tabs
• Original Issue: loilo/auto-group-tabs#54
• Chrome Extension Documentation: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/