We didn't ask if we should. We asked how deep the tabs could go

Aditya Rasal — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:50:02 +0000

This is a submission for the DEV April Fools Challenge

What I Built

Tab hoarding isn’t a problem—it’s a LIFESTYLE. Instead of trying to fix tab addiction with productivity tools, I built Nesting Instinct, an extension that leans entirely into the chaos, glorifies it, and weaponizes it.

Nesting Instinct is a maliciously compliant Chrome/Edge extension that organizes your tabs by aggressively nesting them into literal infinity.

Features of Doom:

🪆 "Finally Get Organized" Button: The nuclear option. Instantly ungroups all your tabs, decides they belong in 8 to 15 sequentially nested absurd folder structures (e.g., SCHRODINGER'S TABS, WHY IS THIS OPEN), and scatters them randomly.
🧠 Tab Sentience Simulator™: A background worker that randomly changes the document titles of your oldest, forgotten tabs to things like (Existential Crisis) or (Why Am I Still Open?).
🤖 Auto-Nest Keywords: Groups tabs into aggressively specific real Chrome Tab Groups based on what you’re looking at, like "3AM Research" or "Shopping Addiction".
📭 Nuclear Tab Group Controls: Hit “Shuffle Groups” to scramble your tab groupings blindly, or “Collapse All” to literally hide the evidence of your sins.
💀 Beautiful Discordance: Neon chaos palettes, over-encumbered Comic Sans influence, and literal confetti cannons firing every time you hit an organization limit.

We didn't ask if we should. We asked how deep.

Demo

(Since it's a browser extension, the best way to experience the true psychological damage is to download and install it locally from the repo!)

Code

Aditya2073 / nesting-instinct

Tab hoarding isn't a problem — it's a LIFESTYLE. Infinite nesting. Zero productivity. Maximum chaos. (DEV April Fools Challenge)

🪆 Nesting Instinct

Tab hoarding isn't a problem — it's a LIFESTYLE. Infinite nesting. Zero productivity. Maximum chaos.

A Chrome/Edge Manifest V3 browser extension built for the DEV April Fools Challenge. Instead of helping you organize your tabs, Nesting Instinct weaponizes your tab hoarding addiction, enabling infinitely deep nested folders and completely unnecessary organization layers.

"We didn't ask if we should. We asked how deep."

🎭 Features

Tab Sentience Simulator™: Your tabs are alive. A background worker periodically renames your oldest, most ignored tabs to things like (Existential Crisis) or (Why Am I Still Open?).
Auto-Nest Keywords 🤖: AI-powered™ matching sorts your tabs based on content into agonizing real Chrome Tab Groups like 3AM Research, Shopping Addiction, and The Unknown Tabs.
Finally Get Organized ✨: The nuclear option. Instantly ungroups all your tabs, creates 8-15 chaotically named groups (e.g., SCHRODINGER'S TABS…

View on GitHub

How I Built It

Built purely with Vanilla Javascript, HTML, and CSS, running on Manifest V3.

I heavily abused the chrome.tabGroups API to programmatically group, color-code, expand, and scramble the browser's native tab groupings. To power the Tab Sentience Simulator, I used the chrome.scripting API alongside a background chrome.alarms setup to silently inject Javascript into active DOMs and literally rewrite the <title> tag of forgotten tabs, gaslighting the user.

The sidebar (where all the buttons of doom live) is hosted inside a Manifest V3 chrome.sidePanel, bypassing the normal pop-up layout so it can sit permanently on your screen and judge your tab counts.

Prize Category

Community Favorite — Because deep down, everyone is secretly hoarding 69 tabs, and everyone deserves a dedicated button that shuffles them into "THE VOID 🕳️" while firing off a confetti cannon.

DEV Community: Aditya Rasal