TabPilot - Your Ultimate VS Code Tab Organizer

Are your VS Code tabs a chaotic mess? Do you spend precious time searching for the right file among dozens of open tabs? TabPilot is here to bring order to your workspace! This powerful and intuitive VS Code extension empowers you to effortlessly sort and manage your open tabs, boosting your productivity and keeping your coding environment pristine.

Key Features

TabPilot offers a comprehensive suite of sorting options to fit your workflow:

• Sort by Open Time: Arrange tabs based on when they were opened, helping you retrace your steps. For untitled documents, this reflects their initial creation time in the current session.
• Sort Alphabetically: Keep your tabs neatly organized by file name or untitled document label for quick visual scanning.
• Sort by Last Update Date: Prioritize recently saved modified files, ensuring your most active work is always at your fingertips. For untitled (unsaved) documents, this reflects their last in-memory modification time.
• Sort by Path Location: Group related files together by their directory structure, perfect for large projects.
• Sort by File Size: Sort open tabs from smallest to largest file size on disk.
• Sort by Extension: Group files neatly by file extension (.css, .js, .ts, etc.), sorted alphabetically by name within each extension group.
• Sort by Git Status: Prioritize files needing action by sorting staged changes first, followed by modified, untracked, and unmodified files.
• Sort by Recently Focused: Bring your most recently focused or active tabs to the front.
• Cycle Sort Methods: Quickly toggle through all 8 sorting modes with a single shortcut (Cmd+Shift+Alt+S on macOS or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S on Windows/Linux) or via the status bar item.
• Directory Tab Decorations: (Optional) Color-code tab titles and display 2-letter directory badges to visually distinguish tabs from different folders.
• Reverse Order: Instantly flip the current sorting order for flexible viewing.
• Revert to Original State: Restore tabs to their arrangement immediately before the first outstanding sort or reverse operation. Tabs opened afterward are placed after the surviving original tabs, closed tabs are ignored, and a successful revert clears the saved baseline.
• Automatic Sorting: Configure TabPilot to automatically sort tabs whenever a new tab is opened, maintaining order without manual intervention.

Installation

1. Launch VS Code.
2. Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the Square icon on the Sidebar or pressing Ctrl+Shift+X.
3. Search for "TabPilot".
4. Click "Install".

Or

1. Via VS Code Marketplace:
   https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=imserrano.tabpilot

2. Manually:
   Download the .vsix file from the repository and install it in VS Code by selecting Extensions → ... → Install from VSIX....

How to Activate & Use

TabPilot commands are easily accessible via the VS Code Command Palette:

1. Open the Command Palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+P (macOS).
2. Type "TabPilot" to see all available commands:
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Open Time
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs Alphabetically
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Last Update
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Path
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by File Size
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Extension
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Git Status
   • TabPilot: Sort Tabs by Recently Focused
   • TabPilot: Cycle Sort Method
   • TabPilot: Reverse Order
   • TabPilot: Revert to Original Order
3. Select the desired sorting command to instantly organize your tabs.

Status Bar & Keybinding

• Status Bar Indicator: When enabled, TabPilot displays an indicator in the right status bar showing the current active sort method. Click it to cycle to the next sort method.
• Keyboard Shortcut: Press Cmd+Shift+Alt+S (macOS) / Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S (Windows/Linux) to instantly cycle through sorting methods.

Important Note on Special Tabs:

Due to limitations in the VS Code API, special and non-text tabs—including diff editors, notebooks, custom editors, Welcome, Settings, Extensions, Debug Console, and Git views—are intentionally kept fixed. TabPilot sorts regular text-file tabs around those anchored positions and restores focus without attempting to reorder unsupported tab types.

Extension Settings

TabPilot provides flexible settings to customize its behavior to your preferences:

1. Open VS Code Settings: File > Preferences > Settings (Windows/Linux) or Code > Preferences > Settings (macOS).
2. Search for "TabPilot" in the search bar.

Here are the available settings:

• tabpilot.autoSort.enabled

  • Type: boolean
  • Default: false
  • Description: Enable or disable automatic tab sorting. When enabled, tabs will be sorted automatically based on the chosen method whenever a new tab is opened.

• tabpilot.autoSort.method

  • Type: string
  • Default: alphabetical
  • Options: creationDate, alphabetical, lastUpdate, path, size, extension, gitStatus, recentlyFocused
  • Description: Choose the default sorting method for automatic tab organization.

• tabpilot.directoryDecorations.enabled

  • Type: boolean
  • Default: false
  • Description: Enable directory badges and text color decorations on editor tabs to group files by folder.

• tabpilot.statusBar.enabled

  • Type: boolean
  • Default: true
  • Description: Show TabPilot sort indicator in the status bar.

📄 License

This extension is licensed under the MIT License.

Feedback mail