IkunaHow to Stop Losing Your Browser Tabs When Switching Projects
Tabs scatter because nothing ties them to a project. The fix is to make each project's tabs part of a saved workspace, so they come back automatically when you switch in.
If you work across several projects, your browser is probably holding tabs from all of them at once. Switch tasks and you either lose the ones you need in the pile, or close them and spend the next ten minutes rebuilding the set from history.
The lasting fix is not better tab discipline. It is tying each project's tabs to its workspace so they restore together. Here is how.
Why tabs get lost in the first place
The browser is the worst offender in context switching because tabs have no project boundary. Every link from every project lands in the same window, so a single browser ends up holding fragments of four different jobs at once. When you switch tasks you either lose the tabs you need in the noise, or you close them to clear the clutter and then cannot find them again. A crash or restart can wipe the whole set, and reopening from history is slow and unreliable.
Recognise that the problem is structural, not a discipline failure. Tabs scatter because nothing ties them to a project.
The native fixes only go halfway
Browsers offer pinned tabs, tab groups, and "reopen on launch." These help inside a single browsing session, but they do not survive the way you actually work. Tab groups still live in one window you have to manage by hand. "Reopen windows" brings back whatever was open last, not the specific set for the project you are switching into. None of them connect your tabs to the apps and layout that make up the rest of your workspace.
Use tab groups for light organisation, but do not rely on them to restore a project. They are not project memory.
Tie tabs to the project, not the browser
The reliable fix is to stop thinking of tabs as a browser problem and start treating them as part of a workspace. A project is its apps plus its tabs plus its layout. When all three are captured together, the tabs are no longer floating: they belong to the project and come back with it. Switch into the client workspace and the client tabs reopen. Switch into writing and they are gone, replaced by the two tabs that mode needs.
Capture each project's tabs as part of a named workspace, alongside its apps and window layout.
Restore tabs automatically on switch
Once tabs are bound to a workspace, returning to a project reopens the exact set you left, in the right browser windows, without searching history. This removes both the clutter (each mode only shows its own tabs) and the loss (nothing has to be reconstructed). The browser stops being a graveyard of half-remembered links and becomes a clean surface that matches whatever you are working on right now.
Make tab restore part of the project switch, so the right tabs appear the moment you change context.
Doing it with Ikuna
Ikuna saves each work context as a named Ikuna, and browser tabs are part of that context, not a separate thing to manage.
- Tabs ride with the workspace: each saved context captures its browser tabs alongside the apps and window layout.
- Right tabs, right project: switch contexts and the previous project's tabs make way for the ones that belong to the new one.
- One-shortcut restore: returning to a project reopens its exact tab set in seconds, with no trip through browser history.
- Works with your existing browser: no new browser to learn, no extension juggling.
Native macOS · Local data · Built in EU
Common questions
Why do my browser tabs disappear when I restart my Mac?
Browsers reopen the last session, not a specific project's tabs, and a crash or an accidental "close all" can lose the set entirely. Tying tabs to a saved workspace makes them recoverable on demand instead of dependent on the last session.
Are tab groups enough to keep projects separate?
Tab groups help inside one browser window, but they still live in the same place you manage by hand and do not connect to the apps and layout of the project. They are organisation, not restore.
Can I have different tabs for different projects without separate browsers?
Yes. With a workspace manager like Ikuna, each project's tabs are saved as part of its context, so switching projects swaps the tab set automatically without running multiple browsers.