Find anything on your Mac in seconds
After installing, LovelyTabs lives in your menu bar (top-right of your screen). You'll see a small icon there.
The launcher appears as a floating panel below the menu bar icon. Start typing to search, or browse your open tabs immediately.
LovelyTabs has five search modes, shown as tabs at the top of the launcher. Click a tab to switch, press Tab / Shift+Tab to cycle, or use arrow keys when the search field is empty.
Your currently open Chrome tabs. This is the default mode.
Your recent browser history (last 500 pages visited).
Your saved Chrome bookmarks.
Your clipboard history, stored securely on your Mac.
All open application windows on your Mac.
Just start typing. LovelyTabs searches instantly as you type with fast keyword matching. After a short pause, AI search kicks in to find results that keyword matching would miss.
Switch modes instantly by typing a single letter followed by a space. The prefix is stripped from your search automatically.
| Type this | Switches to | Example |
|---|---|---|
| t + space | Tabs | t github |
| h + space | History | h design site last week |
| b + space | Bookmarks | b stackoverflow |
| c + space | Clipboard | c that invoice |
| w + space | Windows | w slack |
AI search works in all five modes and activates automatically when you type. It understands natural language, so you don't need exact keywords.
The AI badge in the search bar shows what's happening:
| Badge State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gray | Idle — no AI search running |
| Pulsing | AI is thinking |
| Highlighted | AI found relevant results |
Instead of remembering exact page titles or URLs, just describe what you're looking for:
| Mode | Try saying |
|---|---|
| Tabs | "my GitHub pull request" |
| History | "that dark website about web design from last week" |
| Bookmarks | "recipes folder" |
| Clipboard | "the URL I copied from Slack yesterday" |
| Windows | "the terminal running node" |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Space | Open/close LovelyTabs (works from any app) |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move selection up/down |
| ← / → | Switch mode (when search field is empty) |
| Enter | Open the selected result |
| Tab | Next mode |
| Shift + Tab | Previous mode |
| Cmd + 1 – 9 | Jump to numbered result (Tabs mode) |
| M | Toggle voice input |
| Esc | Close the launcher |
LovelyTabs has built-in voice search using your Mac's native speech recognition. Audio is processed locally and never sent to the cloud.
In Push-to-talk mode (default), press M to start and M again to stop. In Auto-listen mode, the microphone activates automatically when the launcher opens. You can change this in Settings.
| Say this | What happens |
|---|---|
| Any words | Searches for what you said |
| "one" through "nine" | Selects that numbered result |
| "open three" / "yes two" | Selects and activates that result |
| "open" / "go" / "select" / "that one" | Activates the currently highlighted result |
| "close" / "cancel" / "dismiss" | Closes the launcher |
| "clear" / "retry" / "again" | Clears the search and keeps listening |
| "tabs" / "history" / "bookmarks" etc. | Switches to that mode |
LovelyTabs learns from your voice over time. If speech recognition mishears a word (e.g. "name sheep" instead of "Namecheap"), the app will learn the correction when you select the right result — whether you pick it by voice, keyboard, or mouse.
If the correct result doesn't appear at all, you can type the right word in the search field instead. When you then select a result, the app learns the mapping between what the mic heard and what you actually meant. No setup needed.
Click the gear icon in the bottom-right corner of the launcher. You can also right-click the menu bar icon and choose Settings.
Settings apply instantly — no save button needed. Click outside the settings panel to close it.
Choose your theme:
The theme changes immediately when you select it.
Hide specific websites from your tab list. Tabs from these domains won't appear unless you search for their exact domain name. Useful for keeping personal browsing private.
Type a domain (e.g. reddit.com), click Add, and it will be hidden from the default tab list. Remove domains anytime with the X button.
Make sure Google Chrome is running. LovelyTabs reads tabs directly from Chrome.
Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and make sure LovelyTabs is enabled.
Check that microphone permission is granted. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
AI search requires an API key. If the AI badge doesn't show any activity when you type, check that your .env file contains a valid ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
After installing a new version, macOS may reset permissions. Toggle LovelyTabs off and on in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and Automation.