Cove help

Installing Cove, the basics of each screen, and what to do when something does not behave as expected.

Installing Cove

Cove is not on the Chrome Web Store yet. To try an early build, email to ask for access.

If you receive Cove as a folder (unzip it first if it arrives as a .zip file):

In Chrome, go to chrome://extensions.
Turn on Developer mode, at the top right.
Click Load unpacked and choose the Cove folder.

Pinning Cove to the toolbar

Click the puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar.
Find Cove in the list and click the pin next to it.

You can also open Cove with Ctrl+Shift+K, or Cmd+Shift+K on a Mac. You can change the shortcut at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

Grouping tabs and saving sessions

Open the Spaces screen.

Auto-group my tabs sorts the tabs in your current window into named, colour-coded Chrome tab groups. It needs at least two ordinary web pages in the window and leaves pinned tabs alone. Ungroup all removes the groups.

To save a session, type an optional name and click Save. Every tab in the window is saved. Click the arrow next to a session to reopen it in a new window, or the bin to delete it. Sessions save each tab's address and title; they do not save tab groups, pinned state or your place on the page.

Snoozing a tab

Open the tab you want to set aside, then choose a time on the Snooze screen. The tab closes and reopens in the background at that time, and Cove's toolbar icon shows a badge for a few seconds. You can open a snoozed tab early or cancel it from the same screen.

Suspending inactive tabs

On the Tabs screen, Cove suspends background tabs you have not used for 30 minutes. You can change the time, switch to closing inactive tabs instead, add sites that should never be touched, or turn the feature off. Suspend all background tabs now does it straight away.

Finding a tab

Click Find, or press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) while Cove is open, and type part of a title or site name. It searches open tabs in every window, saved sessions and snoozed tabs.

Troubleshooting

Grouping does nothing. The window needs at least two ordinary web pages; browser pages such as settings and pinned tabs are skipped.
Grouping says you have reached the limit. The development build allows three AI groupings a week. Sessions, snooze and suspend are not limited.
A snoozed tab opened a little late. Chrome runs these timers to about the nearest minute. If Chrome was closed at the time, the tab opens the next time Chrome starts.
Tabs were not suspended after a restart. The inactivity timer starts again whenever Chrome restarts.
A suspended tab looks blank. Click it and it reloads.

Removing Cove and your data

To delete a single session or snoozed tab, use the bin or cancel button next to it. To remove everything, go to chrome://extensions, find Cove and click Remove. Chrome deletes everything Cove has stored on your computer. Tab groups Cove created stay in your windows until you ungroup them.

Getting help

Email hello@surojitchakraverti.com with what you were doing and what happened.