Panes — Split Tab Layouts

Split a Chrome tab into 2 or 4 simultaneous web pages, with shared controls in a single bottom bar. Like Chrome's native split view, but with more panes and a lot more keyboard.

Install

Get Panes on the Chrome Web Store →

Install unpacked (development)

1. pnpm install
2. pnpm build — produces output/chrome-mv3/.
3. Open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and pick output/chrome-mv3/.
4. Pin the Panes action in the toolbar.

Usage

• Click the toolbar action (or press ⌘/Ctrl+Shift+S) to open a split tab. The current tab's URL preloads into pane 1.
• Click into a pane to focus it. The bottom bar always operates on the focused pane.
• The URL bar is editable — press Enter to navigate the focused pane.
• [2] / [4] switches layout. Going from 4 → 2 opens a chooser so you can decide which two panes to keep (and optionally move the discarded ones into regular tabs). An undo toast lets you revert for 5 seconds.
• ⤴ pops the focused pane out into a real Chrome tab.
• ✕ closes the focused pane (4-pane mode only).
• Drag the splitter between panes to resize. Double-click resets to 50/50.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘/Ctrl+Shift+S	Open a split tab (customizable at chrome://extensions/shortcuts)
⌘/Ctrl+Shift+2	Switch to 2-pane layout
⌘/Ctrl+Shift+4	Switch to 4-pane layout
⌘/Ctrl+\	Cycle focus across panes
Alt/Opt+1..4	Focus pane N directly
⌘/Ctrl+Shift+O	Pop focused pane out to a real Chrome tab
⌘/Ctrl-click link	Open link as a real Chrome tab
Middle-click link	Open link as a real Chrome tab

Shortcuts work whether keyboard focus is on the bar or inside a pane.

What works, what doesn't

Most sites load and stay logged in inside a pane. Verified working: github.com, news.ycombinator.com, stackoverflow.com, en.wikipedia.org, and most content/docs sites.

Sites that may not render correctly:

• Banks and other security-sensitive sites — many actively detect framing or sandboxing and refuse to load. This is intentional on their end; Panes will not try to bypass it.
• Some Google properties (e.g. Docs, Drive surfaces) — these enforce framing checks beyond X-Frame-Options / CSP and may render blank or kick back to their own page.
• Sites that detect iframe sandboxing — a small number of sites refuse to render in any sandboxed frame. Use the ⤴ pop-out button to recover any pane that won't load.

If a pane is misbehaving, pop it out — that's always one click away.

Privacy

Panes does not collect, transmit, or share any data. The only thing it stores locally is your last-used layout (2 or 4). See PRIVACY.md for details, including a permission-by-permission breakdown.

Development

Stack: TypeScript (strict), WXT, Vite, pnpm. Node >=22.12 required.

pnpm install
pnpm dev          # WXT dev mode with auto-reload
pnpm build        # production build → output/chrome-mv3/
pnpm compile      # type-check only
pnpm zip          # zipped extension for store upload
pnpm icons        # re-render PNG icons from public/icon/icon.svg

Project notes for contributors live in AGENTS.md.

License

Apache License 2.0. Copyright © 2026 Kumar Anirudha.