Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://eggz.ai/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
How Performance & RAM works (plain English)
Unscrambled Tabs uses Chrome’s native tab discard API. When a tab is discarded, it stays on your tab strip with its title and URL — but its page content is unloaded from memory to save RAM. When you click that tab again, Chrome reloads the page from the network, like opening it fresh. Official behaviour: Chrometabs.discard.
The three performance modes
You choose a mode in Settings → Performance & RAM. All three modes respect the same safety rules for automatic background sweeps (for example: active, pinned, audible, internal pages, and Protected domains are skipped). Free RAM now is available in every mode and uses the same safety gates.Manual — no automatic discarding
What it means- The extension does not run timed background discards on eligible inactive tabs.
- Your tabs stay loaded until Chrome or you do something else (for example Chrome’s own memory saver, or you close tabs).
- You want maximum predictability and only occasional cleanup.
- You are working in long drafts and do not want any automatic unload.
- Still available: one-shot discard of eligible inactive tabs when you click the button.
Balanced — discard after an interval you choose
What it means- When enabled, the extension periodically looks at all normal tabs across all windows and may discard tabs that have been inactive longer than your selected interval (for example 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes in the UI).
- Only http(s) sites are candidates. Internal schemes like
chrome://, extension pages, and similar are skipped.
- You want steady RAM savings without the Aggressive five-minute cap.
Aggressive — balanced behaviour, faster idle cutoff
What it means- Same eligibility and protections as Balanced, but the effective idle time is capped at five minutes — inactive eligible tabs can be discarded sooner than your dropdown might suggest for Balanced.
- After switching workspaces, the extension may also immediately discard some newly opened inactive tabs in Aggressive mode (still respecting pinned / protected / audible / internal rules).
- You run very large tab sets and want lower memory pressure between tasks.
- You accept more frequent reloads when returning to background tabs.
Scenario A — “I opened lots of research tabs, then worked in one tab for a while”
Setup: You have twenty tabs open across research, docs, and tools. You keep Tab 1 (active) as your main doc. The other nineteen stay unfocused for a long time.| Mode | What you are likely to see |
|---|---|
| Manual | All nineteen background tabs stay loaded in memory until you close them, Chrome itself discards them, or you press Free RAM now. |
| Balanced | After your chosen interval (say 15 minutes) of being inactive, eligible background tabs may show as discarded — they remain on the strip; clicking one reloads the page. Tabs you pinned, sites on Protected domains, audible tabs, and the active tab are not discarded by the extension sweep. |
| Aggressive | The same as Balanced for this sweep, except the effective idle threshold is at most five minutes, so background eligible tabs tend to discard sooner. |
Scenario B — “I switch from Workspace A to Workspace B (many tabs load at once)”
Setup: Workspace A has a handful of tabs. Workspace B has fifteen tabs. You switch so the window now loads all fifteen. Tab 1 becomes active; the other fourteen open in the background.| Mode | What you are likely to see |
|---|---|
| Manual | All fourteen background tabs stay loaded after the switch unless you use Free RAM now or close tabs yourself. |
| Balanced | The switch itself does not immediately discard those fourteen. Over time, if they stay inactive past your Balanced interval, the periodic sweep may discard eligible ones. |
| Aggressive | After the workspace opens, eligible background tabs may be discarded quickly right after load (still never your active tab, pinned tabs, protected domains, audible tabs, or internal pages). Combined with the five-minute cap on idle time, Aggressive is the strongest RAM-saving mode. |
Free RAM now
Free RAM now is a manual button in Settings. It:- Discards eligible inactive tabs now (not on a timer).
- Does not remove tabs from the strip.
- Uses the same protections as automatic discard (active, pinned, audible, internal / non-http(s), protected domains).
What is never discarded (by design)
Typical protections (exact behaviour ships with your version):- Active tab in its window
- Pinned tabs
- Audible tabs
- Already discarded tabs
- Internal pages (
chrome://, extension pages,about:/ new-tab style pages where applicable) - Non-http(s) URLs the extension treats as ineligible
- Hostnames matching your Protected domains list
Multi-window
If you use multiple Chrome windows, sweeps consider all windows — not only the one that was focused last. Each window can still have its own active tab that will not be discarded.Measuring RAM honestly
Discard reduces memory for heavy pages, but the exact savings depend on the site, Chrome version, and OS. Unscrambled Tabs does not promise a fixed percentage saving. For a sanity check:- Open Chrome Task Manager (Chrome menu → More tools → Task manager).
- Note memory for a few heavy tabs before discard.
- Trigger Free RAM now or wait for your mode to run.
- Click a discarded tab — it reloads — memory rises again for that tab.