INSTALL / 04 STEPS

One tab.
One session boundary.

Install the extension and CLI, connect one tab, then give its connection ID to the current AI session.

01

CHROME EXTENSION

Load the TabRelay extension.

  1. Download the production ZIP and extract it.
  2. Open chrome://extensions.
  3. Enable Developer mode.
  4. Choose Load unpacked and select the extracted folder.
  5. Reload Chrome once.
Download extension ZIP
02

NATIVE CLI + SKILL

Install the relay client.

WINDOWS / MACOS / LINUX
npm install -g tabrelay

Same command on every platform. npm installs only the native binary matching your OS and CPU.

INSTALL THE SKILLS
tabrelay init

Installs the TabRelay skills into every coding agent found on the machine. Use --dir <path> for an agent it does not detect.

The binary ships inside the npm package, so the registry and your lockfile pin its integrity.

03

SELECT A TAB

Connect only the tab you need.

  1. Open a normal website tab.
  2. Open the TabRelay extension.
  3. Choose Connect current tab.
  4. Copy the generated ID beginning with tab_.
tab_••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Example shape only
04

START A SESSION

Give the ID to your AI session.

CODEX

Start a new Codex session. Ask it to use TabRelay, then send the connection ID when requested.

CLAUDE CODE

Restart Claude Code after install. Ask it to use the tabrelay skill, then send the connection ID when requested.

tabrelay --connection-id tab_... status

FAILURE MAP

Troubleshooting without guesswork.

The extension does not show a connection ID

Reload Chrome after loading the extension. Open a normal https:// page. Chrome blocks content scripts on internal pages such as chrome://extensions.

tabrelay is not found

Open a new terminal so PATH is re-read. Check npm prefix -g resolves to a directory on your PATH.

Status says the selected tab is offline

Open the extension on that tab and reconnect it. Use the new connection ID in the current session. Do not save it in a config file.

npm reports no matching native package

Your OS or architecture has no published native artifact. Stop there. Do not reuse a binary from another platform. Set TABRELAY_BINARY_PATH only if you built one for your own platform.

You installed with the old install.sh

The old binary at ~/.local/bin/tabrelay can shadow the npm one, which makes the upgrade look like it did nothing. Remove it and clear the shell hash:

rm -f ~/.local/bin/tabrelay && hash -r

Then confirm which tabrelay points inside the npm global prefix.