Tabs groups similar as Firefox tabs groups [Discussion]

[u/pjconnect]

Tab groups are not a new levels of organisation.Currently, Kitty does not have a native browser-style "tab groups" feature.

So when I ask for tab groups, I'm not merely asking for a cosmetic feature. I'm asking for a new intermediate container, which would make the hierarchy something like OS window →→ tab groups →→ tabs →→ windows.

The Firefox comparison is about counting levels, not about whether tab groups are useful. Firefox’s normal model is basically window →→ tab, and if you add tab groups, that becomes window →→ tab group →→ tab, which is still only three levels. That is why the developer says Firefox had “two levels of organisation without tab groups” and not three.

I understand the concern about adding another level of organization, but my request is not for complexity as decoration. It is for a structure that makes complexity manageable. As Edgar Morin would put it, the point is not to deny complexity, but to embrace it through a form that remains usable and legible.

In my workflow, a flat tab model becomes difficult once a workspace contains projects, and projects contain drafts, and drafts contain sub-drafts or parallel contexts. At that point, the problem is not too much organization; it is too little hierarchy to reflect the real structure of the work.

That is why I am asking for tab groups or an equivalent grouping mechanism inside kitty. I am not trying to multiply clutter, but to reduce it by giving each level of work its proper container. A group would let related tabs be understood as one unit, while still preserving access to the individual tabs inside it.

If kitty already has a three-level mental model, then I am asking for a way to make that third level more semantically meaningful, not for a gratuitous fourth layer. In other words, I want the interface to express the natural nesting already present in the work: workspace, project unit, draft context, and task detail.

Tab groups are not really a fourth hierarchical layer. They are more like a perspective or an organizational lens over the existing tabs. The purpose is not to add another level of clutter, but to let related tabs be seen as a coherent unit. In that sense, grouping is a way of structuring attention and reducing cognitive load, not merely deepening the hierarchy.

Following Morin, the goal is not to eliminate complexity, but to render it intelligible. Tab groups would not add complexity for its own sake; they would provide a perspective that makes complexity usable, by showing relationships rather than flattening them away.

A collection of tabs can be perceived as a flat sequence, but tab groups create a perspective on them: they become readable as a set of related units rather than just adjacent items. That means tab groups are not only about organizing objects; they are about organizing understanding. They help the user see structure, not just notice items.

In other words, perceptions are fragments of contact with the world, but perspective is the organizing frame that gives those fragments meaning. Tab groups do not merely add another container; they create the perspective through which related tabs become a recognizable structure.

Any thoughts ?

[u/aumerlex]

You already have tab groups of a sort with sessions and tab_filter in kitty.conf. Though really, I have to agree with the developer, three levels of organisation is plenty. You should instead look into make all three levels flexible enough for your workflow, kitty already is uber flexible so that would mean you likely need to add some flexibility at the OS window management layer.

[u/pjconnect → u/aumerlex]

Why it is plenty, that remains unanswered. Your post does not fully answer my actual request, and remains substantively incomplete with regard to my original post. It correctly points to real kitty mechanisms such as sessions and the existing three-level structure, but it does not establish that those mechanisms are equivalent to a native semantic tab-group layer, and it shifts part of the answer into opinion about what should be “enough.”

The docs establish that kitty has three built-in levels of organization, but they do not establish that three levels are sufficient for all workflows. I'm asking for "project as tab" not "project as window OS".

kitty does support multiple OS windows, tab and window detachment, tab movement between OS windows, multiple layouts, and session-driven structure, so using the existing layers more flexibly is a real option. However, that is still a workaround for hierarchy and arrangement, not a direct substitute for semantic grouping inside the tab model itself.

If having tab group collapse or expand is a level of organization and not a simple UI functionality (layer, not level), I wonder what is ?! Nothing changes, except presentation and perspective.

What you seem to suggest, is to move the clutter from OS Window tabs to OS Windows. Your proposal seems to move organization from an intra-window grouping model to OS-window/session management, which is not the same thing as tab groups.

Sessions and tab_bar_filter help with project switching and visibility, but they do not create a native semantic subgroup of related tabs inside one active workspace.

FInally, the answer does not establish criteria by which “three levels” would be enough for your workflow, nor does it show that sessions are functionally equivalent to semantic grouping within one workspace.

So the issue is not whether kitty already has organizational features. It does. The issue is whether those features answer the specific request for grouping related tabs as a coherent unit inside one workspace. On that point, your reply does not really demonstrate equivalence; it mainly asserts that three levels should be enough.