Organize with categories

Categories turn your session list from a flat timeline into something you can actually navigate. TabControl ships with ten predefined categories and lets you add as many custom ones as you need.

Each built-in category has an icon and a color so you can scan the list visually:

You can't rename or delete the built-ins — they're stable identifiers used by the AI classifier. You can hide ones you don't use: in Settings → General → Categories, untick any you want out of your way.

1. Click the session in the popup.
2. Click the category chip (or the placeholder Uncategorized label).
3. Pick a category from the dropdown.

You can also assign categories in bulk: select multiple sessions (Shift-click) and choose Set category from the context menu.

Custom categories are yours to shape. Add as many as you want.

1. Open Settings → General → Categories.
2. Click Add category.
3. Pick a name, an icon (any Lucide icon name works — bookmark, coffee, zap, whatever), and a hex color.
4. Save.

Custom categories show up everywhere the built-ins do. The metadata (icon, color) is stored locally; sessions you've assigned sync across devices, but the category definition itself re-downloads from your local preferences on each device. Set them up once per Mac.

If you have AI analysis enabled (see AI overview), TabControl can classify sessions automatically on save. The classifier picks up to three categories per session based on the collective domains, titles, and topics of the tabs.

You can always override. AI picks are suggestions — they stay editable.

Categories are exclusive (well, you can pick up to three but they feel like primary buckets). Tags are freeform labels you can layer on top.

• Category: "What kind of thing is this session?" — Work, Research, Shopping.
• Tags: "What specific thing is this session?" — tabcontrol-launch, customer-q3, weekend-project.

Both are searchable from the popup's search box.

• Archive and trash — the soft-delete model and how to clean up.
• AI analysis overview — let the classifier do the labeling work.