Building a Chrome Extension with Zero Unnecessary Permissions

Every time I install a Chrome extension, I check the permissions. Most tab managers ask for: "Read and change all your data on all websites" "Read your browsing history" "Manage your downloads" For a tab manager. To save URLs. When I built Tab Stash, I wanted to prove you could build a genuinely useful extension with minimal permissions. Here's how. The Permission Problem Chrome's permission model is coarse-grained. The tabs permission, for example, gives you access to tab URLs and titles — but it also signals to users that you can "read your browsing activity." That's technically true, but it scares people. Many developers just request everything upfront because it's easier. That's the wrong trade-off. What Tab Stash Actually Needs Tab Stash saves your open tabs as Markdown. Here's the minimum set of permissions for that: { "permissions" : [ "activeTab" ], "optional_permissions" : [ "tabs" ] } That's it. activeTab gives us access to the current tab when the user clicks our icon. The t