---
title: Tab Control
description: Open, close, focus, reload, navigate or group browser tabs.
---

Drive browser tabs from a workflow: open, close, focus, reload, navigate and group them, with an optional wait for the page to finish loading.

## What it does

The other page nodes act on a tab that is already open. Tab Control is how a workflow gets to the right page first: "open this URL, wait for it to load, then read it".

Pick an **Operation**:

* **Open**: open **URL** in a new tab. With **Open Focused** on (the default), the new tab becomes the active one, so the page nodes that follow act on it.
* **Navigate**: load **URL** in an existing tab.
* **Reload**, **Focus**, **Close**: act on the tab in **Tab ID**, or on the active tab when it is empty.
* **Group**: put the tabs listed in **Tab IDs** into one tab group.

Turn on **Wait For Load** with Open, Navigate or Reload to continue only once the page has loaded. The wait always ends after a safety timeout, so a stalled page cannot hang the run.

## When to use it

* Open a page and wait for it before reading or filling it in.
* Move an existing tab to a new address, reload it, or bring it to the front.
* Close tabs a workflow opened, or group them together.

## Inputs and settings

## Outputs

* **Open**, **Navigate**, **Reload**, **Focus**: the tab, as `{ tabId, url, title, windowId, status }`.
* **Close**: `{ closed: true, tabId }`.
* **Group**: `{ groupId, tabIds }`.

Pass `{{ $input.tabId }}` to later nodes that take a tab id.

## Dependencies and credentials

None. This node needs no connection and has no slots for other nodes.

## Example workflow

1. Tab Control: **Open** `https://example.com/pricing`, **Wait For Load** on.
2. [Get All Text](/nodes/extension/getalltext/) reads the page.
3. An AI node such as [Summarization](/nodes/builtin/ai/aiagents/summarizationchainnode/) summarises it.
4. Tab Control: **Close**, with **Tab ID** `{{ $('Tab Control').tabId }}`, or leave it empty to close the active tab.

## Common issues

* **"A URL is required for the "open" operation".** Fill in **URL** for Open and Navigate.
* **"At least one tab id is required for the "group" operation".** Add tab ids to **Tab IDs**.
* **The next page node read the wrong tab.** Turn on **Open Focused** so the new tab is the active one, or turn on **Wait For Load** so the page is ready.
* **Close or Reload did nothing.** The tab in **Tab ID** no longer exists. Leave the field empty to act on the active tab.
* **The group has no name or colour.** Group only puts tabs together; it does not set a title or colour.

## Related nodes

* [Wait For Element](/nodes/extension/ui/wait-for-element/): wait for a specific part of the page.
* [Get All Text](/nodes/extension/getalltext/): read the page.
* [Page Load](/nodes/builtin/trigger/pageload/): start a workflow when a page loads.
* [Navigation](/nodes/builtin/trigger/navigation/): start a workflow when you visit a site.