Sharing Tabs
Understanding how Stash works helps you use it more effectively and feel confident about your privacy.
How Sharing Works
Section titled “How Sharing Works”Client-Side Encoding
Section titled “Client-Side Encoding”When you share tabs, everything happens locally in your browser:
- Tab Collection: The extension gathers URLs and titles of selected tabs
- Payload Creation: Creates a JSON object with version, expiry timestamp, and tab data
- Compression: Uses pako compression to reduce the size
- Encoding: Converts to base64 URL-safe format
- URL Construction: Builds the final share link
What’s In the Share Link
Section titled “What’s In the Share Link”Each share link contains:
- Version information
- Expiry timestamp
- Tab URLs (compressed)
- Tab titles (truncated to 30 characters max)
The link format is: https://stash.illo.fyi/s/#p=compressed-data
Technical Details
Section titled “Technical Details”URL Budget
Section titled “URL Budget”Stash has a 8,000 character limit for share links. This prevents overly long links that might break in messaging apps or email.
- Normal usage: Most users can share 50-100 tabs
- Auto-trimming: If you select too many tabs, Stash automatically finds the largest subset that fits
- Title optimization: Long titles are truncated to save space
Expiry System
Section titled “Expiry System”Shared links have configurable expiry times:
- 24 hours: Links work for one day
- 7 days: Links work for one week
- 30 days: Links work for one month
- Never: Links work indefinitely (default)
Expiry is enforced client-side—when someone opens an expired link, they see a message that it has expired.
Compression Benefits
Section titled “Compression Benefits”Stash uses pako compression to:
- Reduce link size for easier sharing
- Allow more tabs per link
- Minimize encoding overhead
What Recipients See
Section titled “What Recipients See”When someone opens your share link, they see:
Clean Tab List
Section titled “Clean Tab List”- Each tab shows the title and URL
- Tabs can be opened individually
- All tabs load in new browser windows
Mobile-Friendly
Section titled “Mobile-Friendly”The viewer works on:
- Desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
- Mobile browsers (iOS Safari, Android Chrome)
- Tablets
- No app installation required
Available Formats
Section titled “Available Formats”Users can choose to view shared tabs as:
- Normal: Interactive tab list
- JSON: Raw data for developers
- Markdown: Formatted markdown links
Security Features
Section titled “Security Features”No Server Storage
Section titled “No Server Storage”- Tab data never leaves your browser
- No database or server storage involved
- Links are self-contained
Validation
Section titled “Validation”The viewer performs several checks:
- Validates payload structure
- Checks expiry timestamp
- Verifies compression integrity
- Handles errors gracefully
Error Handling
Section titled “Error Handling”If something goes wrong, users see helpful messages like:
- “No share data found in URL”
- “This share link has expired”
- “Failed to load shared tabs”
Best Practices
Section titled “Best Practices”For Sharers
Section titled “For Sharers”- Keep selections relevant to your audience
- Use descriptive tab names
- Consider expiry time based on content sensitivity
- Test links before sharing important information
For Recipients
Section titled “For Recipients”- Open links promptly if they have expiry
- Be aware that links contain only the tab information shared
- No personal information is collected when viewing links
Technical Limits
Section titled “Technical Limits”Supported URL Types
Section titled “Supported URL Types”- HTTP:// URLs
- HTTPS:// URLs
- URLs are filtered to exclude sensitive protocols
Unsupported Features
Section titled “Unsupported Features”- Real-time updates (links are static)
- Collaborative editing
- Server-side analytics
- User accounts or authentication
Stash is designed to be simple, private, and reliable—focusing on its core function of sharing tab collections securely.