RTO Remote Tab Opener – Secure Tab Control od Francesco Ruffo de Bonneval, Belgium

RTO – Remote Tab Opener is a Firefox extension designed to enable
controlled interaction between trusted web pages and browser tabs,
within the security constraints of modern browsers.

The extension was built to address a common technical limitation:
web pages cannot directly control or observe other tabs, especially
across different origins, without violating browser security rules.

RTO uses the standard browser extension architecture as a secure,
local communication bridge. This allows explicitly allow-listed HTTPS
pages to request predefined tab-related actions without relying on
iframes, backend services, or proxy servers.

All communication remains local to the user’s browser and is subject
to strict origin checks and user-defined permissions.

🧩 Technical Overview

• Content scripts receive structured messages from web pages via
window.postMessage
• The background script manages tab lifecycle operations
• All messages are validated, filtered, and scoped to user-approved
origins
• No arbitrary code execution is permitted

🏗️ Design Principles

• Local-first architecture
• Explicit user consent (deny by default)
• No backend, no remote services
• Respect for Same Origin Policy and browser security boundaries
• Designed for developer tooling and controlled workflows

🎯 Intended Use

RTO is intended for developers and technical users who need reliable,
explicitly authorized tab control as part of dashboards, testing tools,
or internal workflows, without weakening browser security guarantees.

🤖 Optional Assistance

An optional companion assistant (“Remote Tab Opener Copilot”) can be
used to help generate example integration scripts. This assistance is
external to the extension and does not automatically receive browsing
data or page content.

Donations are optional and not required to use the extension.