Silo

This whole thing has been built with Claude Code. I've hardly checked the code at all so use at your own risk. Don't trust it just because the agent wrote "tests"

Automatic container routing for Firefox -- assign websites to containers with rules, manage bookmarks with container context, and see how you use your containers.

Why Silo Exists

Firefox Multi-Account Containers let you isolate websites into separate browsing contexts -- different cookies, sessions, and storage for each container. This is powerful for privacy, separating work from personal browsing, and managing multiple accounts on the same service. But Firefox gives you no way to automate it. Every time you open a site, you have to remember which container it belongs in and manually open it there.

Silo fixes that. You write rules -- "open github.com in my Dev container", "restrict banking.com to my Finance container" -- and Silo intercepts every navigation to enforce them automatically. It also extends Firefox bookmarks with container associations, gives you a statistics dashboard showing how you use your containers, and provides import/export tooling for rules, containers, and complete backups.

It's built for privacy-conscious users who use containers seriously: developers juggling staging and production environments, people with multiple accounts on the same service, or anyone who wants their browsing compartmentalized without the manual overhead.

Features

Automatic Container Routing

• Rule engine with 4 match types: exact URL, domain (with subdomain and path support), glob, and regex
• 3 rule types: Include (open in container), Exclude (break out of container), Restrict (force into container)
• Priority-based resolution: Restrict > Exclude > Include
• Inline prefix overrides: @ for regex, ! for glob
• Interactive pattern tester for validating rules before saving
• Duplicate rule detection and resolution

Container Management

• Full CRUD for Firefox containers with custom names, icons, and colors
• Temporary containers that auto-delete when their last tab closes
• Preset wizard for quick setup of common ecosystems (Facebook, Google, Discord, Amazon, X/Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Microsoft)
• Cookie clearing per container
• Sync with Firefox's native container list

Bookmark Management

• Firefox bookmark integration with a metadata layer for container associations
• Drag-and-drop reordering via hierarchical tree view
• Table view for bulk operations
• Fuzzy search across all bookmarks
• Bulk actions: assign containers, open in containers, delete

Import/Export

• Rules (JSON) -- export/import with preview, validation, and template download
• Containers (JSON) -- full container configuration import/export
• Complete data backup (JSON) -- backup/restore for containers, rules, preferences, categories, and stats
• Bookmarks (Silo JSON and cross-browser HTML) -- UI is present, but backend import/export handlers are currently not implemented

Statistics Dashboard

• Per-container usage: tabs opened, navigations, rule matches, time spent
• Global aggregates and daily breakdowns
• Container usage trends
• Active tab tracking
• Recent activity feed

Popup Interface

• Workflow-first action panel focused on likely tasks
• Quick actions: open current tab in container, open new tab in container, open in new temporary container
• Searchable target-container picker with arrow/enter keyboard navigation
• Keyboard shortcuts for speed (1, 2, 3 on home; ↑/↓ + Enter in picker)

Options Page

Full-tab management interface with sections for: Dashboard, Containers, Rules, Bookmarks, Import/Export, and Settings.

• SaaS-style app shell with persistent sidebar navigation
• Keyboard section switching (1-6)
• Container management master-detail workflow with search, filtering, and quick actions
• Container-page keyboard workflow (/, j/k, n, e, c, Delete, r)

Other

• Theme support: light, dark, and auto (follows system)
• Settings page includes theme switching and Firefox shortcut management helper

Current Limitations

• Sync operations (SYNC_PUSH, SYNC_PULL, GET_SYNC_STATE) are stubbed and currently return "Sync not implemented"
• Bookmark import/export sections in Import/Export currently call placeholder handlers and are not yet functional

Technology Stack

Category	Technology
Language	TypeScript (non-strict, ES2020)
UI	React 18
State management	Zustand
Styling	Tailwind CSS
Code quality	Biome (format + lint)
Build	esbuild + Extension CLI + Tailwind CLI
Testing	Jest + React Testing Library + Playwright
Drag-and-drop	@dnd-kit
Search	fuse.js
Icons	lucide-react
Validation	zod
Browser APIs	webextension-polyfill

Installation

Development Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jamesmacfie/silo.git
   cd silo

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Build the extension:

   npm run build

4. Load in Firefox:

   • Open about:debugging
   • Click "This Firefox"
   • Click "Load Temporary Add-on"
   • Select manifest.json from the project directory

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+
• Firefox 91+

Commands

npm run dev            # Dev server with hot reload
npm run build          # Production build
npm run test           # Jest test suite
npm run test:watch     # Watch mode
npm run test:coverage  # Coverage report
npm run test:e2e       # Playwright e2e tests
npm run type-check     # TypeScript validation
npm run fmt            # Biome format + lint (auto-fix)
npm run fmt:check      # Biome check (no auto-fix)

Loading for Development

1. Run npm run dev
2. Open about:debugging in Firefox
3. Click "Load Temporary Add-on"
4. Select manifest.json
5. The popup is accessible from the toolbar icon; the options page opens in a full tab

Usage

Quick Start

1. Install the extension and pin it to your toolbar
2. Click the Silo icon to open the popup
3. Choose one of the three popup actions (1 current tab, 2 new tab, 3 new temp container), then select a container when prompted
4. Open full management from the popup when you need deeper configuration
5. Navigate away and back -- Silo will automatically open the site in the correct container

Creating Rules

1. Open the options page (click "Manage" in the popup, or right-click the icon)
2. Go to the Rules section
3. Click "New Rule" and configure:
   • Pattern: the URL pattern to match (e.g., github.com, *.example.com/admin/*)
   • Match type: Domain, Exact, Glob, or Regex
   • Rule type: Include, Exclude, or Restrict
   • Container: target container (not required for Exclude rules)
   • Priority: higher numbers take precedence within the same rule type

Rule Types

• Include: Open matching URLs in the specified container when navigating from the default context. If already in a different container, the rule is ignored.
• Exclude: Break out of any container for matching URLs -- they open in the default (no container) context.
• Restrict: Force matching URLs into the specified container regardless of current context. This is the strongest rule type.

Keyboard Workflows

Popup:

• 1 open current tab in chosen container
• 2 open new tab in chosen container
• 3 open current context in a new temporary container
• ArrowUp / ArrowDown move through search results in the container picker
• Enter confirm selected container in the picker

Container Management:

• / focus search
• j / k move selection through containers
• n new container
• e edit selected container
• c clear selected container cookies
• Delete / Backspace delete selected container
• r jump to Rules filtered by selected container

Managing Bookmarks

The Bookmarks section in the options page provides:

• Tree view with drag-and-drop reordering
• Table view for bulk operations
• Container association for each bookmark
• Fuzzy search across all bookmarks

Import/Export

Go to the Import/Export section in the options page.

• Working now: Rules JSON, Containers JSON, and Complete Data backup/restore
• Not yet implemented: Bookmarks (Silo JSON) and Bookmarks (cross-browser HTML)

Architecture

See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full technical architecture including layer diagrams, data flows, event bindings, storage schema, and the URL matching engine.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.