Ship #1

What did you make?
OmniTab. It’s the new tab I actually want to open — one bar for search, links, and Gemini (/ask / /explain / /fix / /translate), plus speed dial, a scratchpad, weather, a focus list, BBC headlines, and a quote. Short setup the first time, then it just sticks in your browser.

What was challenging?
Gemini’s free tier. I hard-coded gemini-2.0-flash and kept getting limit: 0 with keys that were fine. Spent a while figuring out you have to list models that still have quota and rotate keys on the server. Also random wallpapers made all the floating text disappear until I put stuff in glass cards.

What are you proud of?
That the bar doesn’t feel like three apps smashed together. You type, it figures out search vs URL vs AI. Layout settings are nice too — flip widgets on/off and reorder the middle stack without another wizard.

What should people know so they can test?
Open the demo, click through setup, then just type. Try cats, youtube.com, /ask what’s a mutex. If you want more: /calc 30% of 10, /weather, drag the speed dial around, poke settings. No account — everything’s localStorage. Demo should already have a Gemini key wired up.

Try project → See source code →

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@Ander507 on OmniTab · 7 days ago

2h 43m 11s logged

Devlog #1 — OmniTab: one bar that does everything

Date: July 2026
Project: OmniTab — custom new-tab command center
AI disclosure: under 25%. Cursor helped scaffold Vite/Tailwind and wire the Gemini proxy / key rotation. Omni-Bar mode detection, typo redirects, setup wizard, layout prefs, engines, news RSS, calc/easter eggs, and most of the UI/CSS I wrote or heavily edited. No website builder, no “generate whole app” dump.

What I wanted

A new tab that isn’t just bookmarks + a clock. One input that can:

search (pick your engine)
open a URL (including my usual typos)
talk to Gemini (/ask, /explain, /fix, /translate)
do quick local stuff (/calc, /weather, /rickroll, /67)

Plus the ambient junk I actually look at when I open a tab: weather, focus list, headlines, a quote.

What shipped in this chunk

Core

Omni-Bar with mode detection (search / URL / AI)
Engine dropdown + @google cats one-shots
Autocomplete suggestions (Google first, DDG fallback)
Speed dial (drag reorder, HTML bookmarks import, Ctrl+1–9)
Scratchpad side panel (same Gemini endpoint)
First-time 5-step setup, later settings as a normal form

Ambient / widgets

Clock + calendar popup
Weather via Open-Meteo
Quote + note of the day
Focus todos
BBC news (World / Tech / Science) via RSS proxy — no news API key
Layout menu: toggle widgets, move clock side, reorder the center stack
Glass cards so text stays readable on random wallpapers

Pain points that ate time

Gemini free tier — hardcoded gemini-2.0-flash returned limit: 0 even with valid keys. Fixed by listing models + rotating keys the same way as my old Python tester.
Random animal photos — dog.ceo / thecatapi were often tiny/ugly. Switched cats/dogs to Wikimedia Commons HD.
Busy backgrounds — floating white text died on forests/sunsets. Had to put header stuff in frosted cards and bump contrast.

Stack

Vite · React · TypeScript · Tailwind · Gemini (serverless /api/gemini) · Open-Meteo · BBC RSS

Prefs live in localStorage. No accounts.