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.

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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

1. 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.
2. Random animal photos — dog.ceo / thecatapi were often tiny/ugly. Switched cats/dogs to Wikimedia Commons HD.
3. 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

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