[Feature Request] Keyboard shortcut to toggle vertical tabs sidebar open/closed

[erickirt]

What problem does this solve? (describe the problem you're experiencing)

• BrowserOS v0.42.0 shipped vertical tabs (sidebar) — great feature! However, there is currently no keyboard shortcut to toggle the sidebar open or closed. To show/hide it you have to reach for the mouse every time, which breaks keyboard-centric workflows.

How are you working around this today? (your current solution or workaround)

• Manually clicking the sidebar toggle button in the UI with the mouse every time I want to show or hide the vertical tabs panel.

What's your proposed solution? (how should BrowserOS address this?)

• Add a dedicated keyboard shortcut (e.g. ⌘⇧S on macOS / Ctrl+Shift+S on Windows/Linux) to toggle the vertical tabs sidebar open and closed.
• The shortcut should be wired up in global_keyboard_shortcuts_mac.mm (and the equivalent Windows/Linux files) under the existing kBrowserOsKeyboardShortcuts feature flag, consistent with how the LLM side panel shortcut (⌘⇧K) and agent toggle (⌥A) are implemented.
• Ideally the shortcut should also be user-remappable via chrome://extensions/shortcuts or a BrowserOS-native shortcuts settings page in the future.

Additional context (optional - add screenshots, examples, or other helpful details)

• The existing BrowserOS custom shortcuts are defined in packages/browseros/chromium_patches/chrome/browser/global_keyboard_shortcuts_mac.mm and gated on features::kBrowserOsKeyboardShortcuts. The vertical tabs sidebar was shipped in [Feature Request] Vertical Tabs and Page Translate #207 but no corresponding toggle shortcut was added at that time.
• Similar browsers (Arc, Zen, Vivaldi, Brave) all provide a keyboard shortcut for toggling their sidebar/tab strip.

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Thanks for sharing your idea! We love hearing how we can make BrowserOS better. ✨

[shadowfax92]

Hey erickirt — appreciate the idea! Added this to our backlog as a feature request. We'll factor it in as we plan upcoming work.

[shadowfax92]

Appreciate it, erickirt — a shortcut to toggle the vertical-tabs sidebar is a reasonable QoL ask. That said, we're focused on bugs right now and not adding new shortcuts/surfaces, so I won't promise it. Closing as not-planned for now — noted.