Tie domains to a workspace (Air Traffic Control)

[EmilioAK]

e.g. I open "github.com" and it automatically switches to my "coding" workspace and opens the tab there.

This is a feature Arc already has called "Air Traffic Control"

[devcatt]

can be an issue if u want for example to use other pages already in the workspace

[EmilioAK]

This would just be an option, so you could create a list of domains that should be tied to a workspace

[Flohhhhh]

I think the proper solution here would be if the site is already open in another workspace(s) you have the option to go there instead of open a new tab with the site.

This way you can still use the same site in multiple workspaces.

Edit: This is actually already a feature. When I type "github" in my search/address bar it gives me the option to switch to my already open tabs in each workspace

[EmilioAK]

This wouldn't be quite the same. For example as a student you will open canvas a lot, but you don't necessarily just want one canvas tab (e.g. you want one tab open per course), yet you still want all your canvas tabs in one workspace. So its not about currently open tabs, but having multiple tabs from the same domain in one workspace.

[trascastefan]

I'm using Arc and this is the one feature that if Zen browser had, exactly like in Arc I'd switch.

[alexfazio]

i feel the same way! this is the last feature preventing me from making the switch.

[davebuilt]

This feature is the last one currently keeping me using Arc for the most part.

I use it to redirect private Github projects to the right profile that is logged into the account with access.

Also useful to redirect YouTube videos to my Google account container that has YouTube Premium.

[sandacode]

To help understand the point of this feature, here's how I use it in Arc:

• I have four workspaces defined ("Private", "Work - General", "Work - Project A", "Work - Project B"). I work on two main projects.
• In Air Traffic Control, I have set up the following routes
  • projecta.atlassian.net ==> Work - Project A
  • github.com//project-a ==> Work - Project A
  • projecta.com Work - Project A
  • projectb.atlassian.net ==> Work - Project B
  • gitlab.com/projectb/ ==> Work - Project B
  • github.com/employer/ ==> Work - General
  • google.com/calendar ==> Work - General
  • meet.google.com ==> Work - General
  • youtube.com ==> Private
  • (etc).

My main benefit: click a link in Slack, it opens in Arc in the mostly-right workspace. In each workspace, I have pinned tabs for all the relevant stuff (documentation, codebase, etc). So clicking a Pull Request link immediately brings everything needed for that specific project front-and-center. Youtube on the other hand is directed to Private because 99% of the time that's just stuff coming from #random, and I like having my viewing history central so I can easily continue watching something interesting but too time-consuming for the workday.

Especially the Google Meet one is nice, as it means I don't have to be logged in to a Google account across all the workspaces, just in the General one.

Once you're already browsing inside a workspace, ATC should not redirect traffic. So clicking a link to Project B from within the Project A workspace does not switch workspaces... it's aimed at "open in browser" usecases. Hope this helps clarify Air Traffic Control and its benefits a bit, from someone using this quite actively?

[StringNick]

very useful functionality to use one window for Job/Hobby/Life workspaces

[StringNick]

very useful functionality to use one window for Job/Hobby/Life workspaces

[alexfazio]

bumping this

[sanderv32]

Really want to get rid of Arc because they dropped manifest v2 and UBlock origin is not working anymore but missing this feature.

[kakato10]

Let's do the bumping again. This is a killer feature. Please implement it!

[simon-bd]

Hey @kakato10 ! I totally agree what you mean about having this setting in the settings. But for now, I think the developers are focusing on other areas. Have you tried setting "firefox multi-account containers" up? Once you have the extension installed, it’s pretty similar to what you might expect. The only downside is that if you’re redirected by the extension, the essentials don’t display right, and you have to go back and forth in the workspaces to get the final result. But hey, we’ve kinda got air traffic control already! Let me know if you need any help!

[kakato10]

Hey! Yes, I have this one setup already, but this setup has some drawbacks

1. The traffic control will work only for websites assigned to that container => What do you do if you want websites from different containers on a single workspace?
2. If you want to have some subset of pages of one domain into a single workspace and all the rest of the website into a different one (this might be a problem even with a new Traffic Control solution if it works only on a domain level)
3. Some Zen bugs are really preventing the current approach from being seamless

#2 is an edge case I've encountered at work, but I understand that a solution that suits all use cases is practically impossible. Still I hope that a new solution tailored for Traffic Control not for "Container management" will actually fix it.

[simon-bd]

1. Not sure i understand the case described, but might just be my use case that dosent align with that need
2. this is very true
3. the one where essentials is not being loaded correctly was fixed in 1.11.5t (Firefox 138.0) (2025-04-28), at least on my device ;)

[dansauve]

I don't know which version of Zen this was added to, but enabling the "Switch to workspace where container is set as default when opening container tabs" setting (found in Settings > Tab Management > Workspaces) and using the "Firefox Multi-Account Containers" extension with sites setup to "Always open in" a specific container seems to be working exactly like Arc ATC for me. Pretty awesome!

[sandacode]

I can only agree with Kakato10. Containers are.. nice. And there is definitely some overlap with Air Traffic Control. But they are not the same, as containers are bound to an Origin, not to a path. So multiple Github repositories for example won't work. We can of course install https://github.com/kintesh/containerise to fix that. There's fixes for everything... but wouldn't an integrated out of the box solution be much nicer?

[sr-tream]

Thanks! Containerise realy good solution - better than Firefox Multi-Account Containers, because with Containerise I can use globs and regex to match urls with domain subpath

[Steven0351]

I got down the container route by a reddit post saying they work the same, and they definitely don't. ATC is effectively the reason I use Arc.

[tanaybhomia]

This can be done using a extension but fails very often.I wish this was baked inside Zen.

[alexfazio]

I am eager to switch, and this is the feature I need the most to do so. Yes, we have plugins and workarounds, but why can't this be available by default? None of them works as well as the native implementation in Arc. I will wait to switch from Arc until you figure this out.

[vraravam]

In that case, you will probably wait for quite a long time.
The FF devs made the decision to keep the plugin vs the base hooks separate.
If you want to request for such a feature in the core browser, then I suggest that you raise that in the Mozilla feature request forums.

[vcorr]

Here is one way to make this work.

1. Get Finicky https://github.com/johnste/finicky
2. Get an extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-url-in-container
3. In settings, tab management, switch on "Switch to workspace where container is set as default when opening container tabs"
4. Set up your workspaces and assign the default containers (work and personal here for example)
5. configure Finicky

  defaultBrowser: "Zen",
  rewrite: [
    {
      match: "https://github.com/*",
      url: (url) => {
        return "ext+container:name=work&url=" + url
      },
      browser: 'Zen',
    },
    {
      match: "https://www.google.com/*",
      url: (url) => {
        return "ext+container:name=personal&url=" + url
      },
      browser: 'Zen',
    }
  ]
};

6. click links and see them open in the correct workspace!

[leolozes]

it's a bit finicky (ha ...) but it works! Thank you for the detailed steps!
note: the container names are case-sensitive! and the file should start with export default { and then the code from the example :)

[ryanelliottsmith]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, that I find extremely handy - each space in Arc has its own extensions and storage, so important sites like banking, etc, can be put in a space that has minimal extensions. Or you can have a space with a VPN on for specific sites.

This, along with ATC, is the only reason I'm still running Arc

[vraravam]

What you describe is doable in zen using profiles. The profile switcher has been made much easier to use in FF (you might need to turn it on for the first time using an about:config entry).

[adudenamedruby]

Bumping because this is the only thing preventing me from switching from Arc to Zen as well.

[dansauve]

Bump. Also the only thing keeping me in Arc; this is such a time saver and power feature.

[marlonchalegre]

There is an open PR to add this
#9042

[darkermango]

You can already do this by using the official Firefox add-on Firefox Multi-Account Containers. By binding your workspace to a container and clicking 'Always open site in container'.

[vraravam]

You can already do this by using the official Firefox add-on Firefox Multi-Account Containers. By binding your workspace to a container and clicking 'Always open site in container'.

I was a long time user of MAC, but just last week switched to Containerise. Seems to be somewhat better usage-wise. It handles domains using regular expressions, and also doesn't have a confirmation screen on first use of the configured domain.