different-ai/openwork · error

Tab order contains an unknown tab.

Error message

Tab order contains an unknown tab.

What it means

reorderBrowserTabs checks every proposed id against the current open-tab set and throws if any id is not currently open. The order array was the right length with unique entries but referenced a tab that no longer (or never did) exist.

Source

Thrown at apps/desktop/electron/browser-panel.mjs:689

    for (const tab of tabsToClose) {
      try { tab.view.webContents.close(); } catch { /* already destroyed */ }
    }
    sendToRenderer("openwork:browser:panel-closed");
    sendBrowserState();
    return closedTabIds;
  }

  function reorderBrowserTabs(tabIds) {
    const nextOrder = Array.isArray(tabIds) ? tabIds.map(String) : [];
    if (nextOrder.length !== browserTabOrder.length) {
      throw new Error("Tab order must include every open tab.");
    }
    if (new Set(nextOrder).size !== nextOrder.length) {
      throw new Error("Tab order must not contain duplicate tabs.");
    }
    const current = new Set(browserTabOrder);
    if (nextOrder.some((tabId) => !current.has(tabId))) {
      throw new Error("Tab order contains an unknown tab.");
    }
    browserTabOrder = nextOrder;
    sendBrowserState();
    return listBrowserTabs();
  }

  function sendBrowserState() {
    sendToRenderer("openwork:browser:state", browserStatePayload());
  }

  /**
   * Attach the browser view to the main window.
   * @param {object} bounds — { x, y, width, height }
   * @param {object} [opts]
   * @param {boolean} [opts.preloadDefault=false] - load default URL if the view has no URL
   * @param {boolean} [opts.ensureTab=false] - create a blank tab if needed
   */
  function attachBrowserView(bounds, { preloadDefault = false, ensureTab = false } = {}) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 2b7df46e8a)

Solutions

1. Re-fetch listBrowserTabs() and rebuild the order from live ids
2. Intersect the proposed order with currently open tabs, appending any missing open tabs
3. Handle tab-close events to purge stale ids from client state before reordering

Example fix

// before
reorderBrowserTabs(cachedOrder);
// after
const open = new Set(listBrowserTabs().map(t => t.tabId));
reorderBrowserTabs([...cachedOrder.filter(id => open.has(id)), ...[...open].filter(id => !cachedOrder.includes(id))]);

function orderUsesOpenTabs(ids) {
  const open = new Set(listBrowserTabs().map(t => String(t.tabId)));
  return ids.map(String).every(id => open.has(id));
}
if (!orderUsesOpenTabs(order)) order = order.filter(id => orderUsesOpenTabs([id]));

function areKnownTabIds(ids, open) {
  const known = new Set(open.map(t => String(t.tabId)));
  return ids.map(String).every(id => known.has(id));
}

try {
  reorderBrowserTabs(order);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'Tab order contains an unknown tab.') {
    const open = listBrowserTabs().map(t => t.tabId);
    reorderBrowserTabs(order.filter(id => open.includes(id)).concat(open.filter(id => !order.includes(id))));
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Reordering with an id from a tab closed between snapshot and call; fabricated/corrupt ids; ids carried over from a previous panel session.

Common situations: Race where a tab closes while the user reorders; stale client state after a crash-restore; automation scripts hardcoding tab ids.

Related errors

• Unknown browser tab: ${tabId}
• Tab order must include every open tab.
• Tab order must not contain duplicate tabs.
• Agent context diagnostics timeout must be between 1 ms and 3
• Invalid cloud provider sync response.

AI-assisted analysis of different-ai/openwork@2b7df46e8a (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/204e89f495bf0868. Report an issue: GitHub.