When using vertical tabs, the sidebar already has plenty of horizontal space, but accessing Bookmarks, Reading List, and Tab Groups currently requires two clicks: first open a dropdown, then pick the item. I'd like a row (or column) of dedicated buttons/icons placed directly
in the sidebar, so each of these sections can be opened with a single click.
Cuts the most common sidebar navigation from two clicks to one.
Surfaces these features visually so they're discoverable, instead of being hidden behind a dropdown.
Makes use of the empty space a wide vertical-tab sidebar already provides.
Impact on existing workflows:
It's purely additive — the existing dropdown can stay for users who prefer it, or the buttons can replace it. Nothing about current behavior has to break.
For people who keep the sidebar wide (the typical vertical-tab user), it removes friction from a frequent action without adding clutter, since the space is otherwise unused.
Ideally the button row would be configurable: let users choose which sections appear (Bookmarks, Reading List, Tab Groups, History, Downloads, etc.) and reorder/hide them, so it scales from minimalists to power users.
Exact usage:
I'm browsing with vertical tabs open in the sidebar. I want to add the current page to my Reading List or jump to a saved bookmark.
Today: I click the dropdown at the top of the sidebar → wait for the menu → click "Reading List." Two clicks plus a menu interaction, every time.
With this feature: I click a single "Reading List" icon button pinned in the sidebar, and the panel switches instantly. One click. Same for Bookmarks and Tab Groups — each is one fixed target I can build muscle memory for, instead of a moving item inside a dropdown.
A concrete example: while researching, I keep Tab Groups one click away to switch contexts, and the Reading List one click away to stash articles for later — without ever leaving the keyboard-and-pointer flow or losing my place in the tab list.
How other browsers/apps implement this:
Vivaldi — the closest model. It has a vertical "Panel" toolbar with dedicated icon buttons (Bookmarks, Reading List, History, Downloads, Notes, Web Panels). One click on an icon toggles that panel. Users can add, remove, and reorder the icons. This is exactly the one-click,
configurable pattern I'm describing.
Safari — its sidebar exposes Bookmarks, Reading List, and Tab Groups as directly clickable sections/icons rather than burying them in a single dropdown.
Arc — keeps Library/Spaces and quick-access shortcuts as persistent sidebar targets rather than menu items.
Firefox (recent sidebar) — shows a vertical strip of icon buttons (Bookmarks, History, Synced Tabs, etc.) for one-click switching alongside vertical tabs.
Microsoft Edge — pairs vertical tabs with a sidebar of single-click tool icons.
How it extends the existing feature:
This builds directly on Orion's current sidebar + vertical tabs. Rather than adding a new surface, it just promotes the items already inside the sidebar dropdown into first-class, always-visible buttons. The dropdown can remain as a fallback or overflow ("more…") menu for
sections the user chooses not to pin — so the feature extends the sidebar's usefulness without changing where any of these features live.
