Backtrack

Backtrack explores Atlas-like back navigation across tabs in Brave and other Chromium browsers on macOS.

When a link opens a child tab, the intended final behavior is:

Child tab has meaningful internal back history
→ navigate back inside the child tab first

Child tab is back at its original entry point
→ close the child tab and focus its opener

False positives are considered much worse than a missed transition. Any unclear state must result in no special action.

Repository documentation, user-visible development text, tests, and GitHub planning are maintained in English.

Current status

Phase 2, four bounded components complete.

Development version 0.6.6 fixes a missed recovery in the redirected-Back path: Brave can report the confirmed return as traverse, not only push or replace. The loop marker now survives that snapshot and subsequent same-entry updates, allowing the next deliberate gesture to return to the validated opener. All existing closure guards, gesture thresholds, the 1.8-second cooldown and diagnostic retention remain unchanged. Automated coverage: 222 passed, 0 failed. A fresh-child physical-trackpad retest after reloading this version is still pending; see the regression matrix.

Version 0.6.5 handles a confirmed redirected-Back loop. When Backtrack asks the browser to traverse internal history, the committed navigation is both a Back/Forward traversal and a redirect, and it returns to the exact same page, the next live snapshot can mark that page as the effective return boundary. The next deliberate Back gesture may then return to the still-valid opener. Exact URL comparison exists only for the pending attempt in volatile worker memory; no full address is persisted or logged. Ambiguous and changed-page cases keep using internal history.

Version 0.6.4 adds conservative handling for automatic opening redirects. A child may first load a redirect wrapper before reaching the linked page. Browser-confirmed, unattended client redirects can now establish that landing page as the effective child entry. Subsequent deliberate navigation remains internal history. Automated coverage passes; the updated real-trackpad sequence still needs confirmation in Brave after reloading the extension and opening a fresh child tab. See the regression matrix.

This development build also records the latest 400 Backtrack action attempts plus 1,600 context events automatically in local storage. You can keep browsing after an incident and inspect the evidence later; no open console or running Codex session is needed. See development event log.

The Phase 1 gesture proof of concept remains available. A Manifest V3 service worker now validates whether a newly opened tab has a still-existing, unambiguous opener in the same browser window. It prefers Chromium's openerTabId and, since version 0.5.1, supplements a missing value only when the browser's webNavigation.onCreatedNavigationTarget event provides the exact source-tab and child-tab IDs. Backtrack also distinguishes meaningful internal history from the captured child-tab entry point across full-document navigation and single-page applications that use history.pushState() or history.replaceState(). A guarded action layer can now activate a freshly revalidated opener and close its child tab at the tracked entry point.

Version 0.5.0 added the first conservative physical-gesture orchestration. Automatic actions are disabled by default and remain disabled until the local back direction is explicitly calibrated. Version 0.5.2 no longer waits for the full macOS momentum tail: a stronger early policy must remain eligible for 90 ms before it requests the guarded history or opener action. Ambiguous, vertical, or page-owned horizontal movement still fails closed. A window-wide cooldown prevents the remainder of the same physical movement from acting in the newly active document or opener tab.

Version 0.6.0 adds local visual feedback without changing that action gate. Once a calibrated back movement is already clear, a small arrow appears in the middle of the page and its ring follows gesture progress. It becomes blue when the stronger early-action threshold is armed, then moves toward the back direction and fades on commit. Rejected or incomplete movement simply fades the arrow away. The indicator is an isolated, non-interactive overlay: it neither reads page content nor delays the guarded navigation request, and reduced-motion preferences are respected.

Version 0.6.1 restores ordinary back navigation in tabs without a safe opener or a tracked child entry. Previously, root overscroll containment suppressed native Back there, but the action layer supplied no replacement. A confirmed gesture now requests normal browser history traversal in the freshly checked active tab unless the tab qualifies for the separately guarded opener action. Missing closure evidence never authorizes a close. Momentum, in-progress navigation, inactive senders, and action failures still block further action.

Version 0.6.2 leaves normal navigation in verified root tabs to Brave itself. When neither openerTabId nor the browser's exact navigation-target fallback provides an opener, Backtrack restores the page's original overscroll style and does not classify or animate its wheel input. These tabs no longer pass through Backtrack's 1.8-second action gate. Child tabs retain the existing gesture, history, and closure guards. Ownership changes wait until any active Backtrack sequence and action have ended. This is a bounded root-tab fix, not a claim that rapid consecutive gestures in nested child tabs are solved.

Real trackpad measurements produced a Conditional Go for a bounded Phase 2 prototype:

DOM preventDefault() did not stop Brave's native back gesture.
overscroll-behavior-x: contain on the root element did stop it in the controlled test.
Slow and fast vertical scrolling produced no horizontal candidate.
The local horizontal scroll area remained usable and was correctly blocked as a navigation candidate.
Real tables, carousels, Kanban boards, and complex web applications still belong to the open extended compatibility matrix.

See gesture-research.md for the evidence and the exact Phase 1 decision.

Repository layout

manifest.json
package.json
src/
├── background/
│   ├── back-decision.js
│   ├── gesture-action-gate.js
│   ├── navigation-message-handler.js
│   ├── navigation-target-handler.js
│   ├── navigation-tracker.js
│   ├── opener-message-handler.js
│   ├── opener-resolver.js
│   ├── service-worker.js
│   └── tab-action.js
├── content/
│   ├── gesture-debug.js
│   ├── gesture-indicator.js
│   └── navigation-state.js
└── shared/
    ├── gesture-commit-policy.js
    ├── gesture-classifier.js
    ├── gesture-visual-policy.js
    ├── messages.js
    └── navigation-snapshot.js
docs/
├── gesture-fixture.html
├── indicator-fixture.html
├── gesture-research.md
├── gesture-safety.md
├── internal-history.md
├── navigation-fixture.html
├── opener-safety.md
└── tab-action.md
tests/
├── back-decision.test.js
├── back-navigation-regression.test.js
├── gesture-action-gate.test.js
├── gesture-classifier.test.js
├── gesture-commit-policy.test.js
├── gesture-visual-policy.test.js
├── navigation-message-handler.test.js
├── navigation-target-handler.test.js
├── navigation-snapshot.test.js
├── navigation-tracker.test.js
├── native-root-back.test.js
├── opener-message-handler.test.js
├── opener-resolver.test.js
└── tab-action.test.js

There is deliberately no build step and no external dependency. Brave can load this directory directly as an unpacked extension. package.json contains only the local test command.

Install in Brave

Open brave://extensions.
Enable Developer mode in the upper-right corner.
Select Load unpacked.
Select the repository directory.
Reload any test pages that were already open.

Local repository path used during development:

/Users/bodhi/Documents/Codex/Backtrack

The extension is also expected to load in Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers, but Brave on macOS is the primary target.

Architecture

Gesture instrumentation

src/content/gesture-debug.js observes horizontal wheel sequences at document_start. It records normalized deltas, axis dominance, cancelability, scroll context, preliminary thresholds, and sequence boundaries. The pure classifier rejects vertical movement, short or inconsistent input, synthetic events, modifiers, non-pixel wheel input, page-canceled events, and horizontal scroll areas that may own the interaction.

If and only if the direction was calibrated and automatic actions were enabled and the tab is not a verified root, the content layer applies root overscroll containment, confirms that the CSS took effect, and sends one semantic BACK_GESTURE request. It can send that request before the diagnostic sequence ends only after the stronger early-commit thresholds remain valid for 90 ms. A session-only background gate enforces one action per gesture ID and a 1.8-second cooldown across the whole window against split or retargeted momentum tails. See gesture-safety.md.

In a verified root tab, Brave owns ordinary Back, Forward, and momentum handling, including its own native feedback. Backtrack shows its custom arrow only on the extension-controlled path. BacktrackGestureDebug.getStatus() reports navigationOwner: "BROWSER" or "BACKTRACK" for local diagnosis.

Gesture feedback

src/shared/gesture-visual-policy.js permits feedback earlier than an action, but reuses all direction, page-ownership, scroll-area, modifier, trust, and calibration blockers. The indicator begins at 80 horizontal pixels and never performs navigation itself. src/content/gesture-indicator.js renders only a fixed, pointer-transparent overlay inside a closed Shadow DOM, so site styles cannot normally alter it and it cannot intercept clicks or scrolling.

The ring shows progress toward the stricter 720-pixel early-commit distance. The action thresholds and 90 ms confirmation remain unchanged. If the gesture does not reach an action, the arrow fades out without changing the page. The visual itself stays centered in the viewport so it is not missed at the edge.

Safe opener validation

The background process prefers openerTabId without requesting the broad tabs permission. Some link-created tabs do not expose that property. For those tabs only, Backtrack accepts Chromium's dedicated onCreatedNavigationTarget event as a session-only source-to-child mapping. It rejects missing, conflicting, closed, moved, discarded, pinned-child, or cross-context relationships. The same exact relationship is validated again immediately before activation and immediately before child-tab closure.

See opener-safety.md.

Internal-history detection

The content script reads opaque NavigationHistoryEntry.key values from the Navigation API. The background process remembers the captured child entry key and compares it with the current entry key:

current key differs from child entry key
→ USE_INTERNAL_HISTORY

current key equals child entry key and opener is still safe
→ RETURN_TO_OPENER_ELIGIBLE

missing or contradictory evidence
→ NO_SPECIAL_ACTION

history.length is logged for diagnostics only and is never used as the sole decision signal. See internal-history.md.

An initial redirect may move the captured entry only when the browser reports a client redirect from the known entry and no user interaction has been observed in that opening chain. This prevents a redirect wrapper from trapping the child one step before the intended opener return. Normal link navigation, later script-driven navigation after user input, and ambiguous states do not qualify. Decisions inspect passive history state without rewriting it.

A later internal Back that is redirected to the exact page it started from is handled separately. Backtrack correlates one automatic internal-Back request with the next top-level browser commit. It accepts a loop boundary only when the commit is browser-labeled forward_back plus server_redirect or client_redirect, the exact address is unchanged, the attempted opaque entry still matches, the new Navigation API entry is push/replace, and no same-origin Back entry remains. The opener is still revalidated by the normal closure path. Losing any evidence becomes a no-op or another ordinary Back.

These are child-closure decisions, not permission to disable ordinary Back. When closure is ineligible, the action layer can return USE_BROWSER_HISTORY: the content script requests history.back() without assuming that the Navigation API exposes every earlier entry. At the start of browser history, that request does nothing and the tab stays open.

Guarded tab action

src/background/tab-action.js consumes only a confirmed semantic back request. It takes control only when the decision layer reports the exact tracked entry point and a live, same-window opener. It activates the opener first, validates the relationship once more, and only then closes the child. If closing fails, it attempts to restore focus to the still-open child.

The gesture layer can call this action only after either the stronger confirmed early classification or the completed-sequence fallback succeeds. See tab-action.md.

Debugging

Open the page log

Open an ordinary https:// page.
Open DevTools (⌥⌘I).
Enable Preserve log.
Enable the Verbose log level. Individual events use console.debug; sequence start, end, and threshold crossings are also highlighted.
Filter for [Backtrack:Gesture] or [Backtrack:Navigation].

For real navigation tests, close DevTools before performing the physical gesture. In the tested Brave version, DevTools docked on the right prevented native two-finger back navigation by itself. DevTools is useful for capturing events but cannot alone prove that Backtrack suppressed browser navigation.

Persistent diagnostic ring

The development build automatically retains the latest 400 action attempts and 1,600 context events in separate bounded groups. These include rejected actions, relevant gesture summaries, passive navigation state, browser commits/redirects, opener relationships, focus/close/move events, and runtime version/start markers. Repeated identical passive snapshots are omitted. Stored records survive page/tab closure and worker, extension, or browser restart. Each group overwrites its own oldest records when full; context noise cannot evict the 400 actions. No console or Codex session needs to remain open. This is a local development aid, not telemetry: nothing is sent anywhere.

On any ordinary http:// or https:// page, choose Backtrack Development in DevTools' JavaScript context and run:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.getPersistentDiagnosticLog()

For later investigation, the report includes the entries, retention limits, coverage dates, storage status and automatically derived investigation hints:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.getPersistentDiagnosticReport()

An early BACK_ACTION can precede its GESTURE_SESSION end, or close the page before that summary can be sent. NAVIGATION_STATE, NAVIGATION_COMMIT and TAB_EVENT show subsequent observable outcomes. NAVIGATION_RESULT reports whether the content script called ordinary Back, not whether traversal actually completed. GESTURE_OWNERSHIP explains browser-owned root input. The review flags missing closure evidence, slow action responses, action errors, redirected-Back loops, and repeated Back requests without observed progress as hints, not proven bugs. A reported loop may already have been recovered successfully. The review cannot infer your intent from a successful-looking action.

Clear the ring after we have inspected an incident:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.clearPersistentDiagnosticLog()

With the developer user's explicit permission, version 0.6.5 adds website origins (scheme, host, port), opaque entry/document UUIDs, entry-baseline flags, history counts, redirect qualifiers and timing metadata. Credentials, URL paths/queries/fragments, page titles/text, cookies, form input, and raw wheel events are excluded. This is a bounded browsing-event trail for local development, not a product analytics feature. The production logging policy must be decided separately. See the full contract.

Inspect opener validation in the background

Open brave://extensions.
Select the service-worker link for Backtrack Development.
Open a link from an existing tab in a new tab.
Filter for [Backtrack:Opener].

An ok: true result confirms only the current opener relationship. It performs no action. The diagnostic object contains no URL, title, favicon, or page content.

Inspect the internal-history decision

On an ordinary page, choose Backtrack Development from the JavaScript context menu in DevTools, then run:

BacktrackNavigationState.requestBackDecision()

Possible results:

USE_INTERNAL_HISTORY: the child still has an internal back step;
RETURN_TO_OPENER_ELIGIBLE: the child is back at its captured entry point and its opener is still safe;
NO_SPECIAL_ACTION: evidence is missing or contradictory, or the opener is no longer safe.

This method remains diagnostic-only.

The manual Brave 152.1.94.117 smoke test on August 30, 2026 covered:

child entry
→ two SPA push steps
→ one back step, still internal
→ second back step, entry reached
→ full-document navigation
→ tab without opener

The decision changed from USE_INTERNAL_HISTORY to RETURN_TO_OPENER_ELIGIBLE only when the real child entry was reached.

Run the guarded action manually

For a controlled smoke test, open a fresh child tab from an ordinary http:// or https:// page. In the child tab's isolated Backtrack Development DevTools context, run:

BacktrackNavigationState.performConfirmedBackAction()

This command can close the current child tab. It returns one of:

RETURNED_TO_OPENER: the opener was activated and the child was closed;
USE_INTERNAL_HISTORY: the child still has internal back history, so no tab action occurred;
USE_BROWSER_HISTORY: no safe child-close decision; ordinary browser Back is available to automatic gesture orchestration;
NO_SPECIAL_ACTION: the sender is no longer eligible, navigation is in progress, or an API step failed.

The manual development command only reports either history result; unlike an automatic gesture request, it does not call history.back().

This development command bypasses gesture classification but not the opener or history safety checks. The provisional threshold-crossed signal never calls it.

The successful controlled run used Brave 152.1.94.117 on macOS 26.6.2: a fresh fixture child closed and its exact opener became the visibly selected tab. See tab-action.md for the action order and failure behavior.

Gesture log format

Each structured object has a kind field:

wheel: one raw and normalized wheel event;
session-start: start of one related event sequence;
threshold-crossed: the preliminary base threshold, never an action by itself;
early-commit-armed: the stronger fast-path threshold became eligible;
early-commit-disarmed: a safety condition changed during confirmation;
gesture-committed: the stronger evidence remained eligible for 90 ms and an action request is about to be considered;
gesture-indicator-shown: the safe visual-only preview threshold was met;
gesture-indicator-phase: the stronger action threshold became armed;
gesture-indicator-hidden: later evidence invalidated the visual preview;
session-end: summary and conservative classification;
post-dispatch-default-prevented: the page probably canceled the event after Backtrack's capture listener.

Completed measurements are also emitted as one compact [Backtrack:Gesture:SessionJSON] line. Threshold crossings are preserved as [Backtrack:Gesture:ThresholdJSON], keeping the last scroll context visible with Preserve log even if Brave destroys the old page during navigation.

POSITIVE_X and NEGATIVE_X do not inherently mean back or forward. The mapping depends on hardware, macOS settings, and browser behavior. Backtrack stores the explicitly calibrated mapping locally.

Gesture research controls

The content script runs in an isolated JavaScript world. Choose Backtrack Gesture Research or Backtrack Development from the DevTools context menu before using these commands.

Show status:

BacktrackGestureDebug.getStatus()

Preview the visual states without performing navigation:

BacktrackGestureDebug.previewIndicator(0.55, "tracking")
BacktrackGestureDebug.previewIndicator(1, "armed")
BacktrackGestureDebug.hideIndicator()

These development commands only display or hide the overlay. They neither simulate a trusted trackpad event nor request any history or tab action.

Enable automatic actions only after observing which sign the normal physical back swipe produces on this Mac:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.calibrateBackDirection("NEGATIVE_X")
// or "POSITIVE_X" on a configuration that reports the opposite sign

Disable actions while keeping the measured direction:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.disableAutomaticActions()

Remove the calibration completely:

await BacktrackGestureDebug.clearCalibration()

Calibration stores only the direction and enabled/disabled state in local extension storage. The separate development event log retains origins and opaque navigation metadata, not full addresses, page content or raw wheel events. Automatic actions require computed root overscroll-behavior-x: contain; a failed containment check becomes a no-op.

Clear the measurement buffer:

BacktrackGestureDebug.clearLog()

Finish and summarize the current sequence:

BacktrackGestureDebug.finishSession()

Export measurements as JSON:

copy(BacktrackGestureDebug.exportJson())

Raw gesture measurements remain only in the memory of the current page frame. Reloading or closing the page removes them. They are never transmitted or stored persistently. The direction calibration and the separate compact diagnostic ring described above survive a reload.

Controlled `preventDefault()` experiment

The PoC observes only by default:

BacktrackGestureDebug.getConfig().preventDefaultMode
// "off"

Temporarily cancel horizontally dominant events for test case D:

BacktrackGestureDebug.configure({ preventDefaultMode: "horizontal" })

Disable the experiment afterwards:

BacktrackGestureDebug.configure({ preventDefaultMode: "off" })

The horizontal mode may interfere with horizontal scrolling. The stronger all mode cancels every cancelable wheel event and must not remain active during ordinary browsing.

Test root overscroll containment separately:

BacktrackGestureDebug.setRootOverscrollBehavior("contain")
BacktrackGestureDebug.setRootOverscrollBehavior("unchanged")

This is also a research switch only. unchanged restores the previous inline value.

Manual gesture test sequence

Before every case, clear the buffer, perform exactly one gesture, wait briefly, and save the JSON export. Record the browser version, macOS version, trackpad model, and the Natural scrolling setting.

Start the local fixture server from the repository root:

python3 -m http.server 8765 --bind 127.0.0.1

Open:

http://127.0.0.1:8765/docs/gesture-fixture.html

The page loads no external resources. Its blue horizontal area starts in a middle position so both directions can be tested.

A. Page without horizontal scrolling

Use a simple ordinary page.
Swipe right once, then left in a separate measurement.
Record sign, event count, total distance, and native browser behavior.

B. Vertically scrollable page

Scroll up and down normally several times.
Expected: session-end.evaluation.classification remains NO_CANDIDATE, usually because horizontal dominance is too low.

C. Horizontal scroll area

Swipe over a large table, carousel, or horizontal code area.
Check whether horizontalScrollContext is detected.
The PoC blocks a candidate whenever a detectable horizontal scroll area is involved, even if that area is currently at an edge.

D. Native Brave back gesture

Navigate to a second page in the same tab.
Perform native back with preventDefaultMode off.
Compare the visible wheel stream with actual browser navigation.
Repeat with preventDefaultMode: "horizontal".
Optionally run a separate comparison with root containment enabled.
Reset every research switch after the test.

E. Momentum or trailing decay

Perform a short fast movement and lift both fingers.
Inspect how many decaying events follow.
DECAY_TAIL_ONLY is explicitly a heuristic. Standard WheelEvent exposes no reliable momentum phase.

The complete evidence matrix is in gesture-research.md. Automated suites through version 0.6.0 and calibrated physical end-to-end results are recorded separately in regression-matrix.md.

Conservative gesture policy

The completed diagnostic sequence is classified as a horizontal candidate when:

net horizontal distance is at least 240 CSS pixels;
accumulated horizontal movement is at least 4 times vertical movement;
at least 90% of horizontal movement keeps the same direction;
at least 8 pixel-mode events are present and one reaches 8 horizontal pixels;
no horizontal scroll area can consume the movement;
an inner horizontal scroll area is rejected even at its boundary;
no modifier key is pressed;
the page did not observably cancel the default behavior itself.

threshold-crossed remains a provisional research log and never requests an action by itself. Version 0.6.0 may show the non-interactive arrow after 80 horizontal pixels, 3:1 dominance, 85% direction consistency, four pixel-mode events, and a 6-pixel peak, but only when every ordinary safety blocker passes. Visual eligibility is not action eligibility. To avoid waiting several seconds for macOS momentum, version 0.5.2 added a stricter early action path: at least 720 horizontal pixels, 5:1 dominance, 95% direction consistency, 12 pixel events, a 12-pixel peak, every normal safety check, and a further 90 ms confirmation period. If that path is not conclusive, Backtrack retains the completed-sequence fallback. The policy and its conservative tradeoffs are documented in gesture-safety.md.

Permissions and privacy

Access	Why needed?	Can it be avoided?	Theoretical data access
`storage`	`storage.session` keeps child-entry/cooldown state. `storage.local` keeps calibration and the development event log: 400 actions plus 1,600 context events.	Entry/cooldown state must survive worker suspension; deferred incident investigation needs persistence beyond tab closure.	The API could store arbitrary extension data. The development schema allows origins, opaque entry/document UUIDs, tab IDs, history counts, timings and reason codes. It excludes full addresses, titles, page content, credentials and raw input. These records are never used to reconstruct live closure eligibility.
`webNavigation`	`onCreatedNavigationTarget` supplies exact source/child IDs when Brave omits `openerTabId`. Top-level `onCommitted` metadata identifies confirmed opening redirects and redirected-Back loops, and provides diagnostic context.	Without it, missing opener relationships, redirect wrappers and a browser-confirmed return loop cannot be distinguished safely using page-side history alone.	The API can expose navigation events and URLs. For loop detection, the pending source and committed destination are compared for exact equality only in volatile worker memory and are immediately discarded; no full address enters storage or diagnostics. The development log retains only the origin plus transition metadata. No server is contacted.
No `tabs` permission	The background uses tab lifecycle events plus `chrome.tabs.get()`, `chrome.tabs.update()`, and `chrome.tabs.remove()` for IDs, state validation, activation, and exact child closure. These operations do not require the broad permission.	Already avoided.	Without `tabs`, the API does not expose privileged URL, title, or favicon fields to Backtrack.
Automatic content script on `http:///` and `https:///`	Gesture and history changes must be observed early across ordinary websites.	An `activeTab` research build would need a toolbar action on every page. Reassess before production.	A content script could read or alter page DOM. Backtrack processes event, geometry, scroll-context and opaque navigation-entry data. The development log adds sender origins, not full page addresses or contents. No server is contacted.

Backtrack does not run on brave://, chrome://, the Chrome Web Store, or other protected browser pages. This also includes Chromium's internal chrome-error://chromewebdata/ document: when an https:// navigation fails because of TLS, DNS, or another network error, the address bar may still show the requested site while the actual document is a protected browser error page. Backtrack cannot receive trackpad events there. file:// is not matched. Subframes are included only when their own address matches http:// or https://.

Known limitations

Web content does not necessarily receive the same information as Brave's native macOS gesture machinery.
Standard WheelEvent cannot reliably identify trackpad versus mouse and exposes no standardized gesture or momentum phase.
Browser-generated network and certificate error pages are protected pages; the ordinary two-finger gesture cannot be detected there by a content script.
Sites with custom JavaScript gesture logic may look like ordinary scroll areas or evade DOM scroll detection entirely.
DevTools Preserve log is still useful for the raw per-page research log. The separate persistent diagnostic ring is available after real navigation and tab closure.
Measurement buffers in embedded frames are separate.
Direction calibration currently uses the isolated development API; there is no user-facing calibration screen yet.
Automatic behavior is intentionally off until calibration succeeds.
Inner horizontal scroll areas are blocked even at their edge, which prefers a missed back action over an accidental tab closure.
Tabs open before the extension is loaded or reloaded receive no invented entry point.
Tabs created by browser UI, extensions, restored sessions, or other paths that provide neither openerTabId nor an exact navigation-target event stay open.
Browser or extension restart clears volatile history state; affected tabs are never automatically closed. Ordinary Back remains available after the current content scripts have loaded; refresh pages open before an update.
Protected pages provide no content-script history evidence and therefore trigger no special action.

Sources

Deliberately not included yet

automatic tab action before explicit direction calibration;
restoration of a tab tree or live navigation state from persistent records;
an options page;
telemetry, server access, or a complete browsing-history archive. The bounded local development event trail is explicitly documented above.

Navigation Menu

Repository files navigation

Backtrack

Current status

Repository layout

Install in Brave

Architecture

Gesture instrumentation

Gesture feedback

Safe opener validation

Internal-history detection

Guarded tab action

Debugging

Open the page log

Persistent diagnostic ring

Inspect opener validation in the background

Inspect the internal-history decision

Run the guarded action manually

Gesture log format

Gesture research controls

Controlled `preventDefault()` experiment

Manual gesture test sequence

A. Page without horizontal scrolling

B. Vertically scrollable page

C. Horizontal scroll area

D. Native Brave back gesture

E. Momentum or trailing decay

Conservative gesture policy

Permissions and privacy

Known limitations

Sources

Deliberately not included yet

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
docs		docs
src		src
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
manifest.json		manifest.json
package.json		package.json

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Backtrack

Current status

Repository layout

Install in Brave

Architecture

Gesture instrumentation

Gesture feedback

Safe opener validation

Internal-history detection

Guarded tab action

Debugging

Open the page log

Persistent diagnostic ring

Inspect opener validation in the background

Inspect the internal-history decision

Run the guarded action manually

Gesture log format

Gesture research controls

Controlled preventDefault() experiment

Manual gesture test sequence

A. Page without horizontal scrolling

B. Vertically scrollable page

C. Horizontal scroll area

D. Native Brave back gesture

E. Momentum or trailing decay

Conservative gesture policy

Permissions and privacy

Known limitations

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Deliberately not included yet

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Controlled `preventDefault()` experiment