TLDR: I wanted a second new tab button in firefox (ff), couldn't find it in any existing addons. I believed my GPT could make me one quick, (see gif). I ended up taking at least an hour, but I got it done and published! Next time I'll try Claude. Worth it? Tbh I keep forgetting about its there, but I hope I just have to get used to it 🫠
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
I learned some lessons about trying to be efficient to a fault, sunken cost fallacy, and not fully accepting GPTs limitations.
For extra functionality, I wanted a second “new tab” button in Firefox that always opens a tab at the far right of the tab strip. Currently, I have it set to open a new tab to the right of an active tab. Not a huge deal, but I normally have tens of tabs open and I was annoyed I couldn't open tabs where I wanted to.
I spent some time downloading and trying, (unsuccessfully), different add-ons before I thought, hey maybe GPT could make this for me, and it would probably be quick! Well, after fighting with my GPT about "userChrome" hacks, I learned it was nearly impossible or too unstable to add something directly in the "tab header" as that was part of the ff code itself.. so I set out to just add it to the toolbar section where the other extensions lived.
After more setbacks with browser theme quirks, icons, functionality, and (honestly) spending way too much time trying to make an icon to show up correctly in the toolbar, I created an add-on! I have it unlisted to get it approved and usable right away (so it won't show up in the store), but I attached a photo of the addon page with it in my tool bar. In the end, I did accomplish what I set out to do and learned some harsh lessons along the way.