Almost all chrome.tabs
methods require you to
declare the "tabs" permission
in the extension manifest.
For example:
{ "name": "My extension", ... "permissions": [ "tabs" ], ... }
Three methods ($ref:tabs.create, $ref:tabs.update and $ref:tabs.remove) and one event ($ref:tabs.onRemoved) don't require the "tabs" permission.
You can find simple examples of using the tabs module in the examples/api/tabs directory. For other examples and for help in viewing the source code, see Samples.