If you have any feature requests for the Acid Tabs chrome extension, please submit an Issue describing the feature and use case. Please do this before you consider opening up a pull request for any changes that would largely impact the UX as I'd prefer to discuss that on an issue first.
This should start a webpackdev server and creates a local build folder with the proper source files. You can then select this folder from the "Manage Extensions" page on chrome, activate the developer settings and "Load Unpacked Extension".
Shoutout to @lxieyang for creating one of my favorite chrome extension boilerplates out there https://github.com/lxieyang/chrome-extension-boilerplate-react