GenAI Browser Tool

Read a page, ask questions with source passages, and turn it into a study guide or quiz. This Chrome 116+ extension uses the AI provider and key you choose. Page text goes directly to that provider; there is no application server or telemetry.

The screenshot uses an intercepted test response; it demonstrates the interface, not live model quality.

Start here

Clone or download this repository:

git clone https://github.com/aaron-seq/GenAI-Browser-Tool.git

1. Open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, and choose Load unpacked → the repository root containing manifest.json. No build or dependency installation is needed to use the extension.
2. In options, select a provider and enter its API key. Fields save automatically. Test connection optionally sends a small request with the entered key/model.
3. Open an article, click the extension, and check its title and word count. Generate a summary or ask a question.
4. Choose Open workspace for a persistent reading tab. Import UTF-8 .txt or .md files there; importing alone sends no provider request.
5. In Chat, choose Make a study guide or Quiz me, ask follow-up questions, and expand the source passages to check the evidence.

Installation is currently unpacked; there is no published Web Store release.

What works

• Summary: four styles and four lengths; matching saved results avoid another provider call.
• Chat: local keyword retrieval selects up to six passages across the document. Answers display source labels and excerpts.
• Document memory: restore the latest summary and up to 30 completed exchanges for the same URL and unchanged text. Clear this chat removes its exchanges.
• Import: text/Markdown up to 2,000,000 characters and 8 MB; the same filename and text identify a returning imported document.
• Translate/analyze: saved language preferences, sentiment, insights, entities, and tags. Local tools provide readability, counts, headings, links, and JSON export of history/settings without keys.
• Quick actions: right-click a page/selection or use Ctrl+Shift+S (Command+Shift+S on Mac) for a quick page summary.

Long documents and speed

Summaries process up to eight sections of 24,000 characters, with three section requests in flight and a final merge (up to nine requests before retries). Coverage notices identify omitted text. Translation, other analyses, and quick actions still use the first 24,000 characters; see #17.

Chat uses local BM25 keyword retrieval, not model training. Synonyms, some languages, and questions requiring every chapter can exceed its recall. The retrieval benchmark does not measure provider latency or establish instant book comprehension. PDF/EPUB/OCR are planned separately.

Providers and privacy

Choose Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google and optionally override the model in options. See default models and provider evidence. AI requests require your key and may incur charges. Local extraction/statistics work without one; live account access and answer quality have not been evaluated.

Keys live in chrome.storage.sync, which is not an encrypted secret store. History stays in the browser profile: up to 1,000 summaries and 500 exchanges, with daily cleanup of entries older than 90 days. Save history off disables new saves, summary-cache reuse, and restoration; it does not erase old records. Saved answers/source excerpts and JSON exports can contain sensitive text. Full imported documents and retrieval indexes are not persisted.

Options apply immediately. Disabling context menus removes right-click actions; the shortcut remains available. Disabling notifications suppresses desktop notices, including shortcut results; popup/workspace output remains visible. Unreadable preferences suppress optional notices/history and cannot be replaced with defaults by an update. If saving fails, copy the visible result before closing. See security and data handling.

No semantic backend or local model is installed. Optional private retrieval is research work.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Next step
Missing key / 401 / 403	Check the selected provider, key, model access, and Test connection.
429 / provider unavailable	Check quota. Transient failures retry twice; authentication/configuration errors and timeouts do not.
Cannot read a page	Browser pages, the Web Store, and PDF viewers are restricted. Reload dynamic pages after installation.
Changed page starts a new chat	URL and text identify a document; changed versions start another thread.
Incomplete summary	Read the coverage notice; split documents beyond the eight-section cap.
Settings cannot load	Reload Settings to retry; do not assume defaults reflect saved choices.
Update is missing	Reload the extension at chrome://extensions, then reopen its UI.

Develop and contribute

Development needs Node >=20.19 and npm >=10:

npm ci
npm run verify
npx playwright install chromium
npm run test:e2e

Browser tests load the actual extension with intercepted provider responses. See development for coverage, audit, benchmark, CI, and packaging commands, and contributing for change/review rules.

Product brief · Research · Supplied engineering brief · Current work · GitHub issues · Private dashboard · MIT license