Browser Extension

Capture web pages, selections, and links directly into Cortexa from Chrome, Edge, or Brave with the companion browser extension.

Prerequisites

• Cortexa desktop app running with the HTTP API enabled (default: http://127.0.0.1:7373)
• Your bearer token from Settings → External in the Cortexa app
• A Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave)

Step 1 — Load the Extension

The extension is shipped as an unpacked Manifest V3 extension in the extension/ folder of the Cortexa repository.

1. Open your browser's extension page:
   • Chrome: chrome://extensions
   • Edge: edge://extensions
   • Brave: brave://extensions
2. Toggle Developer mode on (top-right corner).
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the extension/ folder from the Cortexa repository.

The Cortexa icon appears in your browser toolbar. You may need to click the puzzle-piece icon and pin it for easy access.

Step 2 — Configure the Connection

1. Click the Cortexa icon in the toolbar.
2. Click the gear icon to open settings.
3. Enter your settings:
   • API URL: http://127.0.0.1:7373 (or whatever your Cortexa app shows in Settings → External)
   • Bearer token: paste the token from Settings → External
4. Click Test connection. You should see OK -- Cortexa vX.Y.Z.
5. Save.

Options page

You can also configure these settings from the extension's options page: right-click the toolbar icon → Manage extension → Extension options.

Step 3 — Start Capturing

Keyboard Shortcut

Ctrl+Shift+L captures the current text selection from any tab. No popup, no clicks -- just select text and press the shortcut.

The captured content includes the selected text, page title, and URL.

Toolbar Popup

Click the Cortexa toolbar icon to open the popup:

Button	What it captures
Capture selection	Selected text + page title + URL
Capture page	Page title + URL (no text content)

Right-Click Context Menu

Right-click to access capture options:

Menu item	What it captures
Capture selection to Cortexa	Selected text + page title + URL
Capture link to Cortexa	The link URL + the page it was found on (right-click on a hyperlink)

Capture Pipeline

Every capture from the extension goes through the same pipeline as all other Cortexa inputs:

1. Sent to the HTTP API at POST /api/ingest with X-Cortexa-Source: extension
2. Encrypted with AES-256-GCM on disk
3. Queued for embedding (semantic vector)
4. Per-source defaults for extension apply (configure in Settings → Notifications → Per-source defaults)
5. Slash templates work if you prefix your capture with /trigger: syntax

A browser notification confirms successful capture or reports errors.

Per-Source Defaults

The extension identifies itself as the extension source. You can configure specific auto-actions for extension captures in Settings → Notifications → Per-source defaults:

• Auto-summarize web clippings
• Auto-research to find related context
• Auto-share to Hive

Security Notes

• The extension only communicates with http://127.0.0.1 and http://localhost. It cannot reach the public internet.
• The bearer token is stored in chrome.storage.sync, which Chrome syncs across your signed-in browsers. If you prefer local-only storage, you can switch to chrome.storage.local by editing popup.js and options.js in the extension folder.
• Notifications fire on capture success/failure. Disable them in your browser's notification settings if they become noisy.

Troubleshooting

"Test connection" fails — Make sure the Cortexa desktop app is running and the API URL and token are correct. The default URL is http://127.0.0.1:7373.

Ctrl+Shift+L doesn't work — Another extension may be using the same shortcut. Go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts (or the equivalent for your browser) to check for conflicts or reassign the shortcut.

"Capture selection" is greyed out — You need to select text on the page first. The button is only active when there's a text selection.

Extension not visible in toolbar — Click the puzzle-piece icon in the browser toolbar and pin the Cortexa extension.

Captures not appearing in Cortexa — Check that the Cortexa app is unlocked (idle lock returns 423 Locked). Also verify the token hasn't been revoked in Settings → Tokens.