Chrome AI Scribe

A language learning extension with two features: Translation Comparison: Compare a machine translation with the user's own translation; Writing Correction: Provide real-time grammar correction.

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Inspiration

  • Constantly copying text to external tools for translation and writing breaks flow and raises privacy concerns. I wanted “lightweight translation + writing assist” to live inside the browser—no tab switching, local-first by default, fast and reliable.

What I Learned

  • Manifest V3 service worker lifecycle and event-driven design, plus a minimal-permissions mindset.
  • How Side Panel and content scripts collaborate; choosing between MAIN and ISOLATED worlds greatly affects chrome.* API availability and stability.
  • Turning translation engine readiness and download progress into a clear UX.
  • Writing transparent, practical privacy and store-compliance documentation: local-first, controllable, no data exfiltration.

How I Built It

  • Architecture & UI: A Side Panel with “Translation” and “Writing” pages, plus a floating toolbar for one-click translation; a Settings page for persisting target language and preferences.
  • Data & State: Store only the target language and a few preferences in chrome.storage ; when content-script read fails, fall back via background messaging to keep language consistent after refresh.
  • Stability Improvements: Switched the content script world to ISOLATED to avoid pages that override window.chrome and break storage/API access; also listen for engine readiness to smooth first-run experience.
  • Interaction & Performance: In the select→translate→render loop, I model latency as [ T_{\text{total}} = T_{\text{select}} + T_{\text{translate}} + T_{\text{render}} ] and keep (T_{\text{network}} \approx 0) with local-first handling to boost responsiveness.

Challenges & Solutions

  • “Target language resets to Chinese after refresh”: caused by storage read failures and a hardcoded default; solved with background fallbacks and switching to the ISOLATED world.
  • Compatibility on high-security pages: improved robustness with resilient messaging/state sync and an optional visible “Translate → FR” hint for transparency.
  • Compliance & Transparency: Clearly documented “acts only on selected text, local by default, preferences stored locally, no data leaving the device.”

Why It’s Worth Installing

  • One-click translation and writing assist right in your browser—no context switch, no break in reading/writing flow.
  • Local-first by default for speed and privacy; minimal permissions and full user control.
  • Preferences persist across sessions, keeping the experience consistent and reliable.

Built With

  • extension
  • javascript
  • languagedetecor
  • prompt
  • proofreader
  • translator
  • windows-11
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