Gnosis

Explain terms in their page context

Gnosis — Explain terms in their page context Gnosis is a bring-your-own-key (BYOK) browser extension that explains any term directly in the page you're reading. Select a word or phrase, and Gnosis streams a concise, context-aware explanation grounded in the surrounding text — no app-switching, no copy-paste, no separate chat window. Why Gnosis is different Most AI extensions either require a subscription, route your page content through the vendor's server, or act as a thin shell over a third-party chat product. Gnosis does none of these: • Bring your own key. Plug in any OpenAI-compatible endpoint and key (OpenAI, Azure, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio — anything that speaks the OpenAI protocol). Gnosis cannot operate without your credentials and is not a front for any paid service. • Direct connection. Requests go from your browser straight to the endpoint you configured. No intermediary server, no telemetry on prompt content. • Page-grounded. Each query sends only the selected term plus a short excerpt (~2000 characters) of surrounding text — never the full page, never your browsing history. Core features • Select-to-explain. Select any term; a small indicator appears beside your selection — click it (or press Alt+Shift+D) to stream a concise explanation in place. • Streaming responses. First token typically arrives in under a second. • Right-click menu. "Define with Gnosis" on any selection. • Keyboard shortcuts. Alt+Shift+D looks up the current selection; Alt+Shift+F toggles forced text selection on sites that block it. • Per-site cache. Recent lookups are cached locally (LRU, 7-day TTL, max 500 entries). Cache is partitioned by site, model, and UI language — switching language invalidates stale entries automatically. • Force-select. Re-enable text selection on sites that disable it, on a per-site basis. • Multi-language UI. English, Simplified Chinese, or auto-detect from browser. Privacy architecture • Your API key is stored in chrome.storage.local and never leaves your machine except to the endpoint you configured. • Page content (truncated excerpt) is sent only to your configured endpoint. • No telemetry, no analytics, no background data collection — Gnosis runs nothing beyond what you explicitly trigger. • Cache lives in chrome.storage.local and can be cleared any time from Options. How to use 1. Click the Gnosis toolbar icon and open Options. 2. Enter your OpenAI-compatible API base URL and key. Pick a model. 3. Open any web page, select a term; a small indicator appears — click it to see the explanation. 4. Or right-click the selection and choose "Define with Gnosis". Use cases • Reading technical docs and hitting an unfamiliar acronym (RBAC, CRDT, OTA). • Following news in a second language and needing a quick gloss. • Studying a paper and wanting a one-paragraph definition without breaking flow. Compatibility Manifest V3. Works on recent Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and other Chromium browsers.