Study Keys — Read, Highlight, Remember

Vim-style reading, highlights, notes and Excalidraw notebooks. macOS/Linux beta; local folder helper required.

Study Keys turns reading on the web into a keyboard-driven study workflow: navigate, select passages, highlight, take notes, and draw beside the page. macOS / Linux beta — a separate local helper is REQUIRED for saving. Requires Chrome 131+, Python 3.11+, and Git. The extension opens a setup page with the helper download and the exact installation command for your extension ID. Windows is not supported by this beta. SELECT WITHOUT REACHING FOR THE MOUSE Press v to show labels on visible words. Type a start label and an end label, then copy, highlight, or add a note. Use v → Space → p to select a range of paragraphs by its endpoints. The selection menu also supports heading sections and the loaded, readable page text. COPY LINKS BY THEIR LABELS Press d to label visible links directly on the page, then type a label to copy its full URL. Shift+D keeps the labels active and builds a clipboard list, one unique URL per line. Matching URLs share a green copied checkmark. Scroll to find more links; Escape finishes. No copy dialog opens. HIGHLIGHT WITH A PURPOSE Six colors have memorable meanings: yellow for Key idea, blue for Key word, green for Positives, orange for Negatives, purple for Game changer, and red for Question. Add your own explanation to a passage and revisit all of the page's highlights and notes in a sidebar. DRAW NEXT TO THE IDEA Each page can have an Excalidraw notebook. Float it, resize it, dock it to an edge or corner, or maximize it. Import and export .excalidraw files. Drawings and embedded images save locally with the page. KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE KEYS Use Vim-style scrolling, link hints, page search, an outline, and tab navigation. Lowercase marks remember places on a page; uppercase marks travel across tabs. Normal, Visual, and Highlight modes have distinct jobs. Insert mode passes keys through to the website; Ctrl+C returns to Normal mode. Handled Study Keys commands also claim key release, preventing simultaneous playback or fullscreen shortcuts on media pages. Reload existing tabs after updating. Press ? for the keyboard guide. Use one Vim navigation extension at a time to avoid conflicting shortcuts. FIND YOUR PLACE ACROSS TABS Space Enter searches open-tab titles, URLs and group names. Space p s finds passages across loaded tabs; Space d s searches this document fuzzily and / searches literally. Ctrl+O and Ctrl+I move backward and forward through your session jumplist. ]] and [[ move between headings; zt / zz / zb align the active section or selection at the top / center / bottom. Space Space returns to the previous tab. KEEP A READING WORKSPACE The Space g menu finds, creates and focuses tab groups or moves Chrome-selected tabs between them. Save quick spots with Space e a, return with Space 1 through 9, and save or restore a workspace with Space w s / Space w o. Workspaces preserve tabs, groups and reading positions without closing other tabs. Pin search results and move through them with Space j / Space k. Space p q finds unresolved Question annotations; resolve them in the note editor. Space s toggles Chrome's native vertical tabs only with an optional macOS helper opt-in and Accessibility access. This fixed action is unavailable on Linux and in Codex's browser. Space h toggles page notes open and closed, including after the native close button is used. Save or discard an unfinished note before toggling closed. The default helper installation does not enable the native toggle. QUIETER CONTROLS The small mode pill, which-key menu and selection controls sit in the lower-right corner. Compact notifications leave more of the page visible. Quick spots share a 1–9 hint; ? keeps full shortcut descriptions searchable. STUDY LOCAL DOCUMENTS Enable Allow access to file URLs in extension details to use Study Keys on local HTML and rendered Markdown files. Markdown Viewer needs its own file access. The companion saves annotations in your library without modifying source files or scanning folders. Update both the extension and companion. OPTIONAL AI STUDY ASSISTANT The companion includes a local MCP server. When you enable AI access, your chosen agent can read a requested page, add selective highlights and notes, and build editable learn-by-layers diagrams in the existing Excalidraw notebook. Existing manual work is preserved. Codex setup also installs the $study-keys skill; the repository has a standalone skill installer. AI access is off by default and can be revoked. Your chosen cloud agent may send requested content to its model provider; its policies apply. Study Keys does not call a separate generation service. YOUR LIBRARY, IN YOUR FOLDER Highlights, notes, marks, drawings, quick spots and workspaces save in ~/.study-keys, organized by website and page. Chrome keeps a local cache. Export a backup or manage the folder with your own Git workflow. The helper initializes a local Git repository but never adds a remote, commits, or uploads your library. No Study Keys account, analytics, or cloud sync service is required or used. BETA LIMITS Chrome-internal pages, the built-in PDF viewer, embedded frames, closed shadow roots, and canvas-rendered text are outside the supported scope. Highlight restoration depends on finding the original text. The readable text index is capped at 2 million characters; a saved annotated passage is limited to 100,000 characters. When the helper is unavailable, cached notes remain readable and new saves report an error. Keep backups of your local folder. Setup, helper downloads, privacy details and support: https://dragod812.github.io/study-keys/