ChronoChat

A local-first browser extension that adds a searchable conversation map to ChatGPT.

ChronoChat is built for long ChatGPT threads: research sessions, project work, debugging logs, study notes, planning chats, and any conversation where scrolling back manually becomes painful. It adds a side panel inside ChatGPT so you can scan the whole thread, filter messages, search, jump to a specific turn, and export the conversation without sending your data anywhere.

What It Does

ChronoChat turns a long ChatGPT conversation into a navigable outline.

• See a compact list of all turns in the current chat
• Filter the list by All, You, or AI
• Search across the conversation and jump straight to the matching message
• Move through messages with keyboard shortcuts
• Export the full conversation as JSON, CSV, Markdown, DOCX, or PDF
• Keep everything local: no backend, no analytics, no remote runtime services

Who It Is For

ChronoChat is useful when ChatGPT becomes part of your actual workflow instead of a one-off question box:

• Students reviewing long tutoring or exam-prep chats
• Developers navigating debugging sessions and code explanations
• Researchers collecting sources, arguments, and summaries
• Consultants and operators using ChatGPT for planning, writing, and analysis
• Anyone who wants a cleaner way to revisit earlier parts of a long conversation

Product Principles

• Native-feeling: the UI is designed to sit next to ChatGPT, not fight it
• Local-first: message content stays in the browser
• Practical over flashy: fast navigation, readable previews, dependable export
• Resilient: selector-based DOM parsing with fallbacks for ChatGPT markup changes

Features

Conversation Map

ChronoChat adds a right-side panel with a compact preview of every detected message in the current ChatGPT thread. Each item can be clicked to jump back to that exact part of the conversation.

Search and Filters

Use the search box to find a word or phrase inside the current conversation. Filters let you narrow the map to your messages, assistant messages, or the full thread.

Keyboard Navigation

• Ctrl/Cmd + J: open or close ChronoChat
• /: focus search
• j / k: move selection
• Enter: jump to the selected message
• Esc: close the sidebar or clear search focus state

Export

Export Pro v1 saves the full conversation as JSON, CSV, Markdown, DOCX, or PDF. The exporter preserves semantic message blocks where possible, including headings, paragraphs, lists, quotes, code, and images.

Attachments and Media

ChronoChat detects attachment-only messages and recoverable inline images so the conversation map and export do not collapse when a turn contains files instead of plain text.

Privacy

• No backend server
• No tracking or analytics
• No remote fonts or third-party runtime requests
• No message content is sent to external services by ChronoChat

Supported Hosts

• https://chat.openai.com/*
• https://chatgpt.com/*

Installation

Chrome / Chromium

From a Release Zip

1. Download the latest chronochat-extension.zip from the GitHub Releases page
2. Extract the zip
3. Open chrome://extensions/
4. Enable Developer Mode
5. Click Load unpacked
6. Select the extracted extension folder

From Source

1. Clone this repository
2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the extension:

npm run build

4. Open chrome://extensions/
5. Enable Developer Mode
6. Click Load unpacked
7. Select this project directory

To create a distributable extension zip from source:

npm run package:extension

The package is written to packages/chronochat-extension.zip.

Firefox

ChronoChat is a Chromium MV3 extension. Firefox is not a release target, and background compatibility should be verified separately before relying on it.

Development

Run tests:

npm test -- --runInBand

Run the full validation gate:

npm run validate

Run the browser smoke check:

npm run test:smoke

Architecture

Source code lives in src/:

• src/content/: modular content-script source
• src/service_worker.js: background command routing
• src/style.css: source stylesheet

Build outputs used by the manifest:

• content_script.js
• service_worker.js
• style.css

The runtime stays vanilla, while the source stays modular and testable.

Notes for Contributors

• Keep UI changes visually aligned with ChatGPT, not brand-heavy
• Prefer selector-first DOM parsing with resilient fallbacks, because ChatGPT markup can drift over time
• Inline images are exported when recoverable; otherwise ChronoChat emits a standard image placeholder in rendered outputs
• The semantic parser still falls back to heuristic text extraction for nested or non-text message content (complex widgets are a known limit)
• Keep global preferences separate from transient UI state
• Exporting the filtered subset of messages is backlog work; export v1 always emits the full conversation transcript
• Add runtime tests for behavior changes instead of source-inspection placeholders

License

MIT