Browser Extension: Reading Mode and SearchCopy Anchor Link

Two tools the Debate AI browser extension adds to every web page you open.

• Extension: apps/debate-browser-ext (the page-tools content script)
• Settings: Settings → Browser extension, on the extension's Options page

Reading-mode arrowCopy Anchor Link

When a page holds an article of more than 1000 words, a small, half-transparent arrow appears on the far left edge of the page. Click it to open the article in the extension's reading mode, with the AI panel beside it. Pages without an article (search results, feeds, apps, short pages) never show the arrow.

The check runs in your browser: a quick word count first, then the same reading-mode extractor the article panel uses, so navigation, comments and footers don't count toward the 1000 words. No page text is sent anywhere to decide.

YouTube, PDFs and pages that won't readCopy Anchor Link

Reading mode works on more than articles:

• YouTube videos open as their transcript, split into paragraphs that each start with a timestamp linking to that moment in the video. The arrow also shows on every YouTube video page.
• PDFs open in reading mode in a new tab, since the browser's PDF viewer has no page to put the panel on.
• Any other page the extension can't find an article in is tried once more by its address.

For these, the page's address (only the address, and only when you open reading mode) is sent to Debate AI's transcript service for YouTube and to the QwkSearch extract-webpage service for everything else.

Backtick searchCopy Anchor Link

Select text on any page and press the key under Escape (` / ~). A search menu opens next to the selection with every search engine the extension supports: Quick search, Debate AI cards, Google, Google Scholar, Google News, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Wikipedia and YouTube. Quick search is selected, so pressing Enter searches it straight away; arrow keys pick another engine and Escape closes the menu. Results open in a new tab. The key still types a backtick in text fields and editors.

Settings and AI keyCopy Anchor Link

The extension has no settings screen or API keys of its own. Its settings (reading-mode arrow, search shortcut, round timer, toolbar icon, card reuse check) are the Browser extension tab of the app's Settings page. The article panel's AI uses the OpenRouter or Anthropic key saved under Settings → Preferences → Your own AI key, or your Debate AI account when no key is saved.

Known gapsCopy Anchor Link

• The AI key is reused from the extension's own copy of the app (its Options page). A key saved only on debate-ai.com in a normal tab is not visible to the extension; save it once from the Options page.
• A video with no captions has no transcript to read.
• Running on every page means the extension now asks for access to all http(s) sites when installed.