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Research · On-device · 2025 · Built · in personal use

NanoScribe

On-device research tracker — Gemini Nano clusters twenty open tabs into coherent sessions, entirely local.

Solo — design, product, engineering

View on GitHub

The problem

I lose the thread of research sessions constantly — twenty tabs deep on a topic, close the window, gone. I wanted a passive tracker that noticed I was researching something coherent and offered to save it, without a Notion sync or a paid Readwise subscription.

The approach

Chrome MV3 extension, side-panel UI, Gemini Nano running locally for clustering pages into "research sessions." All data lives in chrome.storage. Design language is Liquid Glass over a soft gradient — the visual system I later re-used in NanoApply.

Selected details

  • First project where I locked in the "Nano-" naming convention and the Liquid Glass side-panel pattern I'm now using across tools.
  • Session clustering is entirely on-device — Gemini Nano is small enough that the classification takes under a second per tab.
  • Manual capture button for when you want to save a page without waiting for the passive clusterer to notice.

Outcome

In personal daily use. Feeds directly into the next NanoApply feature: research-informed cover letters.

Stack

Chrome MV3Gemini Nano / Prompt APIVanilla JS + Web Components