Browser extension

The extension saves pages without leaving them, searches your library from the toolbar, and moves bookmarks between Bookmark Minder and your browser's own bookmarks. It uses the same sign-in as the web app, so sign in at app.bookmarkminder.com in the same browser first.

What needs the extension, and why

Websites, including the Bookmark Minder web app, are kept apart from the rest of your browser. A website can't see your other tabs, your browser's bookmarks, history or saved site icons, and it isn't allowed to read pages from other websites. Those rules protect you from websites, but they also mean a few things only work with the extension, because it can do them once you allow it.

Saving the page you're on

The web app can't see what's in your other tabs. The extension reads the current tab when you click its icon, press the shortcut or use the right-click menu. Without it, use Add bookmark in the web app and paste the link, or on Android share the link to the installed web app.

Importing from and exporting to your browser's bookmarks

Websites can't touch your browser's bookmarks. Without the extension, export your bookmarks from the browser as an HTML file and use Import in the web app. There's no way to send your library back into your browser's bookmarks without the extension.

Better site icons

The extension's Fill in missing favicons uses icons your browser already has and asks sites for their icon from your own computer, so it works for pages behind a sign-in and devices on your home network, and we never learn which sites they are. The web app's version uses our icon service instead, which can't reach those pages and does see the site name.

Unlocking the web app without typing your passphrase

With Privacy Mode on, an unlocked extension can unlock the web app after you approve it in the extension's window. Websites can't share a key with each other, so only an extension can do this. Firefox doesn't support it; there, and without the extension, unlock with your passphrase, PIN or passkey.

Page titles in Privacy Mode

The web app isn't allowed to read another website's page, so it can't look up a title by itself. With the extension installed and allowed on that site, it fetches the title on your computer and the link never reaches us. Without it, Fetch the page title sends the link to our server unencrypted, so it's only done when you click it. The iOS and Android apps fetch titles on the phone and don't need anything extra.

Installing

The Chrome Web Store listing is not live yet. Until it is, you can load the extension yourself in Chrome, Brave, Edge or another Chromium browser:

1. Get the source from GitHub and build it: pnpm install, then pnpm --filter @bookmarkminder/extension build:chrome.
2. Open chrome://extensions (brave://extensions in Brave) and turn on Developer mode.
3. Click Load unpacked and choose the apps/extension/dist/chrome folder.
4. Pin Bookmark Minder to the toolbar so its icon is always visible.

Firefox and Safari versions are built from the same code but are not in their stores yet. Once the Chrome listing is live, this page will link to it.

What the extension can access

When you install it, Chrome asks for access to your bookmarks (for import and export) and to api.bookmarkminder.com. The extension reads the current tab only when you open the popup, press the save shortcut or use the right-click menu. It asks for access to other websites and to your history only when you click Fill in missing favicons, and you can say no. The Firefox and Safari versions ask for website access when you install them instead, because they have no icon cache of their own.

The extension also runs a small script on app.bookmarkminder.com. With Privacy Mode on, the web app's Add bookmark dialog uses it to have the extension fetch a page title on your computer, so the link isn't sent to us. The extension fetches the page without your cookies, only from sites you've given it access to, never from addresses on your home or office network, and passes back the title and nothing else. In Chrome, give it website access through Fill in missing favicons or the extension's site access setting.

Unlocking

With Privacy Mode on, the popup asks for your passphrase, or your PIN if you set one, before it can save, search or export encrypted bookmarks. Your passphrase works however your keyboard or clipboard happens to encode accented letters. The unlock form also asks how long to Keep this browser unlocked; choose Never and the extension stays unlocked through browser restarts until you click Lock now or a different account signs in. Once the extension is unlocked, the web app can use it to unlock too: choose Unlock with extension there and approve the request in the extension window.

Saving a page

• Click the toolbar icon. On the Save tab, adjust the title, pick a collection, add comma-separated tags, and click Save current page.
• Press Ctrl+Shift+B (⌘+Shift+B on a Mac) to save the current tab straight away, or right-click a page or link and choose Save to Bookmark Minder. These quick saves go to No Collection.

With Privacy Mode on, saves are encrypted before they leave the browser. If the vault is locked, a quick save is refused and the toolbar icon shows LOCK; open the popup and unlock.

When the page is already in your library, the Save tab says You already have this bookmark with the saved copy's title and collection. View it opens it in the web app, and Save current page still adds a second copy. The popup checks the first 5,000 bookmarks on your device, decrypting them when Privacy Mode is on and unlocked. The shortcut and right-click saves have no window to show the warning, so they save without it.

Searching

The Search tab matches titles and URLs. With Privacy Mode on, the popup decrypts your library on your device the first time you search, and tells you if any bookmark could not be decrypted. Click a result to open it in a new tab.

If an encrypted bookmark holds a title or address that was stored without encryption, the result shows Unverified: stored without encryption. Nothing proves that value came from you, so check the link before you trust it.

Collections

The Collections tab has two forms:

• New collection: type a name (up to 100 characters), choose where it goes with Inside (or leave it at Top level), and click Create collection.
• Rename or move: pick a collection, change its name, its Inside setting, or both, and click Save changes. A collection can't go inside itself or one of its own sub-collections, and collections nest up to ten levels deep.

With Privacy Mode on, a new collection gets its own key and its name is encrypted before it is sent. While the vault is locked, encrypted names are hidden and can't be changed, but you can still move the collection. Deleting a collection is done in the web app or the mobile apps.

Syncing with browser bookmarks

The Sync tab has these actions:

• Import from browser bookmarks copies your browser's bookmarks in. Browser folders become collections and bookmarks you already have are skipped. With Privacy Mode on, everything is encrypted in the extension first.
• Export to browser bookmarks copies your library into a folder named Bookmark Minder in Other bookmarks, with a sub-folder for each collection, decrypted on your device. Each export replaces that folder, so don't keep your own bookmarks in it. If an export fails partway, the previous folder is left as it was. With Privacy Mode on, unlock first: a locked export would leave out every encrypted bookmark, so the extension won't start one. Import skips this folder. Dated BookmarkMinder folders from older versions are left alone and also skipped by import; delete them when you no longer need them.
• Export library (JSON) downloads the same file the web app makes: bookmarkminder-export- plus today's date. With Privacy Mode on, the file is built in the extension from your decrypted library; if any bookmark or collection name can't be decrypted, the export stops rather than giving you an incomplete file.
• Fill in missing favicons finds bookmarks without a site icon, or still on the plain globe, and adds one, including encrypted bookmarks. Each site is looked up once, however many bookmarks point at it. The extension first checks your browser's own icon cache (Chrome, Brave, Edge), then asks the site for its icon directly from your browser, which works for pages behind a sign-in and for devices on your home network. The icon is stored inside the bookmark, so our server never learns which site it is for. Only when both fail does it fall back to our favicon service. The first time you click it, Chrome, Brave and Edge ask in one prompt for access to websites and to read your history. Website access lets the extension ask a site for its icon; history lets it find icons for other pages you have visited on the same site, searched on your computer and never sent to us. Declining skips both steps, and the browser's icon cache and our favicon service still work. With Privacy Mode on, the icon is encrypted like the rest of the bookmark.
• Or paste a list of URLs: one per line; Markdown links and "Title - URL" lines work too.

The extension does not yet sync continuously with your browser's bookmarks. Import and export run when you click them.

Offline and read-only

The extension keeps no copy of your library, so when it can't reach Bookmark Minder the popup says so and offers Try again. If it is signed in but can't confirm whether Privacy Mode is on, it turns read-only: search and export still work, and saving, importing, filling in favicons and changing collections stay off until you reopen the popup and the check succeeds. With Privacy Mode on, each save also checks with the server that your vault key is current, and is refused if that check can't be made.

Account and vault lock

The Account tab shows your email, plan and how many bookmarks and collections you have. If family sharing is on for your account, a Family row links to Family settings in the web app, where you invite members, share collections and compare safety numbers. With Privacy Mode on the tab also has Vault lock:

• Lock the vault: when the browser restarts, after 1 hour up to 30 days of inactivity, or never (stay unlocked on this browser). The default is 7 days. The key is stored encrypted with a key that never leaves the device.
• Set PIN for quicker unlocks (4 or more characters). Five wrong PINs turn PIN unlock off.
• Lock now removes the key immediately.

Signing in to a different account in the same browser wipes the previous account's key, PIN and lock setting from the extension.