explaingit

aaaddress1/vibe-reading

24JavaScriptAudience · researcherComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

Chrome extension that translates academic PDF documents offline and side-by-side using AI built directly into your browser, no API fees, no internet connection needed, and no data leaves your machine.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((vibe-reading))
    What it does
      PDF translation
      Offline AI
      Paper summarization
    Features
      Side by side view
      Paragraph linking
      Text questioning
    Tech Stack
      JavaScript
      Chrome Extension
      Gemini Nano
    Audience
      Researchers
      Students
      Language learners
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Read foreign-language academic papers with a side-by-side translation without paying for any API access or cloud service.

USE CASE 2

Highlight a passage in a PDF paper and ask the AI a question about it directly in the browser.

USE CASE 3

Generate a structured summary of a research paper organized into background, related work, key findings, and conclusion.

USE CASE 4

Trigger a full-document translation with a single right-click without opening the extension panel.

Tech stack

JavaScriptChrome Extension APIGemini NanoTranslator APIPrompt API

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Chrome 138+, enabling two experimental browser flags, and downloading a 2.4 GB on-device Gemini Nano model before first use.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

This is a Chrome browser extension that translates PDF documents paragraph by paragraph, entirely on your own computer, with no internet connection required and no API fees. It was inspired by a popular browser extension called Immersive Translate but takes a different approach: instead of sending your text to a cloud service, it relies on AI models built directly into Chrome itself. The extension targets researchers and students who regularly read academic papers in a foreign language and want a side-by-side reading experience. When you open a PDF, the extension displays the original text on the left side and the translated version on the right. Clicking any translated paragraph scrolls the original document to the matching section and highlights it, so you can cross-reference quickly. The extension also detects the source language automatically, so you only need to choose which language you want to translate into. A right-click option lets you trigger a full-document translation without opening the extension panel. Beyond basic translation, the extension offers two AI-powered features. First, after processing the full document, it generates a summary organized into four sections: background, related work, key findings, and conclusion. Second, you can highlight any piece of text in the paper and type a question to ask the AI directly about that passage. Both features run through Gemini Nano, an AI model that Chrome downloads and keeps locally on your machine. The setup requires Chrome version 138 or newer. You also need to enable two experimental Chrome features (Prompt API and Translator API) in the browser flags menu, then download an on-device AI model that is roughly 2.4 gigabytes in size. The extension only works on Chrome running on Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13 and later, Linux, and Chromebook Plus. It does not work on mobile browsers or on other browsers like Edge. The license is MIT.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Using vibe-reading in Chrome, translate this Chinese machine learning paper side by side and show me how to jump from a translated paragraph back to the original.
Prompt 2
I have a PDF open in vibe-reading, write a question I can ask the AI about the methodology section to understand the experimental setup.
Prompt 3
Walk me through enabling Chrome's Prompt API and Translator API flags and downloading the Gemini Nano model so vibe-reading works offline.
Prompt 4
Generate a four-section summary of this research PDF using vibe-reading covering background, related work, findings, and conclusion.
Prompt 5
How do I use vibe-reading's right-click option to translate an entire paper without opening the extension side panel?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← aaaddress1 on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.