Chrome extension

The companion extension lives in extension/ (MV3, Vite + @crxjs/vite-plugin). It does three jobs:

1. Auto mark-as-sent - when you submit a draft on Reddit, the extension picks up the pitchbox_draft=<id> query parameter the dashboard appended to the compose URL and flips the draft to sent on the linked backend.
2. Reply ingestion - a background service worker polls Reddit's inbox (legacy PMs + comment-replies) and Reddit Chat (Matrix) on a configurable interval via chrome.alarms, posting matches to POST /api/extension/dm-sync on every paired backend.
3. Side panel UI - clicking the toolbar icon opens a persistent side panel (Chrome 114+, chrome.sidePanel API) with three tabs: Dashboard (pairings + manual sync + Reddit Chat token state), Activity (real-time log of every operation, capped at 500 entries, with level/source filters, search, JSON export and clear), and Settings (theme, language, density, poller interval and per-poller toggles, reset).

Stack

The side panel is a Svelte 5 app (runes mode) bundled with @crxjs/vite-plugin and styled with Tailwind 4. It reuses a copy of the dashboard's shadcn-svelte primitives (button, card, tabs, badge, select, switch, dialog, alert-dialog, scroll-area, tooltip) and the dashboard's CSS token palette, so light/dark theming and visual language match 1:1 with the webapp. The bundled i18n module (src/lib/i18n/) mirrors the dashboard pattern with English + Italian dictionaries. Content scripts stay as plain TypeScript - they inject directly into Reddit's DOM and don't need a UI framework.

Install

pnpm run build:extension
# then load extension/dist/ unpacked in chrome://extensions

Click the toolbar icon to open the side panel. The panel stays open as you browse, so the activity log and pairing status are always one glance away.

Pairing

One click. Open your Pitchbox dashboard in any tab while signed in, open the side panel, and hit Pair with this tab under the Connection card. The extension:

1. Asks Chrome for host permission scoped to that origin only (one prompt the first time you pair that domain).
2. Injects a tiny script into the tab that calls GET /api/extension/auto-pair with your session cookie.
3. The dashboard mints a fresh device token tied to your org and returns it.
4. The extension stores the token in chrome.storage.local keyed by backend URL.

For the cloud edition (https://app.pitchbox.io/*) the same script runs automatically the first time you visit while signed in, so cloud users never see the pairing button.

Pair multiple backends

You can pair both cloud and self-hosted at once - the Connection card lists every paired backend with a per-row Disconnect button and a status dot. Reddit DM/comment syncs fan out: every paired backend receives the same traffic, so each Pitchbox instance sees every reply. The "auto mark-as-sent" path uses the backend the dashboard linked into the compose URL when the draft was opened, so drafts always flip on the correct backend.

Activity log

Every operation the extension performs writes to a capped ring buffer (500 events) in chrome.storage.local, surfaced live in the Activity tab via chrome.storage.onChanged. Sources include: pairing (added/removed), dm-sync and chat-sync (per-cycle ok/unauthorized/error with counters), matrix-token (capture/refresh), reddit-action (DM/comment/submit sent or backend flip failed), settings (changes), and system (boot, alarms re-applied). The Activity tab supports level + source filters, free-text search across the message and meta, JSON export, and a confirmed clear.

Settings

• Appearance - theme (light / dark / system), density (compact / comfortable). The system option follows prefers-color-scheme and reacts live.
• Language - English or Italian. Initial value resolves from chrome.i18n.getUILanguage() and is persisted.
• Sync - poller interval (5/10/15/30 min) and independent toggles for the legacy inbox poller and the Reddit Chat poller. The service worker re-applies chrome.alarms whenever the settings change.
• Data - clear the activity log, or reset the extension entirely (wipes pairings, settings and the log).

Auth & CORS

The dashboard's hooks.server.ts exempts /api/extension/* from cookie auth. Requests must carry the API token in the Authorization: Bearer <token> header. CORS is restricted to https://www.reddit.com and https://old.reddit.com (the only third-party origins that need to call extension endpoints directly).

The auto-pair endpoint is the one exception: it reads the dashboard session cookie (when PITCHBOX_AUTH=on) or falls back to the default org. It runs inside the dashboard origin so cookies travel without CORS.

What the background workers do

• src/background/inbox-sync.ts - polls reddit.com/message/inbox.json. Splits items into the items[] (PMs) and comments[] (t1 items) arrays of the dm-sync request body.
• src/background/chat-sync.ts - polls matrix.redditspace.com/_matrix/client/v3/sync for Reddit Chat. Before each tick it sends a cheap GET /_matrix/client/v3/account/whoami probe; if the Matrix token has expired (401/403) the heavier /sync call is skipped, the action badge turns red with !, and the Reddit token card in the side panel displays a "Reddit Chat sync paused - please open reddit.com and refresh" notice with a one-click button to open reddit.com.

Both call POST /api/extension/dm-sync once per paired backend. The request body includes a status field summarising channel liveness:

{
  "platform": "reddit",
  "items": [...],
  "comments": [...],
  "status": {
    "chat": "ok" | "unauthorized" | "error" | "unknown",
    "legacy": "ok" | "unauthorized" | "error" | "unknown",
    "captured_at": "2026-05-12T10:00:00Z"
  }
}

The server persists the payload into extension_devices.last_sync_status. When any non-revoked device most recently reported chat=unauthorized, the dashboard renders a small banner at the top of Inbox and Conversations prompting the user to open reddit.com and refresh so the extension can capture a fresh Matrix token.

After every alarm tick the background worker also fires a status-only dm-sync heartbeat (with empty items[]/comments[]) so the dashboard banner reflects current liveness even when no replies came in.