Open source · MIT · on npm
Anouk is a small, friendly framework for shipping browser extensions that call LLMs. Plug in OpenAI, Anthropic, Together.xyz, Ollama, or Hugging Face. Get caching, rate-limit queueing, and a settings panel for free.
# scaffold a new AI extension
$ npm install -g anouk
$ anouk init my-ai-extension
$ cd my-ai-extension && npm run build
# load unpacked in chrome://extensions and you're live
5
supported provider profiles in the README
1
command to scaffold a runnable extension
MIT
license — fork, ship, sell on the store
What you get
Anouk speaks the OpenAI chat-completions shape, so OpenAI, Anthropic, Together.xyz, Ollama, and Hugging Face Inference all plug in with a URL, an API key, and a model name. No SDK juggling, no per-provider adapters in your extension code.
AIService caches responses by a request id and cache key you control, so repeated calls (re-opening the same email, re-running the same summary) skip the round trip and the bill.
Provider quotas are unforgiving. Anouk queues calls per-provider so a clicky user does not blow your token budget or earn a 429 in the middle of a sidebar render.
Pre-built settings panel, floating button, and sidebar component. Wire them to your extension logic and let users set provider, key, model, and system prompt at runtime without rebuilding.
anouk init my-extension drops a working Manifest V3 project on disk with the AI service, config manager, and settings panel pre-wired. Load it unpacked in Chrome and iterate.
Already have an extension? npm install anouk and import { AIService }. Starting from zero? anouk init gives you a runnable extension that talks to a model on the first build.
Users open the settings panel to switch providers or rotate keys. You ship one bundle; they pick what to run against, including local Ollama for the privacy-conscious crowd.
How a request flows
01 · extension.js
Pass an instruction, a piece of content, and a stable request id. Anouk handles everything from there.
02 · cache check
If the same prompt has already been answered for this id, you get the cached response. No round trip, no spend.
03 · queue + dispatch
The request is queued per provider so simultaneous user actions do not stampede the API. Anouk speaks the OpenAI chat-completions shape.
04 · response
The model output is parsed, written to cache, and returned to your extension code as a plain string.
Honest comparisons
Plasmo and WXT are great at building extensions in general. Anouk is opinionated about the AI part. Pick the right tool — sometimes that's not us.
Plasmo is the popular open-source extension framework with React-first DX, file-based routing, and multi-browser builds. Anouk is narrower: it focuses on the AI service, caching, and settings panel rather than the build system.
WXT is a newer Vite-powered extension framework with first-class TypeScript and multi-browser targets. Anouk is not a build tool; it is the AI runtime you would call from inside a WXT-built extension.
FAQ
The CLI scaffolds Chrome-style Manifest V3 extensions with web_accessible_resources and host_permissions wired up. The current template is built and tested against Chromium-based browsers; the README explicitly walks through loading via chrome://extensions. Firefox and Safari WebExtensions are not currently demonstrated by the repo.
Anything that speaks the OpenAI chat-completions request shape. The README documents OpenAI, Anthropic, Together.xyz, Ollama (localhost:11434), and Hugging Face Inference endpoints, and lets you point providerUrl at anything else compatible.
No. AIService accepts config via code, but the bundled settings panel lets the end user supply providerUrl, apiKey, model, and a system prompt at runtime. You can ship without baking a key into the extension.
anouk init produces a Manifest V3 project with src/aiService.js, configManager.js, settingsPanel.js, and a starter extension entry point. anouk generate extension|service|config drops the same kind of file into an existing project.
Both. You can npm install anouk and import { AIService } into your existing extension to use only the request, cache, and queue layer. Or you can use anouk init as a complete scaffold.
It is published to npm as anouk, MIT licensed, and developed in the open on GitHub under skelf-research/anouk. The current package version, install instructions, and CLI commands are linked from the docs site.
Documentation lives at docs.skelfresearch.com/anouk (path-based, not a subdomain). The README is a quickstart; the docs site is where examples, recipes, and the full configuration surface live.
Lightly. It expects a Manifest V3 project, an entry script, and that you let the config manager own provider settings. Beyond that the UI is up to you, including whether you use the bundled sidebar/floating button or roll your own.
Install anouk, scaffold an extension, point it at a provider, and spend your weekend on the part of your product that is actually new.