paw by Damon Chan

Paw: Enhanced Text Interaction for Emacs Integration

Transform your web browsing experience with Paw, a powerful browser extension that seamlessly integrates with Emacs through org-protocol. Capture text selections, context, and HTML content with intuitive interactions—all designed to boost your productivity.

Key Features

🎯 Smart Text Capture

• Hover & Click Interaction: Underline words on mouseover and capture them with a simple click
• Flexible Selection: Select entire passages or single words—the extension captures both text and surrounding context
• Context-Aware: Automatically identifies and captures the parent context (e.g., paragraph) for better note organization

⚡ Floating Action Button

• Quick Access: A convenient floating "+" button appears near your text selections
• Multiple Protocols: Access all configured org-protocols through an intuitive submenu
• Customizable Position: Adjust button offsets to suit your workflow
• Smart Visibility: Show/hide the button based on your preferences, with automatic display when text is selected

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Instant Capture: Use customizable keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Alt + S) to grab the word under your caret
• Configurable Modifiers: Choose between None, Ctrl, or Alt modifiers
• Efficient Workflow: Send selections to Emacs without leaving the keyboard

🔧 Customizable Org-Protocol Support

• Multiple Protocols: Configure unlimited org-protocols using comma-separated format or JSON arrays
• Format Options: Choose between text, HTML, or markdown formats for captured content
• Advanced Configuration: Support for additional options like download (save full page HTML) and deselect (clear selection after capture)
• Example: [{"protocol": "paw", "format": "text"}, {"protocol": "anki", "format": "html"}]

🖱️ Single-Click Mode

• Word-Level Interaction: Enable single-click mode to wrap and capture individual words instantly
• Toggleable: Turn on/off from the popup or options page
• Site-Specific: Works intelligently across different websites

🎨 Auto-Highlight

• Visual Feedback: Automatically highlight known words on web pages
• Server Integration: Works with optional paw-server to display your vocabulary or saved words
• Info Bubbles: Hover over highlighted words to see additional information

📋 Rich Content Support

• HTML Content: Send selected HTML content to Emacs for advanced processing
• Full Page Capture: Optionally download entire page HTML for archival
• Text & Context: Captures URL, page title, selected text, and surrounding paragraph

🌐 Server Integration (Optional)

• paw-server Support: Connect to a local Python Flask server for advanced features
• Endpoints: POST to /paw for selections, GET from /words for highlights, POST to /source for full HTML
• Fallback: Automatically falls back to org-protocol if server is unavailable

Perfect For

• Emacs Users: Seamlessly integrate your browser with Emacs workflows
• Note-Takers: Quickly capture web content with full context
• Researchers: Save selections with URLs and metadata for reference
• Knowledge Workers: Build a personal knowledge base from web content
• Language Learners: Track vocabulary and phrases from online reading

Configuration Options

Access the Options page to customize:
- Enable/disable extension, single-click mode, auto-highlight, and floating button
- Configure Protocol(s) with custom names and formats
- Set keyboard shortcut and modifier keys
- Adjust floating button position offsets
- Configure org-protocol template variables (url, title, note, body)
- Set paw-server address (default: http://localhost:5001)

Privacy

• ✅ No data sent to external servers by default
• ✅ Optional local server integration only (paw-server on localhost)
• ✅ No usage analytics or tracking
• ✅ No third-party telemetry
• ✅ Open source—inspect the code yourself

Supported Platforms

• Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Edge (Manifest V3)
• Firefox Desktop & Android (Manifest V2)

Integration

Works seamlessly with popular Emacs packages:
- paw.el: Word and note management
- org-protocol: Capture web content directly into Org mode
- wallabag.el: Save articles to Wallabag
- calibredb.el: Open ebooks in browser

Get Started

1. Install the extension
2. Configure your org-protocols in the Options page
3. Select text on any webpage
4. Click the floating "+" button or use your keyboard shortcut
5. Watch your selection appear in Emacs via org-protocol!

Boost your productivity with seamless Emacs integration and powerful text interaction tools—all directly from your browser.

For detailed documentation, visit: https://github.com/chenyanming/paw_browser_extension