The extension

The Harness extension brings the page you are on into the conversation. Point at any part of a page to ask about it in place, or hand Harness a job on the page and it does it in your browser.

Set it up

Setup opens on its own after you install the extension, in three steps: Account, Access and Try it.

1. Account. The extension finds your signed-in Harness tab. If you are not signed in yet, choose Sign in or Create a Harness account (an email link, no password).
2. Access. Choose which sites it may read under Website access → Change. Specific sites are enough; you do not have to give it every site. This step also has the switches for following the active page and for site tools.
3. Try it. Hold the key, click a section and ask “Summarize this.” Pin Harness in Chrome’s Extensions menu so it is one click away.

The extension talks only to your signed-in Harness tab, so keep one open. To see setup again, right-click the Harness button and choose Options.

Point and ask

Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows and Linux) and click any section of a page. A small prompt opens right there; ask about that section and the answer appears in place.

• Hold the key briefly to start selecting, or double-tap it to keep selecting on.
• ↑ and ↓ widen or narrow the section. Tab moves to the next one.
• Enter selects, Escape closes.
• The toolbar button starts selecting too.

In the prompt, Enter sends and Shift+Enter adds a line. Float ↗ moves the conversation into the Harness window. If the Harness window is already open, what you select goes straight into its conversation.

You can choose a different key, Control or Command / Windows, in the extension’s settings under Hold to select.

Following the page you are on

With the extension, the Harness window can follow the page you are looking at. Use the page menu in the window to choose:

• Follow active page: Harness reads whichever permitted page you switch to.
• Keep this page: Harness stays on one page while you look elsewhere.
• Pause page context: Harness reads no page.

The window always shows which one is on, like “Following: example.com”.

Which pages it can read

Only the sites you allowed in Chrome’s site access. Chrome’s own pages, the Chrome Web Store and some protected sites are always off limits. Change access any time from the extension’s settings or Chrome’s extension menu.

Clean view

On a busy page, Harness can offer a clean version built only from the page’s own content, laid out as an article, a listing, a reference, steps or a detail page. It asks first: Show clean view or Not now. Restore original brings the page back. Nothing on the page is removed.

Find, mark and outline

Ask Harness to find something on a long page and it scrolls to the passage and highlights it. It can add small markers along the page edge for each match (click one to jump there) and outline the whole page. Marks sit on top of the page and never change the site.

Privacy

The extension reads a page only when you select a section, send a message while a page is connected, or ask for a browser task. It keeps no record of your browsing.

• What it reads goes through Harness to the model you chose.
• Screenshots follow the conversation’s screenshot setting.
• Passwords, hidden fields and payment codes are left out, and web addresses given to the model have their query strings removed.
• Its settings and a short copy of the on-page conversation stay in your browser, and are deleted when you remove the extension.

To have Harness act on a page, see Browser tasks.