The ArticleAssistant is a productivity-driven Chrome Extension built for media consumption enhancement. Designed for editorial and journalistic efficiency, this tool allows users to:
Instantly summarize any news article on the web
Ask contextual, article-aware questions via an embedded AI chatbot
Increase reader engagement and comprehension while reducing information overload
The solution comprises a Chrome Extension frontend and a NestJS-based backend serving summarization and chatbot functionalities powered by modern LLM architectures.
##Prerequisites Node.js ≥ v18
NPM ≥ v9
Google Chrome (latest version)
Basic familiarity with terminal commands
To start the AI backend server locally:
cd article-assistant-backend npm install npm run start
The backend will be hosted at: http://localhost:3000
Ensure the server is running before using the Chrome Extension
Note: You may configure environment variables in a .env file for model endpoints, API keys, and caching options.
To run the frontend extension in Chrome:
Open chrome://extensions in your browser
Toggle Developer Mode (top-right corner)
Click “Load unpacked”
Select the article-assistant-extension folder
The extension icon will appear in the toolbar
Navigate to any news article
Click the extension icon → the assistant sidebar opens
Click "Summarize Article" to generate a concise overview
Use the chat interface to ask specific questions related to the article (e.g., “Who are the stakeholders involved?” or “What’s the key issue here?”)
Responses are context-aware and generated in real-time
A Gemini API key is required to operate this application, please put your API key summarize.controller.ts and chatbot.controller.ts. You can read the instructions on generating an API key here: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/api-key