WebScrubby

WebScrubby is a Manifest V3 Chrome extension that removes common tracking query parameters from navigated links and adds a right-click menu item for copying a scrubbed version of any link.

The project website is served from site/ at https://webscrubby.com/.

What It Scrubs

Rules live in rules/query-params.json. Each rule can match an exact parameter, prefix, suffix, or regular expression. Most rules are unconditional, while a rule can also define removeWhen.referrerHostnames and removeWhen.noReferrer.

For example, ref is removed when the referrer hostname is producthunt.com or when the navigation has no referrer, such as a pasted URL or a URL opened from another app.

The same rules file can also define redirect wrappers. For example, https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=<encoded target> is unwrapped by reading the u parameter as its own URL, then scrubbing that decoded target URL.

How It Works

• src/scrubber.js is the shared URL scrubbing engine.
• content.js scrubs links before click, middle-click, or context-menu actions.
• background.js installs a dynamic Declarative Net Request rule for unrestricted exact-match parameters, handles direct/no-referrer navigations, observes main-frame requests without Referer headers, and owns the Copy scrubbed link context menu.
• offscreen.html and offscreen.js provide the clipboard helper needed by the Manifest V3 background service worker.

Load Locally

1. Open chrome://extensions.
2. Enable Developer Mode.
3. Choose Load unpacked.
4. Select this directory.

Test

npm test

Package

Create the Chrome extension upload ZIP with:

bash scripts/package-extension.sh

The ZIP contains only the extension files needed by Chrome.

Website Deployment

The static GitHub Pages site is in site/ with:

• site/index.html
• site/privacy.html
• site/terms.html
• site/styles.css
• site/CNAME (webscrubby.com)

GitHub Pages is deployed by .github/workflows/pages.yml.

Release Automation

Tag Extension Release creates an annotated tag named extension-v<manifest version>. That tag triggers:

• Release Extension Package, which validates the extension, builds a ZIP, and attaches it to a GitHub release.
• Publish Chrome Web Store, which uploads and submits the package after the first Chrome Web Store item exists and the required repository secrets are set.

Required Chrome Web Store repository secrets:

• CWS_EXTENSION_ID
• CWS_PUBLISHER_ID
• CWS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON
• CWS_CRX_PRIVATE_KEY only if Verified CRX uploads are enabled

The first Chrome Web Store item still needs to be created manually in the Developer Dashboard. Use store-assets/listing.md and store-assets/submission-checklist.md for that first submission.