Intone

This extension is not yet published to the Firefox Add-Ons library or Chrome Web Store

A browser extension for reading web pages out loud using locally run Text to Speech models. No cloud, no account — everything runs on your machine.

Requirements

• Docker with CUDA support (for the TTS server)
• Node.js 18+ and Yarn (for development)
• Chrome/Chromium or Firefox Developer Edition

Usage

1. Start the TTS server

yarn start:server

This launches the Piper TTS server via Docker Compose. A CUDA-capable NVIDIA GPU is required.

2. Install the extension

Load the extension/ folder as an unpacked extension in your browser:

• Chrome/Chromium: go to chrome://extensions, enable Developer Mode, click "Load unpacked", and select the extension/ folder.
• Firefox: go to about:debugging, click "This Firefox", then "Load Temporary Add-on" and select any file inside extension/.

3. Use it

Navigate to any article or web page, then click the Intone icon in your browser toolbar. The page content will be read aloud.

Folders

• src/extension/ — browser extension source code
  • background/ — background service worker (receives play commands, coordinates state)
  • content/ — content script injected into every page (DOM extraction, TTS playback, UI)
  • options/ — options/settings page
  • manifest.ts — extension manifest (generates extension/manifest.json at build time)
• src/server/ — Piper TTS HTTP server (Python, Docker)
• extension/ — the unpacked extension root; load this folder in your browser
  • assets/ — static assets (icons, etc.)
  • dist/ — built JS/CSS output
• scripts/ — build helper scripts

Development

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, Yarn, and the TTS server running (see above).

yarn install
yarn dev

Then load the extension/ folder in your browser as an unpacked extension (see step 2 above). The build will watch for changes and rebuild automatically.

For Firefox:

yarn dev-firefox

web-ext can auto-reload the extension when files change:

yarn start:firefox   # Firefox Developer Edition
yarn start:chromium  # Chromium

Build

yarn build           # Chrome/Chromium
yarn build:firefox   # Firefox

Then run yarn pack to produce intone.zip, intone.crx, and intone.xpi for distribution.

Credits

• Heavily based on Read Aloud by Hai Phan
• WebExtension Vite Starter Template by Anthony Fu