Manifest & Permissions

The shipped manifest.json for version 1.0.4, reproduced verbatim, followed by an honest justification for each permission.

{
    "manifest_version": 3,
    "name": "PraisonAI Browser Agent",
    "version": "1.0.4",
    "description": "Side panel browser automation. Navigate, click, type, run JavaScript, extract page data, and capture screenshots.",
    "homepage_url": "https://chrome.praison.ai",
    "minimum_chrome_version": "116",
    "permissions": [
        "sidePanel",
        "tabs",
        "debugger",
        "storage",
        "contextMenus",
        "notifications"
    ],
    "commands": {
        "open-panel": {
            "suggested_key": {
                "default": "Ctrl+Shift+P",
                "mac": "Command+Shift+P"
            },
            "description": "Open PraisonAI panel"
        },
        "capture-screenshot": {
            "suggested_key": {
                "default": "Ctrl+Shift+S",
                "mac": "Command+Shift+S"
            },
            "description": "Capture screenshot"
        }
    },
    "background": {
        "service_worker": "background.js",
        "type": "module"
    },
    "side_panel": {
        "default_path": "sidepanel.html"
    },
    "action": {
        "default_title": "PraisonAI Browser Agent",
        "default_icon": {
            "16": "icons/icon16.png",
            "32": "icons/icon32.png",
            "48": "icons/icon48.png",
            "128": "icons/icon128.png"
        }
    },
    "icons": {
        "16": "icons/icon16.png",
        "32": "icons/icon32.png",
        "48": "icons/icon48.png",
        "128": "icons/icon128.png"
    },
    "content_security_policy": {
        "extension_pages": "script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'"
    }
}

There is no action.default_popup: the toolbar button opens the side panel, because the service worker calls chrome.sidePanel.setPanelBehavior({ openPanelOnActionClick: true }). With that set Chrome never fires chrome.action.onClicked, so the extension deliberately registers no listener for it.

Permissions — six, and why each one is needed

Permission	Used by	Justification
`sidePanel`	The entire UI	The extension is a side panel. `side_panel.default_path` points at `sidepanel.html`; the toolbar icon opens it through `chrome.sidePanel.setPanelBehavior`, and the `open-panel` command and the Open PraisonAI panel context-menu item call `chrome.sidePanel.open({ windowId })`.
`tabs`	`refreshCurrentTab`, `getTabInfo`	The panel must know which tab it is pointed at, and must read that tab's URL to tell you before you act whether Chrome will allow automation there. Used via `chrome.tabs.query`, `chrome.tabs.get`, `onActivated`, `onUpdated` and `onRemoved`.
`debugger`	Every action	This is how the extension does its job. `chrome.debugger.attach` + `sendCommand` execute `Page.navigate`, `Input.dispatchMouseEvent`, `Input.dispatchKeyEvent`, `Input.insertText`, `Runtime.evaluate` and `Page.captureScreenshot`. It attaches only to a tab you act on, only when you act, and Chrome shows its debugging banner the whole time. End Session calls `chrome.debugger.detach` on that tab.
`storage`	History, last screenshot, console buffer	`chrome.storage.local` holds the 50-entry action history. `chrome.storage.session` holds the most recent screenshot (`lastScreenshot`) so it can be shown when you open the panel, and a mirror of each tab's captured console output (`console:<tabId>`) so it survives Chrome suspending the service worker. All three are local to the device.
`contextMenus`	Right-click menu	Creates exactly two items — Capture screenshot and Open PraisonAI panel — registered with `contexts: ['all']`, so they appear on the page and on links, images and selected text too.
`notifications`	Screenshot feedback	A screenshot taken with the keyboard shortcut or the context menu happens while the panel may be closed. A single Chrome notification reports whether it succeeded and where to find it — otherwise the action would be silent.

Chrome APIs used without a permission

chrome.runtime, chrome.commands and chrome.windows need no entry in permissions. The panel calls chrome.windows.getCurrent() once, to learn which window it belongs to, so it only ever drives that window's active tab. That is the complete list of Chrome APIs the shipped code touches: chrome.runtime, chrome.tabs, chrome.windows, chrome.debugger, chrome.storage, chrome.sidePanel, chrome.commands, chrome.contextMenus and chrome.notifications.

Permissions deliberately not requested

Not requested	Consequence
`host_permissions` / `<all_urls>`	The extension has no standing access to any site. Access exists only inside a debugger session you started, on the tab you targeted.
`scripting` / content scripts	No code is injected into pages on load. The only code that runs in a page is the expression you type or the extraction snippet, both through `Runtime.evaluate` on demand.
`downloads`	Screenshots are never written to disk by the extension. The panel shows the image and offers a save link; you decide.
`offscreen`	No offscreen document, no background media capture, no recording.
`alarms`	Nothing runs on a timer. Every action is user-initiated.
`activeTab`	Not needed — the debugger session, gated behind `tabs` + `debugger`, is the access path.
`cookies`, `webRequest`, `history`, `bookmarks`	Never used.
`externally_connectable`	No website or other extension can message this one.

Commands

Both are declared in manifest.json and both are handled in chrome.commands.onCommand.

Command	Suggested key	Action
`open-panel`	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`P` / `Cmd`+`Shift`+`P`	Calls `chrome.sidePanel.open({ windowId })` for the window the shortcut was pressed in
`capture-screenshot`	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`S` / `Cmd`+`Shift`+`S`	Captures a screenshot of the active tab and posts a notification

There is no _execute_action command. Opening the panel needs a real window id, so it is done explicitly and synchronously inside the onCommand listener — chrome.sidePanel.open() requires the user gesture, which is spent as soon as the handler awaits anything.

Chrome will not assign a suggested shortcut that is already taken; reassign at chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

Content security policy

script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'

Extension pages may load scripts only from the extension package. No remotely hosted code is fetched or executed — there is no fetch, no eval of remote content, no CDN script and no socket anywhere in the shipped code.

`minimum_chrome_version`

116. The floor is chrome.sidePanel.open(), which the open-panel command and the Open PraisonAI panel context-menu item both call, and which was added in Chrome 116. (The sidePanel API itself is older — it shipped in Chrome 114 — but a build that only declared side_panel would not be able to open the panel programmatically.) Every CDP command used here is available well before 116, and nothing else in this build needs a newer Chrome.

Build output

npm run build produces exactly this in dist/:

dist/
├── manifest.json
├── background.js       (from src/background/index.ts)
├── sidepanel.js        (from src/sidepanel/index.ts)
├── sidepanel.html
├── styles.css
└── icons/

vite.config.ts declares only the background and sidepanel entry points, so nothing under future/ is compiled or packaged.