Feature: Browser Extension for Quick Opportunity Addition

[Venkat-Kolasani]

Browser Extension

A Chrome/Firefox extension would let students:

• Quick-add opportunities from LinkedIn, AngelList, or company career pages
• Auto-fill deadline and company information
• One-click save without opening the full app

[Maurya-H]

Hi @Venkat-Kolasani,
This feature sounds incredibly useful for the platform! I would love to take on this issue to build the browser extension for quick opportunity addition. It will be a great learning experience for me with browser extension APIs and web scraping.
Please assign it to me under gssoc 2026?

[Venkat-Kolasani]

Hi @Maurya-H ! Thanks for your interest.

Before I assign this, please share your approach in a comment:

• What changes do you plan to make?
• Which files will you be touching?
• Any libraries or approaches you're planning to use?

Once it looks good, I'll assign it to you with a 10-day deadline.

[Maurya-H]

Hi @Venkat-Kolasani,

Here is my simple, straightforward approach to building the browser extension:

1. How it Works: When a user is on a site like LinkedIn, a background script will grab the Job Title, Company, and Link directly from the page. Clicking the extension icon will open a small dark-mode window (matching your UI) where the user can review the info.

2. The Code Structure: I will place everything inside a brand-new /extension folder so it doesn't clutter or interfere with your existing frontend code.

3. Handling Login (Clerk): To keep it seamless, the extension will securely read the active Clerk token from futuretracker.online so users don't have to log in twice.

4. Saving Data: When they click "Save", it will send a standard POST request directly to your existing /api/opportunities backend endpoint.

[Venkat-Kolasani]

Hi @Maurya-H — thanks for the approach. The /extension folder and reusing POST /api/opportunities are aligned with how I'd want this built.

Before I assign, I need a bit more detail on the hard parts:

1. Auth (Clerk)
How exactly will the extension get a JWT? "Read token from futuretracker.online" isn't enough for review — please pick one flow and describe it (e.g. content script on our domain + chrome.runtime.sendMessage, or user signs in inside the extension popup via Clerk).

2. CORS
Our API only allows the web app origin today. Extension calls from chrome-extension://… will fail unless we update CORS_ORIGIN. Include this in your plan.

3. Scope for v1 (required)
This issue is level:advanced. For the first PR, please limit to:

• Chrome MV3 only, /extension folder
• Generic page metadata (title, URL, basic og tags) — not LinkedIn-specific scraping yet
• Popup review UI matching our dark theme
• Successful save to /api/opportunities

LinkedIn/AngelList-specific parsers can be a follow-up issue after v1 merges.

4. Test plan
Local steps: load extension unpacked, visit a job page, save opportunity, confirm it appears in the web app.

Reply with an updated plan covering 1–4. If it looks good, I'll assign with a 10-day deadline for the v1 PR.

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Note: I'm not expecting the full issue (LinkedIn/AngelList parsers, deadline auto-fill) in the first PR — v1 is a working MVP; site-specific parsers come after merge in follow-up issues.
Our web app uses OAuth (Google/GitHub) via Clerk, so please account for that — e.g. @clerk/chrome-extension with syncHost to futuretracker.online, or another documented flow. Popup-only OAuth is not enough.

[Maurya-H]

Hi @Venkat-Kolasani,

Thanks for the clarification and sorry for the late response .
Here is the streamlined plan for v1:

1. Auth (Clerk)
I will use @clerk/chrome-extension in the MV3 background service worker configured with syncHost: "https://futuretracker.online". This will automatically sync the web session to the extension without forcing a re-login.

2. CORS
I will update the backend CORS_ORIGIN configuration to accept chrome-extension://* alongside our web app origin so the backend doesn't block extension requests.

3. V1 Scope

• The first PR will be strictly limited to:
• /extension folder: Chrome MV3 structure.
• Metadata: Basic page title, URL, and general og tags only (no custom LinkedIn parsing).
• UI: A dark-themed review popup matching the web app.
• API Integration: Submitting successfully to POST /api/opportunities.

4. Test Plan

• Load the extension via "Load unpacked" in developer mode.
• Log into the web app, then visit any generic job page.
• Open the extension popup, verify the pre-filled text, and click save.
• Confirm the new job appears on your web app dashboard.

[Venkat-Kolasani]

Hi @Maurya-H — thanks for the updated v1 plan. This addresses what I needed on auth, CORS, scope, and testing.

You're assigned to issue #7. Please open a draft PR within 10 days (by June 27, 2026).

V1 acceptance criteria (must all pass)

New extension/ folder — Chrome MV3 only (no Firefox in v1)

Auth via @clerk/chrome-extension with syncHost: "https://futuretracker.online" (users sign in on the web app with Google/GitHub; extension syncs session)

Popup UI — dark theme, review/edit before save

Page metadata only — document.title, current URL, og:title / og:description if present (no LinkedIn/AngelList-specific scraping)

POST /api/opportunities with Clerk JWT; defaults: category: "internship", status: "applied"

Backend CORS updated to allow the extension origin — use the specific chrome-extension://<EXTENSION_ID> URL (wildcards won't work); update backend/.env.example and document in extension/README.md

extension/README.md — setup (unpacked load, Clerk Native API, stable CRX key, test against local + prod API)

Manual test plan in PR description: sign in on web → visit any job page → save via extension → confirm on Dashboard

Out of scope for this PR (separate follow-up issues)

Site-specific parsers (LinkedIn, AngelList, etc.)
Deadline auto-fill from page content
Firefox / Safari
Clerk checklist (document in README)
Native API enabled in Clerk Dashboard
Bot protection disabled for extension dev
syncHost pointed at futuretracker.online
Stable extension ID via manifest key (dev)

PR expectations
Reference Fixes #7 (v1 only — we may split parser work into #7 follow-ups)
Run npm run test:ci, cd backend && npm test, npm run check:architecture
No secrets in the repo