Last night, I found myself overwhelmed by open tabs in Chrome. I wondered how many I had open, but couldn’t find a built-in tab counter. While third-party extensions likely existed, I am not comfortable installing them.
Having built Chrome extensions before (I know, it’s possible in a few hours!), the process usually frustrates me. Figuring out permissions, content scripts vs. service workers, and icon creation (in various sizes) consumes time. Navigating the Chrome extension documentation can be equally daunting.
These “nice-to-have” projects often fall by the wayside due to the time investment. After all, I can live without a tab counter.
LLMs(Large Language Models) help me build such projects. Despite their limitations, they significantly boost my productivity on such tasks. Building a Chrome extension isn’t about resume padding; it’s about scratching an itch. LLMs excel in creating these workflow-enhancing utilities with automation. I use them to write single-purpose bash scripts, python scripts, and Chrome extensions. You can find some of my LLM wrapper tools on GitHub here.
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