Show HN: Wat Dat – A Firefox Extension for Instant Text Explanations

addons.mozilla.org

32 points · bsgada · 5 days ago

Wat dat" (What's that?) is a Firefox extension that sends any highlighted text to Groq and provides a simple explanation for it.

Every day, while learning or researching, I often need to look up the meanings of words or struggle to understand certain sentences. This breaks my flow and adds cognitive load due to context switching. So I created this extension to make my life a little easier.

It requires your own Groq API key and uses the llama3-70b model. All data is stored locally, ensuring your API key remains secure.

How It Works: - Highlight text you want explained and press the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+E. - The extension sends the text to Groq's chat completion API - Groq's llama3-70b model generates a simple explanation - The explanation is streamed within the extension popup automatically

Code: https://github.com/bhavyagada/watdat

Examples: https://x.com/bsgada/status/1831398552171638899 https://x.com/bsgada/status/1830881308102533597

Some notes: - I have a Chrome version on GitHub but didn't publish it because I'm broke. I also haven't worked on a Safari version for the same reason. - I chose Groq because it's free and meets my needs. If this gains traction, I will make it customizable. - If you try it, please leave a review and share it with your friends if you liked it! :D - If you encounter any bugs, let me know.

18 comments

politelemon · 5 days ago

Worth noting that Firefox 130 has an experimental feature which does a similar thing.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2447752/firefox-130-brings-a...

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dminsky · 5 days ago

I'm not sure if it's the default, but in Firefox, Ctrl+Shift+E opens the Network tab in Developer Tools.

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2Gkashmiri · 5 days ago

i am so happy you worked on a firefox version first.

it appears most of commercial browser extensions just go with chrome and be done with it even if porting wouldnt cost them an arm and a leg

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bsgada · 4 days ago

I just tried using the AI chatbot feature in Firefox, which is really great if you need to chat about the contents of an entire web page. However, it has a lot of friction when looking up explanations. I had to go through TWO different dropdown menus. Also, the fact that the sidebar remains there until you manually close or open it which is yet another distraction.

navigate8310 · 5 days ago

Excellent tool! Installed and works exactly as described. A few days back, I was searching something similar for TV shows and movies when played on VLC. Maybe extract the relevant subtitle and provide the context and meaning to the viewer?