HN Labels is a Chrome extension for adding private, persistent labels to Hacker News users.

Labels appear next to matching usernames across Hacker News. Each label edit is saved with a small history record, including when the edit happened and which HN page it came from.

• Add personal labels beside Hacker News usernames.
• See saved labels anywhere the same username appears on HN.
• Click labels to view and edit label history.
• Store labels locally for fast rendering and offline use.
• Optionally sync data through the user's private Google Drive appDataFolder.
• Export and import JSON backups from the toolbar popup.

1. Clone this repository.
2. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions.
3. Enable Developer mode.
4. Click Load unpacked.
5. Select the repository root, the folder containing manifest.json.
6. Visit Hacker News and use the + tag control beside a username.

Google Drive sync requires a valid OAuth client. If the bundled OAuth client is not available to your Google account, create your own client and update manifest.json.

Drive sync uses Chrome's built-in chrome.identity API and the Google Drive API. The extension does not load remote code.

The requested Drive scope is:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata

That scope limits the extension to its private app data folder in the user's Google Drive. The synced file is named hn-labels-data.json.

To configure a new OAuth client:

1. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

2. Enable the Google Drive API.

3. Configure the OAuth consent screen.

4. Create an OAuth client with application type Chrome Extension.

5. Use the Chrome extension item ID as the OAuth client item/application ID.

6. Copy the generated client ID into manifest.json:

   "oauth2": {
     "client_id": "YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com",
     "scopes": ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.appdata"]
   }

For stable unpacked-extension testing, add the Chrome Web Store item's public key to manifest.json as "key". That makes the unpacked extension ID match the Web Store item ID used by the OAuth client.

HN Labels stores:

• Hacker News usernames you label.
• The labels you assign.
• Edit timestamps.
• The HN page URL and title where each edit happened.
• Google Drive sync status, if Drive sync is enabled.

Data is stored in chrome.storage.local. If Drive sync is connected, the same label data is also stored in the user's Google Drive appDataFolder.

See PRIVACY.md for the privacy policy text.

The toolbar popup includes JSON backup controls:

• Export JSON downloads a backup of labels and edit history.
• Import JSON validates and merges a backup into local data.

Import is merge-only. It does not clear existing labels.

There is no build step for the extension itself. Chrome loads the files directly from the repository.

Run JavaScript syntax checks:

node --check src\shared\data.js
node --check src\content.js
node --check src\background.js
node --check src\popup.js

Generate Chrome Web Store screenshots with fake HN data:

node tools\generate-screenshots.js

Screenshots are written to assets\screenshots.

Create an upload zip:

Compress-Archive -LiteralPath @('manifest.json','src','icons','README.md','PRIVACY.md') -DestinationPath dist\hn-labels-0.1.0.zip -Force

• manifest.json: Chrome extension manifest, permissions, OAuth scope, popup, and background worker.
• src/shared/data.js: Shared data normalization, merge, and history helpers.
• src/content.js: Finds HN user links, renders labels/history, and sends edits to the background worker.
• src/background.js: Owns local cache, Drive OAuth, Drive API reads/writes, and merge logic.
• src/popup.html, src/popup.css, src/popup.js: Toolbar popup for Drive sync, import, export, and status.
• src/content.css: Inline HN page styles for labels and popovers.
• tools/generate-screenshots.js: Fake-data screenshot generator for Chrome Web Store assets.
• PRIVACY.md: Privacy policy.