I’m MengXi, a software engineer / a lazy language learner, and I’ve been building Read Frog – an open-source Chrome / Edge extension that lets you learn a foreign language while you read the web.
What it does:
1. Inline (immersive) translation – duplicates each paragraph/element and shows the translation right beside the original, so the layout stays intact and you never lose context.
2. Smart article extraction – Readability + heuristics to isolate the main content on news or blog pages.
3. Word / phrase / sentence explanations – hover or click to get CEFR-level definitions, examples, audio, and grammar notes.
4. Multiple AI back-ends – today GPT-4o and DeepSeek; it’s pluggable so we can add open-source or local models later.
5. Privacy-first – extension is client-side; you supply your own API key, nothing is routed through our servers.
6. Offline-first storage – IndexedDB via Dexie; optional Firebase sync for paid users (not enabled yet).
I’m MengXi, a software engineer / a lazy language learner, and I’ve been building Read Frog – an open-source Chrome / Edge extension that lets you learn a foreign language while you read the web.
What it does:
1. Inline (immersive) translation – duplicates each paragraph/element and shows the translation right beside the original, so the layout stays intact and you never lose context.
2. Smart article extraction – Readability + heuristics to isolate the main content on news or blog pages.
3. Word / phrase / sentence explanations – hover or click to get CEFR-level definitions, examples, audio, and grammar notes.
4. Multiple AI back-ends – today GPT-4o and DeepSeek; it’s pluggable so we can add open-source or local models later.
5. Privacy-first – extension is client-side; you supply your own API key, nothing is routed through our servers.
6. Offline-first storage – IndexedDB via Dexie; optional Firebase sync for paid users (not enabled yet).
7. MIT-licensed and looking for contributors.
Tech stack: TypeScript · React · Tailwind · Vite · WebExtension APIs
Links:
Chrome Web Store → https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/read-frog-open-sour...
Edge Add-ons → https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/read-frog-...
GitHub repo → https://github.com/mengxi-ream/read-frog
Looking for feedback on:
Whether inline translation feels natural or distracting
Performance on very long / media-heavy pages
Additional language pairs or AI models you’d like supported
Happy to answer anything about the implementation, lessons learned building a browser extension, or language-learning UX. Thanks for taking a look!