InputStash

Never lose what you typed.

A cross-browser extension that quietly remembers what you've typed into form fields, so an accidental Esc, a rogue keyboard shortcut, a refresh, or a tab close never destroys your draft again. Open the toolbar icon, find the input you lost, copy it back.

Built and maintained by one indie developer. If it saves you a painful retype, ☕ buy me a coffee — it keeps InputStash free and ad-free.

Status

Scaffold only. No input-capture logic is wired up yet — the popup, content script, and background entrypoints are stubs with TODOs. The hard parts (catching input across <input>, <textarea>, contenteditable, shadow DOM, iframes, SPAs) are deliberately deferred to a follow-up.

Stack

• WXT — one config builds Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, and Firefox from the same source. MV3 by default. Bundled browser.* polyfill.
• TypeScript
• Svelte 5 (popup UI)
• HMR in dev: saving the popup reloads instantly; content/background changes trigger an auto-reload of the extension.

Requirements

• Node 20 LTS (a .nvmrc is included)
• pnpm (npm i -g pnpm)

Quickstart

pnpm install
pnpm dev            # launches Chrome with the extension auto-loaded
pnpm dev:firefox    # same, in Firefox Developer Edition

Build

pnpm build              # → .output/chrome-mv3/
pnpm build:firefox      # → .output/firefox-mv2/
pnpm zip                # store-ready Chromium zip
pnpm zip:firefox        # store-ready Firefox zip

Loading the built extension

After pnpm build, the unpacked extension lives in .output/chrome-mv3/ (or .output/firefox-mv2/ after pnpm build:firefox).

Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave

All four use the same flow — they're all Chromium under the hood.

1. Open chrome://extensions (or edge://extensions, opera://extensions, brave://extensions).
2. Toggle Developer mode on (top-right).
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select .output/chrome-mv3/.

Firefox

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on….
3. Select .output/firefox-mv2/manifest.json.

(Temporary add-ons are removed when Firefox restarts. For permanent local install, you'd need to sign through AMO.)

Safari

Deferred. Safari supports the WebExtension API but requires an Xcode wrapper for distribution. When ready, Apple's safari-web-extension-converter can wrap .output/chrome-mv3/ directly:

xcrun safari-web-extension-converter .output/chrome-mv3/

You'll need Xcode and an Apple Developer account to ship; for local testing you can enable unsigned extensions under Safari → Settings → Advanced → Develop menu → Allow unsigned extensions.

Typecheck

pnpm compile

Runs svelte-check followed by tsc --noEmit.

Project layout

.
├── wxt.config.ts            # manifest, permissions, browser targets
├── tsconfig.json
├── entrypoints/
│   ├── background.ts        # MV3 service worker — TODO
│   ├── content.ts           # injected into all frames — TODO
│   └── popup/
│       ├── index.html
│       ├── main.ts
│       ├── App.svelte
│       └── app.css
├── components/
│   ├── storage.ts           # thin wrapper around browser.storage.local — TODO
│   └── types.ts             # StashEntry
└── public/
    └── icon/                # placeholder icons — replace with real artwork

Roadmap

The interesting work is still ahead. Rough order:

1. Capture from regular form fields — input and change listeners on <input> and <textarea>, debounced per element, with a stable per-field identity (form name + field name + index fallback).
2. contenteditable — the rich-text editors that power Gmail, Notion, Slack, etc. Listen on input events of editable elements; serialize as text (and optionally HTML).
3. Shadow DOM — walk open shadow roots when attaching listeners; re-walk on MutationObserver events.
4. SPAs — MutationObserver so dynamically-mounted inputs get captured too.
5. Privacy guardrails — never capture <input type="password">, fields with sensitive autocomplete tokens (cc-number, one-time-code, etc.), or content on origins the user has opted out.
6. Storage strategy — browser.storage.local, capped at N entries per origin, dedupe consecutive snapshots, age out old entries.
7. Popup UI — list grouped by origin / time, search, one-click copy, delete, clear-all, per-origin opt-out toggle.
8. Safari packaging — wrap with safari-web-extension-converter, address any WebKit-specific quirks.

Support the project

InputStash is a solo indie effort — no company, no investors, no ads, no analytics. Every snapshot stays on your device.

If it earned its place in your toolbar, the easiest way to help is to chip in a coffee:

☕ buymeacoffee.com/mekedron

Other ways to help that cost nothing:

• Star this repo so more people find it.
• File a bug or feature request in Issues.
• Tell a friend who keeps losing half-written emails.

License

MIT © Nikita R