SoulSearch is an open-source Chrome extension that adds persistent, memory-aware AI to your browser. Your memory and identity are stored in a private Git repo you control — not on Google's servers or a third-party cloud. It supports any LLM provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini) and includes browser automation via tool calling.

How is SoulSearch different from Perplexity Comet or other AI browser extensions?

The core difference is data ownership. Perplexity Comet and most AI extensions store your memory on their servers. SoulSearch stores everything in a private Git repo you own — GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, or a Raspberry Pi. Your API keys live only on your device. And unlike Comet, SoulSearch is open-source and free.

What browser automation can SoulSearch do?

SoulSearch includes an Agent Mode (the robot button) that can snapshot interactive elements on any page, click buttons, type into forms, scroll, and navigate. Describe a task in plain English — 'fill in my name in the contact form' or 'click the Submit button' — and it executes it step by step using Anthropic tool calling.

How do sessions work?

Each session has its own conversation history stored locally in chrome.storage.local. You can create new sessions, switch between them, delete old ones, or clear a session's chat without touching your memory. Sessions are independent of your identity — your SOUL.md and MEMORY.md are shared across all sessions.

What is soul.py and how does SoulSearch use it?

soul.py is an open-source Python library that gives AI agents persistent memory and configurable identity via SOUL.md and MEMORY.md files. SoulSearch uses the same architecture in the browser — the SOUL.md defines the agent's personality and the MEMORY.md accumulates what it learns across sessions.

Yes. SoulSearch is MIT-licensed and free forever. You bring your own LLM API key and your own Git repo. You pay only what you use, directly to your LLM provider. No SoulSearch subscription, no data collection.

SoulSearch: AI Browser Extension with Private Git Memory, Sessions, and Browser Automation

By Prahlad Menon Published 2026-03-15 6 min read

Updated: March 2026 — added sessions, browser automation, memory management, and improved page extraction.

What SoulSearch Does

SoulSearch is a Chrome extension that adds a persistent AI assistant to every webpage you visit. Unlike chatbots that forget everything between sessions, SoulSearch remembers — because your memory lives in a Git repo you own.

Open it on any page and ask: “Summarize this article”, “What does this calculator do?”, “How does this compare to what I researched last week?” It reads the page, checks your memory, and answers in context.

UI Quick Reference

When you open SoulSearch, here’s what every element does:

Top bar

📄 (page strip) — shows the title of the page you’re currently on; the AI is reading this page
⚙ Settings — opens the Settings panel to configure your LLM key, model, and Git repo

Session bar (above the chat)

Dropdown — switch between named conversation sessions; each has its own independent history
+ — start a new session (fresh chat, blank history; memory is shared)
🗑️ — delete the current session
🗑️ chat — clear messages in this session without deleting it

Chat input area

📄 (context toggle) — when lit, the current page text is included in every message; click to toggle page context on/off
🧠 (memory button) — opens the memory panel showing your full MEMORY.md
🤖 (agent mode) — click this first to enable browser automation; the button turns purple, the send button changes to Run Agent, and the input placeholder changes to “Describe a task to perform on this page…”; click again to return to chat mode
Ask → / Run Agent — send your message (chat mode) or execute an agent task (agent mode)

Memory panel (opened by 🧠)

Shows your full MEMORY.md — everything SoulSearch knows about you
↺ — open version history: lists last 10 Git commits to MEMORY.md; click any to restore that version locally
🚀 — push your current local memory up to your Git repo
✕ — close the panel
save to memory button (on each AI response) — append that response to your local memory; use 🚀 afterwards to sync to Git

Right-click context menu (on any webpage, no popup needed)

Save to SoulSearch memory — saves your selected text directly to memory
Ask SoulSearch about this — opens the popup with your selection pre-filled
Summarize this page — opens the popup and immediately summarizes

Screenshots

Page-Aware Chat — Colab Notebook

SoulSearch explaining a PINN notebook on Google Colab SoulSearch reading a Google Colab notebook and explaining the parametric PINN architecture — page context injected automatically.

Agent Mode — Restaurant Reservation Form

SoulSearch agent filling out a restaurant reservation form Agent mode filling in Full Name, Phone, Date, Guests, and Special Requests on a live demo form — all from a single natural language instruction.

Memory Panel — Saved Research

SoulSearch memory panel showing saved PINN research notes The 🧠 memory panel showing research notes saved from a Colab session. The ↺ button restores from Git history, 🚀 pushes to your repo.

Settings — LLM Configuration

SoulSearch settings panel showing LLM provider and API key configuration Settings panel: choose Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini, paste your API key, and pick your model. All stored locally, never synced.

Settings — Git Memory Configuration

SoulSearch settings panel showing Git memory repository configuration Git Memory section: point SoulSearch at any private repo and it pulls your SOUL.md and MEMORY.md on every session start.

Core Features

Page-Aware Answers

When you open SoulSearch on any webpage, it reads the visible content using chrome.scripting.executeScript — pulling document.body.innerText directly from the active tab. No DOM manipulation, no element removal. Clean, reliable text extraction that works on SPAs, React apps, and standard pages alike.

The page content is injected into the system prompt as the primary source. Your personal memory is injected as background context. The LLM answers from the page first, your memory second.

Git-Backed Memory

Your memory lives in two files in a private Git repo:

SOUL.md — your agent’s identity, personality, and research focus
MEMORY.md — accumulated knowledge, notes, and saved research

SoulSearch reads these at startup and caches them locally. You control every byte. Supported backends:

GitHub (private repo + fine-grained PAT)
GitLab (gitlab.com or self-hosted)
Gitea / Forgejo (including Raspberry Pi)

The 🧠 memory panel shows your full MEMORY.md, scrollable. Three controls:

↺ — open version history (lists last 10 commits to MEMORY.md, click any to restore)
🚀 — push current local memory back to Git
✕ — close panel

Sessions

Each conversation is a named session stored in chrome.storage.local. The session bar sits above the chat:

Switch sessions from a dropdown (shows message count)
+ creates a new session with a fresh chat
🗑️ deletes a session
🗑️ chat clears messages in the current session without deleting it

Sessions share your identity and memory. Each has its own independent conversation history.

Save to Memory

Every assistant response has a small save to memory button. Click it to append that response — with date and page URL — to your local soul_memory. Then hit 🚀 to push to Git.

Right-click any selected text on any page → Save to SoulSearch memory to save without opening the popup. The context menu also supports Ask SoulSearch (pre-fills the input) and Summarize this page.

Agent Mode — Browser Automation (Experimental)

Click the 🤖 button to enter Agent Mode. The send button becomes Run Agent. Describe a task in plain English and SoulSearch will act on the page.

“Fill in my name as Prahlad Menon in the first name field” “Click the Submit button” “Search for ‘soul.py’ in the search box”

SoulSearch uses Anthropic tool calling to snapshot interactive elements, click, type, scroll, and navigate — up to 12 steps.

Works best on: standard HTML forms, search boxes, Wikipedia, documentation sites, contact/signup pages with native <input> and <select> elements.

Limited support for: React/Vue SPA custom dropdowns, multi-step wizards with cascading state, slider controls, and pages with strict CSP restrictions.

Agent mode is experimental in v0.1 and improves with each release.

Model Selection

The Settings panel has a freeform Model text field. Default is claude-3-haiku-20240307 (available on all Anthropic tiers, fast and cheap). Upgrade to claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 for better reasoning, or switch to GPT-4o or Gemini 1.5 Flash by changing the provider and model.

The “Monica in Your Browser” Idea

Here’s the thing that makes SoulSearch different from every other AI browser tool.

If you point the Git settings at a repo that contains your agent’s actual SOUL.md and MEMORY.md — the same files that define its identity on Telegram, Railway, or wherever else it runs — you’re talking to the same agent in your browser.

Same personality. Same memory. Same context about who you are and what you’re working on.

Git is the thread. The agent travels across surfaces — Telegram, browser extension, Railway deployment — connected by two plain text files in a private repo.

Installation

SoulSearch is now live on the Chrome Web Store! ✅ Approved and published March 19, 2026. Install it here.

In the meantime, install directly from source:

git clone https://github.com/menonpg/soulsearch

Open chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode
Click Load unpacked → select the soulsearch folder
Click the SoulSearch icon → ⚙ Settings
Add your Anthropic/OpenAI/Gemini API key
Add your Git repo owner, name, and PAT
Click Save & Sync Memory

Community

Comet is great but I don't want to switch browsers -- built a Chrome extension
by u/the_ai_scientist in r/Perplexity

Privacy

API keys stored in chrome.storage.local only — never synced through Chrome Sync
Page text is sent to your LLM provider directly (no proxy)
Memory is stored in your own private Git repo
No analytics, no telemetry, no SoulSearch servers