getting started
Install the extension
The Zaai Dev extension lives in your browser's side panel. It captures web references — screenshots, layout, palette, motion — and sends them to your projects with one click.
Install from the Chrome Web Store
- 1Open the Chrome Web Store and search for Zaai Dev, then click Add to Chrome.
- 2Approve the permissions prompt. Chrome adds the extension to your toolbar.
- 3Pin it (puzzle-piece icon → pin) and open the side panel to start capturing.
early access
During early access you may be given a direct build instead of the public listing. To load it: unzip the build, open chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode (top right), click Load unpacked, and select the dist folder. It behaves identically to the Web Store version.
Requirements
- Desktop Chrome (or a Chromium browser with Manifest V3 support).
- Capturing locally needs no account. Pushing to a workspace needs a Zaai Dev account with access — see Connect your workspace.
Permissions explained
Every permission maps to one feature and nothing is always-on. By default the extension is local-first — no capture leaves your device until you explicitly push it.
| Permission | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| sidePanel | Renders the capture UI and your library in Chrome's side panel — the extension's main surface. |
| activeTab | Reads the current tab only when you click to capture. Access is tied to your click and ends when you navigate away. |
| scripting | Injects the capture and inspect logic into the page at the moment you start a capture. There is no always-on content script. |
| storage | Keeps capture metadata, tags, collections, your workspace token, and the offline push queue in chrome.storage.local on your device. |
| unlimitedStorage | Lifts Chrome's default storage cap so large screenshot and recording libraries don't hit the ~100MB limit. |
| identity | Used only for the optional Connect flow — opens an auth window on zaaidev.com so the workspace can mint a token without the extension ever seeing your password. |
| alarms | Retries pushes you queued while offline once the network returns. Schedules a timer only; reads no page data. |
| tabCapture | Used only for region recording — captures the active tab's video when you draw a region and click Record. No audio, never other tabs. |
| offscreen | Used only for region recording — a hidden document encodes the clip locally because MV3 service workers can't use media APIs. Transmits nothing. |
privacy
Before any capture is stored, form values, hidden fields, and inline scripts are blanked. There is no analytics or third-party tracking in the extension itself — the only network calls go to zaaidev.com, and only when you're connected and push. More in the FAQ.