WikiTrace

Track, archive and visualise every Wikipedia page you visit — as a force-directed graph clustered by category.

Version 1.4.0 — Chrome & Firefox (Manifest V3)

Features

• Automatic tracking of every Wikipedia page you visit (or on scroll-to-bottom / manual save)
• Permanent cumulative archive stored locally in your browser (no account needed)
• Wikipedia categories fetched automatically and used to cluster pages in the graph
• Graph view — force-directed D3.js graph rendered on Canvas, with coloured clusters, navigation edges (A→B if you clicked through), chronological edges (for unlinked pages), pan/zoom, and PNG export
• List view — sortable by title / date / category, filterable by category and free-text search
• Reading list — save any page (Wikipedia or any website) for later, with a user-assigned category; filterable by category and domain
• Custom site tracking — add any website to WikiTrace and track its pages alongside Wikipedia
• Revisit detection — the toolbar icon changes and a badge appears when you revisit a previously saved page
• Per-page visit counter — tracks how many times you've visited each saved page
• User categories — override the auto-detected Wikipedia category on any page
• Batch URL import — paste multiple Wikipedia URLs to add them at once
• Export / Import — backup and restore your full archive as JSON
• Cross-device sync via GitHub Gist — push/pull your archive between Chrome, Firefox and Firefox for Android
• Dark / light theme — toggle from the popup

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Installation

Chrome (unpacked extension)

1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle)
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select the WikiTrace folder (the one containing manifest.json)

Firefox (temporary add-on)

1. Open Firefox and go to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox
2. Click Load Temporary Add-On…
3. Select manifest.json inside the WikiTrace folder

Pre-built zip packages for both browsers are in the dist/ folder.

The WikiTrace icon appears in the toolbar. Pin it for easy access.

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Folder structure

WikiTrace/
├── manifest.json
├── background.js          # Service worker — tracking, API queue, storage, sync
├── content.js             # Injected into all pages — scroll detection & referrer
├── popup/
│   ├── popup.html
│   └── popup.js           # Extension popup — current page status, stats, sync, settings
├── dashboard/
│   ├── dashboard.html
│   ├── dashboard.js       # List view, reading list, graph view (Canvas/D3), sites panel
│   └── dashboard.css
├── icons/
│   ├── icon16.png         # Normal state icons
│   ├── icon48.png
│   ├── icon128.png
│   ├── icon_revisit16.png # Revisit state icons
│   ├── icon_revisit48.png
│   └── icon_revisit128.png
├── lib/
│   └── d3.min.js
└── dist/
    ├── wikitrace-chrome.zip
    └── wikitrace-firefox.zip

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Save modes

Switch mode from the popup at any time:

Mode	Behaviour
Automatic	Page saved as soon as it finishes loading
On scroll	Page saved when you reach the bottom
Manual	Page saved only when you click "Save to reading list" in the popup

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Reading list

Any page — Wikipedia article, custom site, or generic URL — can be saved to the reading list with a user-chosen category. The reading list lives in the dashboard under its own tab and supports sorting by date, title, domain, and category, plus free-text search and domain/category filters.

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Custom site tracking

You can track pages from any website, not just Wikipedia. From the dashboard Sites panel, add a domain (e.g. example.com). WikiTrace will then record every page you visit on that domain and show them in a separate list and graph alongside your Wikipedia history.

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Cross-device sync (GitHub Gist)

WikiTrace can sync your full archive across all devices — including Firefox and Firefox for Android — using a private GitHub Gist as a free, zero-server backend.

Setup

1. Go to github.com/settings/tokens → Generate new token (classic)
2. Tick only the gist scope → generate and copy the token
3. Open the WikiTrace popup → click Sync → paste the token → Connect
4. Click Push → to create the Gist on your first device

Syncing a second device

1. Install WikiTrace on the new device
2. Open the popup → Sync → paste the same token → Connect
   WikiTrace automatically finds your existing Gist
3. Click ← Pull to import your archive

Notes

• The Gist is created private automatically
• Merge strategy: union of all pages/entries, newer timestamp wins on conflict
• Wikipedia pages, reading list, tracked sites and custom-site data are all synced
• The token is stored locally only and never included in the synced Gist

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Roadmap

• Firefox add-on store release
• Auto-sync on browser close / on a schedule
• Selective sync (choose which categories or sites to include)
• Self-hosting option (sync to your own server instead of GitHub Gist)