Install the extension

Updated 2026-05-09

The Redline Chrome extension mounts a Shadow-DOM overlay on any URL — your client opens a page, drops pins / regions / typed comments, and the redlines flow back into your studio. Forge (Studio-tier and above) generates a white-labeled build of the same extension that wears your monogram, accent colour, and subdomain — your client installs your extension, not ours.

Two ways to install

Until the public Chrome Web Store listing is live, both flavors install via Load unpacked in Chrome’s Developer mode. It looks scarier than it is — three clicks once you know the steps.

1. Download the build

  • Forge build (your studio’s own): in your studio at /forge click Download branded zip ↓. Brand kit must be set up first (accent + monogram + tagline).
  • House build (Redline-branded): reach out at husham@theredline.app for a copy. Public Chrome Web Store listing is coming.

2. Unzip it

Double-click the downloaded .zip on macOS, or right-click → Extract All on Windows. You’ll get a folder named like your-studio-redline/ with a manifest.json at its root.

3. Load it into Chrome

  1. Open chrome://extensions (paste it into your address bar).
  2. Top-right toggle: turn on Developer mode.
  3. Top-left button: Load unpacked → pick the unzipped folder from step 2.
  4. Click the puzzle-piece icon in the Chrome toolbar → pin the extension so it stays visible.

That’s it. Same flow on Edge and Brave; the URLs differ (edge://extensions, brave://extensions).

Using it

Sign in

Click the toolbar icon and the dock unfolds in the bottom-right of any page. Hit Sign in, type your studio email, click the magic link in the email that arrives. The dock now reads Connected to your-studio.

Drop a redline

Three modes:

  • Pin — click anywhere on the page; type a one-liner; press Enter. Lands as an open comment in your studio inbox.
  • Region — drag a rectangle around an area; type a comment. The region’s top-left and bottom-right anchor to DOM nodes so the rectangle survives layout reflow.
  • Typed comment — page-level note, no anchor. Use for architectural feedback ("typography is too tight everywhere").

Each redline carries a category tag (type, copy, spacing, colour, layout, logic, brand, nice-to-have) and a severity (low, normal, high). The studio sees the comment land in real-time on /dashboard and /comments.

Send a client review without the extension

Studios who don’t want their clients to install anything can use the share-link flow instead: from a reviewable, click Mint share link and send your client the URL. They drop redlines in the browser, no install, no account. The extension is the higher-friction / higher-fidelity path for clients reviewing many sites; the share link is the zero-friction path for one-off reviews.

Updating the extension

Re-download the zip, unzip over the previous folder, then click the reload ↻ icon next to the extension on chrome://extensions. No data is lost; comments live in your studio, not the extension.

Troubleshooting

  • Toolbar icon doesn’t appear: click the puzzle-piece and pin the extension. Chrome hides new extensions by default.
  • Sign-in magic link doesn’t work: the link must be clicked in the same Chrome profile where you installed the extension. If you have multiple profiles, the click and the install have to match up.
  • Pins drift after a page reflow: the overlay re-anchors on DOM mutation, but extreme client-side layout shifts can throw it. Drop the pin on a stable element (heading, button, image) when in doubt.
  • Forge build won’t generate: check that your brand kit has all of accent / monogram / tagline filled in at /brand. The build pipeline needs all three to produce a valid manifest.

Privacy + permissions

The extension requests two permissions: activeTab (to mount the overlay on pages you explicitly open) and storage (to remember your sign-in). It does not run on background tabs, doesn’t read your browsing history, and doesn’t phone home outside the studio you signed into. The Forge build is identical in shape — just rebranded.

Stuck? Email husham@theredline.app and we’ll walk you through it.