Your AI Chats Are Locked in Corporate Silos. I Built an Open-Source Vault to Rescue Them

Question

I Kept Losing Context Switching Between AI Tools — So I Built a Browser Extension That Remembers Everything

Your AI conversations should not be trapped inside platforms.

The Problem

By 2025, most developers use multiple AI tools every day.

• ChatGPT for quick questions
• Claude for long reasoning
• Gemini for research
• Perplexity for analysis

But every platform stores conversations separately.

That creates a frustrating workflow:

• Conversations get cut when context windows fill up
• Switching platforms destroys continuity
• Exporting chats is painful or incomplete
• Your history is tied to accounts you don’t control
• There’s no unified search across platforms

In short:

The knowledge you build with AI is trapped inside isolated silos.

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Why Existing Solutions Didn’t Feel Right

Some tools try solving this problem, but they usually require:

• Paid APIs
• Backend servers
• Account linking
• Cloud syncing
• Monthly subscriptions

I wanted something simpler.

A question kept bothering me:

What if every AI conversation stayed entirely inside the browser?

No backend. No accounts. No tracking.

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The Solution: ContextVault

ContextVault is an open-source Chrome extension that captures AI conversations locally while you use platforms like:

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• Poe
• DeepSeek
• Grok
• Microsoft Copilot

Everything stays on your machine.

No telemetry. No external storage.

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How It Works

Capturing AI conversations reliably turned out to be harder than expected.

There were two major problems:

1. Every platform has a different DOM structure

Selectors, layouts, and rendering logic differ completely between ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others.

2. AI responses stream in real time

Messages arrive token-by-token instead of all at once.

To solve this, ContextVault uses a 6-layer architecture:

Adapters → Capture → Stream Assembler → Background Worker → Storage → Export

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1. Adapters Layer

Each platform has its own adapter implementing a shared interface:

interface LLMAdapter {
  platform: Platform
  urlPattern: RegExp
  messageContainer: string
  userSelector: string
  assistantSelector: string
}

Each adapter knows how to:

• Detect the platform
• Locate messages
• Handle UI differences

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2. Capture Layer (DOM + Network)

This is the core system.

DOM Observer

A MutationObserver watches the conversation UI in real time.

It detects:

• New messages
• Streaming updates
• Edited content

Network Monitor

The extension also patches:

• fetch
• XMLHttpRequest
• WebSocket

This provides early access to streaming responses directly from network traffic.

Why both?

• DOM reflects exactly what the user sees
• Network capture improves streaming accuracy

Using both together dramatically reduced missed messages.

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3. Stream Assembler

AI responses arrive in chunks like:

"Hel"
"lo "
"world"

The Stream Assembler rebuilds complete messages while handling:

• Chunk merging
• Duplicate removal
• Completion detection

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4. Background Worker

The background worker manages:

• Active sessions
• Conversation lifecycle
• Deduplication
• Streaming updates
• Conversation linking

It also prevents duplicate saves during rapid streaming events.

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5. Storage Layer (IndexedDB)

Everything is stored locally using IndexedDB.

Stored data includes:

• Conversations
• Drafts
• Settings
• Projects

Each conversation stores:

• Platform
• Messages
• Timestamps
• Model information
• Tags
• Conversation chains

No external database is used.

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6. Export Layer

Conversations can be exported as:

• Markdown
• ZIP archives

Example output:

## User
How do I design a secure API?

## Assistant
Start with authentication, validation, and rate limiting...

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Privacy First

ContextVault was designed around one principle:

Your conversations belong to you.

So the extension:

• Has no backend server
• Uses no analytics or telemetry
• Works fully offline
• Only activates on supported AI domains
• Never sends your conversations anywhere

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Tech Stack

• TypeScript
• Manifest V3
• CRXJS + Vite
• IndexedDB
• MutationObserver
• JSZip
• Vitest

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Final Thoughts

AI tools are becoming part of how we think, not just how we code.

But memory between tools is still broken.

Every platform acts like a closed silo where conversations disappear the moment you switch workflows.

ContextVault is my attempt to fix that.

A lightweight browser extension that keeps your AI conversations portable, searchable, and fully yours.

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Links

GitHub: https://github.com/aliabdm/ContextVault

Demo: https://context-vault-two.vercel.app/

Portfolio: https://senior-mohammad-ali.vercel.app/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammad-ali-abdul-wahed-1533b9171/

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