Simple Chromium AI

A lightweight TypeScript wrapper for Chrome's built-in AI APIs (Prompt, Translator, Language Detector, and Summarizer) that trades flexibility for simplicity and type safety.

Why Use This?

Chrome's native AI APIs are powerful but require careful initialization and session management. This wrapper provides:

• Parse, don't validate - Initialization ensures the model is downloaded and returns an object you must use, making it impossible to skip the readiness check
• Automatic error handling - Graceful failures with clear messages
• Simplified API - Common tasks in one method call
• Safe API variant - Result types instead of throwing

For advanced use cases requiring more control, use the original Chrome AI APIs directly.

Quick Start

npm install simple-chromium-ai

Every API requires initialization before use. Init triggers the model download and returns an object with the API methods:

import { initLanguageModel, initTranslator, initDetector, initSummarizer } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const ai = await initLanguageModel("You are a helpful assistant");
const response = await ai.prompt("Write a haiku");

const translator = await initTranslator({ sourceLanguage: "en", targetLanguage: "es" });
const translated = await translator.translate("Hello");

const detector = await initDetector();
const detections = await detector.detect("Bonjour le monde");

const summarizer = await initSummarizer({ type: "tldr" });
const summary = await summarizer.summarize("Long article...");

Prerequisites

• Chrome 138+ for Translator, Language Detector, and Summarizer APIs
• Chrome 148+ for Prompt API
• See hardware requirements — models are downloaded on-device (~4GB)

Prompt API

Initialize

const ai = await initLanguageModel(
  systemPrompt?: string,
  expectedInputLanguages?: string[], // defaults to ["en"]
  expectedOutputLanguages?: string[] // defaults to ["en"]
);

The expectedInputLanguages parameter tells Chrome what language(s) the user prompts will be in. The expectedOutputLanguages parameter tells Chrome what language(s) the model should output.

Prompt

const response = await ai.prompt(
  "Your prompt",
  timeout?: number,
  promptOptions?: LanguageModelPromptOptions, // signal, responseConstraint, etc.
  sessionOptions?: LanguageModelCreateOptions
);

Session Management

// Create reusable session (maintains conversation context)
const session = await ai.createSession();
const response1 = await session.prompt("Hello");
const response2 = await session.prompt("Follow up");
session.destroy();

// Override the instance's system prompt for this session
const customSession = await ai.createSession({
  initialPrompts: [{ role: 'system', content: 'You are a pirate' }]
});

// Or use withSession for automatic cleanup
const result = await ai.withSession(async (session) => {
  return await session.prompt("Hello");
});

Token Management

const usage = await ai.checkTokenUsage("Long text...");
if (!usage.willFit) {
  // Prompt is too long for the context window
}

Structured Output

const response = await ai.prompt(
  "Analyze the sentiment: 'I love this!'",
  undefined,
  { responseConstraint: {
    type: "object",
    properties: {
      sentiment: { type: "string", enum: ["positive", "negative", "neutral"] },
      confidence: { type: "number" }
    },
    required: ["sentiment", "confidence"]
  }}
);
const result = JSON.parse(response);

Cancellation

const controller = new AbortController();

const response = await ai.prompt(
  "Write a detailed analysis...",
  undefined,
  { signal: controller.signal }
);

// Cancel from elsewhere:
controller.abort();

Translator API

import { initTranslator } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const translator = await initTranslator({
  sourceLanguage: "en",
  targetLanguage: "es",
});

// One-shot (creates and destroys native instance internally)
const translated = await translator.translate("Hello");

// Reusable session for multiple translations
const session = await translator.createSession();
const result1 = await session.translate("Hello");
const result2 = await session.translate("Goodbye");
session.destroy();

Each translator is locked to a specific language pair. Initialize a new one for different pairs.

Language Detector API

import { initDetector } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const detector = await initDetector();
const detections = await detector.detect("Bonjour le monde");
// Returns: [{ detectedLanguage: "fr", confidence: 0.95 }, ...]

// Reusable session
const session = await detector.createSession();
const r1 = await session.detect("Hello");
const r2 = await session.detect("Hola");
session.destroy();

Summarizer API

import { initSummarizer } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const summarizer = await initSummarizer({
  type: "tldr",       // "tldr" | "key-points" | "teaser" | "headline"
  length: "medium",   // "short" | "medium" | "long"
});

// One-shot
const summary = await summarizer.summarize("Long article text...");

// Reusable session
const session = await summarizer.createSession();
const summary1 = await session.summarize("First article...");
const summary2 = await session.summarize("Second article...");
session.destroy();

Shared Models

The Prompt API and Summarizer API share the same underlying model (~4GB). Initializing either one triggers the same model download. The Translator and Language Detector APIs each have their own models.

Safe API

Every init function has a Safe variant that returns Result types instead of throwing:

import { safeInitTranslator, safeInitDetector, safeInitSummarizer } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const result = await safeInitTranslator({ sourceLanguage: "en", targetLanguage: "es" });
result.match(
  (translator) => {
    // Methods also return ResultAsync
    translator.translate("Hello").match(
      (text) => console.log(text),
      (error) => console.error(error.message)
    );
  },
  (error) => console.error(error.message)
);

The Prompt API safe variant:

import { safeInitLanguageModel } from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const result = await safeInitLanguageModel("You are helpful");
result.match(
  async (ai) => {
    const response = await ai.prompt("Hello");
    response.match(
      (value) => console.log(value),
      (error) => console.error(error.message)
    );
  },
  (error) => console.error(error.message)
);

Or use the default export namespace:

import ChromiumAI from 'simple-chromium-ai';

const result = await ChromiumAI.Safe.initLanguageModel("You are helpful");

Limitations

This wrapper prioritizes simplicity over flexibility. It does not expose:

• Streaming responses (promptStreaming(), translateStreaming(), summarizeStreaming())
• Writer and Rewriter APIs
• Proofreader API

For these features, use the native Chrome AI APIs directly.

Demo Extension

A minimal Chrome extension demo is included in the demo folder.

Available on the Chrome Web Store

To run locally:

cd demo
npm install
npm run build
# Load the demo/dist folder as an unpacked extension in Chrome

Troubleshooting

1. Navigate to chrome://on-device-internals/ to check model status

2. Check availability in the DevTools console:

   await LanguageModel.availability()
   // Returns: "available" | "downloadable" | "downloading" | "unavailable"
   

3. If "downloadable", trigger the download:

   await LanguageModel.create({
     monitor(m) {
       m.addEventListener('downloadprogress', (e) => {
         console.log(`Downloaded ${e.loaded * 100}%`);
       });
     },
   });
   

   The library also triggers downloads automatically during initialization.

Resources

• Chrome Built-in AI APIs Overview
• Prompt API
• Translator API
• Language Detector API
• Summarizer API
• Structured Output
• W3C Prompt API Spec

License

MIT