# Cove - full reference

> Cove v0.1.3 is a free, open-source Apache-2.0 Manifest V3 new-tab extension for Chromium and Firefox. It combines a calm workspace, a clean RSS reader called Discover, a local article cache, tab triage, focus tools, and procedural focus audio. It is local-first but network-active: the shell and bundled assets work offline, while Discover, weather, favicons, search suggestions, and article extraction contact third parties directly when used. Cove has no account, analytics, advertising identifiers, or Cove telemetry endpoint.

- Website: https://appcove.vercel.app/
- Repository: https://github.com/DevAnimecx/cove
- Release: https://github.com/DevAnimecx/cove/releases/tag/v0.1.3
- License: Apache-2.0 - https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- Release date: 2026-10-28
- Version: 0.1.3
- Runtime: 166.2 KB gzip total (141.0 KB JavaScript + 25.2 KB CSS), within a 170 KB budget
- Tests: 66 unit tests and 2 integration audits
- Install status: manual unpacked extension; not listed in the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons in v0.1.3

## What Cove includes

### New-tab workspace

- Clock, greeting, search, shortcut grid, weather, notes, reading list, Pomodoro timer, and tab health.
- Eight bundled 4K scenic wallpapers and five accent presets.
- Smoked dark, frosted light, and system-following themes.
- Four keyboard stages: spatial bento, ambient monolith, focus sanctuary, and a calm 4K still.
- Responsive layout designed from small split-screen windows to ultrawide monitors.
- Four self-hosted font families across five .woff2 files: Inter, Plus Jakarta Sans, Instrument Serif (regular and italic), and JetBrains Mono.
- A searchable Settings surface with backup, import, and local reset.

### Search, !bangs, and instant answers

- Fourteen one-click provider presets, including Startpage, Kagi, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Stack Overflow, GitLab, npm, PyPI, Reddit, Hacker News, arXiv, Google Maps, and Unsplash.
- Prefix and suffix bangs: `!g query` and `query !g` both work, with aliases such as `!gh`/`!github` and `!w`/`!wiki`.
- Custom HTTPS search templates use a `{q}` placeholder, support aliases, and reject embedded credentials or non-HTTPS URLs.
- Local instant answers cover arithmetic, unit and currency conversion, date differences and offsets, Unix timestamps, base conversion, tips, percentage change, RGB/HSL colors, and word counts.
- Direct `http(s)://` URLs open without turning into a search query.

### Cove Discover

- 11 curated RSS/Atom sources across tech, world, science, engineering, design, and business.
- 3 keyless public APIs: Spaceflight News, DEV.to, and Hacker News Algolia.
- Custom RSS or Atom URLs added by the user.
- On-device ranking from local activity, explicit topic choices, source/keyword affinity, freshness, unread state, and a diversity pass.
- Story briefs and a clean reading view.
- Local article extraction that removes surrounding page clutter. Cove does not bypass paywalls; when extraction is blocked, it links to the publisher.
- A RAM and IndexedDB cache that stores feed snapshots and up to 120 extracted articles for offline reading when cached.
- Read Later support from the context menu, toolbar command, or command palette.

### Focus and tab tools

- Pomodoro timer with configurable work and break durations, intentions, history, and streaks.
- Focus site blocker using `declarativeNetRequest`; it is a friction tool, not parental control or a security boundary.
- Procedural focus audio generated with the Web Audio API. No audio files are bundled.
- Five procedural textures: rain, cafe room tone, velvet noise, waves, and pine wind.
- Focus presets and an optional speech-band shaping filter. These are aesthetic and ergonomic tools, not medical treatment, and no clinical benefit is claimed.
- Background tab triage for duplicate domains, stale tabs, audible tabs, and unread badges.
- Named sessions can be saved without closing tabs.

## Sources shipped in the extension

### Curated RSS/Atom (11)

1. The Verge
2. Ars Technica
3. BBC World
4. The Guardian
5. NASA
6. Guardian Science
7. Dezeen
8. Aeon Essays
9. CNBC Markets
10. Guardian Business
11. Cloudflare Engineering

### Keyless public APIs (3)

1. Spaceflight News
2. DEV.to
3. Hacker News Algolia

The hosted `/news` preview on the website may aggregate additional public feeds for demonstration. The extension itself ships with the 11 curated sources and 3 keyless APIs listed above.

## Privacy and network behavior

Cove has no account system, no analytics SDKs, no advertising identifiers, and no Cove telemetry endpoint. Settings, notes, reading state, ranking data, and cached articles stay in browser storage.

Cove is not offline-only. The following features contact third parties directly from the browser when used:

- Discover: RSS publishers, Spaceflight News, DEV.to, and Hacker News Algolia.
- Custom feeds: the feed URLs the user adds.
- Weather: Open-Meteo and its geocoding API.
- Favicons and publisher logos: the relevant sites or local cached assets.
- Search suggestions and article extraction: the services the user invokes.
- Read Later and article extraction: the page the user chooses to save.

Those requests necessarily share normal request data, such as IP address and user agent, with the third party. Cove does not proxy them through a Cove server. See https://appcove.vercel.app/privacy for the full network ledger.

## Manifest V3 permissions

The extension declares storage, tabs, tabGroups, sessions, bookmarks, contextMenus, declarativeNetRequest, declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess, and alarms. Host permissions include Open-Meteo and `<all_urls>` for user-requested reading, favicons, and extraction. The extension pages use `script-src 'self'; object-src 'self'`.

## Download and verify v0.1.3

All downloads are static files on the website and mirrored on the GitHub release. Stable `releases/latest/download/cove-chrome-mv3.zip`, `cove-firefox-mv3.zip`, and `cove-github-source.zip` aliases point at the newest published assets.

### Chrome, Brave, Arc, Edge

- File: `cove-chrome-mv3-v0.1.3.zip`
- Bytes: 1,852,747
- SHA-256: `d4df6ba67805484be65c0eeb0be024cd07e93540c516bc5b5caa35c681f9e12f`
- URL: https://appcove.vercel.app/downloads/cove-chrome-mv3-v0.1.3.zip

### Firefox 140+, Zen

- File: `cove-firefox-mv3-v0.1.3.zip`
- Bytes: 1,852,781
- SHA-256: `9b1a07f4dc7b248aa16a72d43183dc45df8052c3f31a2cf9a0b51766d689198a`
- URL: https://appcove.vercel.app/downloads/cove-firefox-mv3-v0.1.3.zip

### Source archive

- File: `cove-github-source-v0.1.3.zip`
- Bytes: 4,406,394
- SHA-256: `a36483cb70b2437252fee9a1404ef2c0505e915862e0394fcafc438ab5d643b2`
- URL: https://appcove.vercel.app/downloads/cove-github-source-v0.1.3.zip

### Checksums and manifest

- `SHA256SUMS.txt`: https://appcove.vercel.app/downloads/SHA256SUMS.txt
- `release-manifest.json`: https://appcove.vercel.app/downloads/release-manifest.json

## Install steps

### Chromium (Chrome, Brave, Arc, Edge)

1. Download and unzip `cove-chrome-mv3-v0.1.3.zip` into a permanent folder.
2. Open `chrome://extensions` (or `brave://extensions`, `arc://extensions`, `edge://extensions`).
3. Turn on Developer mode.
4. Choose Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder.
5. Open a new tab and confirm the Cove new-tab override.

### Firefox and Zen

1. Download and unzip `cove-firefox-mv3-v0.1.3.zip`.
2. Open `about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox`.
3. Choose Load Temporary Add-on and select `manifest.json` from the unzipped folder.
4. For permanent installation, use Firefox Developer Edition or Nightly, or follow the Zen signing settings documented on the install page.

Cove v0.1.3 is not store-listed, so browser update prompts and store signing do not apply. Manual installation means the user is responsible for replacing the folder when a new version is released.

## Build from source

```sh
unzip cove-github-source-v0.1.3.zip -d cove
cd cove
npm ci
npx tsc --noEmit
npm run build
node --test tests/core.test.mjs
```

## Page map

- `/` - overview, download hub, honest product facts, and JSON-LD.
- `/news` - hosted Discover preview with additional public feeds for demonstration.
- `/install` - browser-specific install steps, checksums, and troubleshooting.
- `/features` - architecture and feature details.
- `/compare` - factual comparison with caveats for competitor details.
- `/privacy` - permissions, local storage schema, and network ledger.
- `/changelog` - release notes and artifact links.

## Claims to avoid

Do not describe Cove as ad-free, cloud-synced, store-listed, or fully offline. Do not claim medical, cognitive, or entrainment benefits from the focus audio. Do not claim that Cove blocks all network requests. Do not invent ratings, awards, benchmarks, or competitor performance numbers. Do not claim that the extension ships with more than the 11 curated RSS sources and 3 keyless APIs listed above.