Buzzword Decoder

Watch the demo ↗

A Chrome extension that underlines corporate jargon on any webpage and shows you what it actually means when you hover over it — with a bit of snark.

"We will leverage our core synergies to unlock stakeholder value." → Get people to actually talk to each other.

Nothing is inline-replaced or hidden — the page stays exactly as it was, with a dotted underline under the jargon-y bits and a small popover on hover.

How it works

Two pieces, split on purpose:

• The extension (extension/) — plain JS/HTML/CSS, no build step. Reads the visible text on the current tab, sends it off to be translated, and underlines whatever comes back.
• The proxy (proxy/) — a small Node/Express server that holds your Anthropic API key and calls Claude on the extension's behalf.

The extension never touches an API key and never talks to api.anthropic.com directly. It only ever talks to your proxy. This means your key stays on a server you control, not inside browser-extension code that anyone could inspect.

By default, this extension is pre-configured to use a proxy the author already runs, so if you were sent this directly (or installed it from a private/unlisted listing), it works with no setup — just load it and click Decode This Page. That instance is meant for people the author has deliberately shared it with, not general public use, and has a spend cap on the API key behind it as a safety net — if that cap is ever hit, decoding will simply stop working until it's reset.

If you'd rather run this fully independently — your own proxy, your own Anthropic API key, no dependency on anyone else's server or spend limit — everything below walks through that. An API key baked into distributed extension code isn't actually private (it's readable by anyone who inspects the extension or reads this repo), so self-hosting is the only way to guarantee nobody but you is spending against your key.

Requirements

(Only needed if you're self-hosting — see above. If the extension already works for you out of the box, skip straight to step 5.)

• An Anthropic account and API key (free to create — see step 1 below)
• Node.js 18 or newer, to run the proxy (step 3 below covers checking whether you already have it)
• Google Chrome (or another Chromium-based browser that supports Manifest V3 extensions)

Before you start: self-hosting isn't a one-click install. You're running a small server on your own computer (or a free hosting account), which means typing a handful of commands into a terminal. If you've never done that before, budget 15–20 minutes and follow each step in order — none of it requires knowing how to code, just copying and pasting exactly what's shown.

Setup

1. Get an Anthropic API key

1. Go to console.anthropic.com and sign up or log in
2. In the left sidebar, click Settings → API Keys (or go directly to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys)
3. Click Create Key, give it any name, and copy the key it shows you (it starts with sk-ant-) — you won't be able to see it again after you navigate away, so paste it somewhere safe for a moment
4. While you're there, it's worth setting a spend limit — see Cost below

2. Open a terminal

• Mac: open Terminal (search for it with Spotlight — press Cmd+Space, type "Terminal", press Enter)
• Windows: open PowerShell (search for it in the Start menu)

Everything from here is typed into that window, one block at a time.

3. Check you have Node.js, and get the code

node --version

If that prints something like v18.x.x or higher, you're set. If it says "command not found," install Node from nodejs.org (the "LTS" button) and try the command again.

Then download this repository. If you have git installed:

git clone https://github.com/Justee21/buzzword-decoder.git
cd buzzword-decoder

If you don't have git (or don't know if you do), it's just as easy to click the green Code button at the top of this repo's GitHub page → Download ZIP, unzip it, and open a terminal inside the unzipped folder instead.

4. Set up and start the proxy

cd proxy
npm install
cp -n .env.example .env

Now open the .env file that just appeared inside the proxy folder in any text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code — whatever you have). It's a plain text file; on Mac, files starting with a dot are hidden in Finder by default, so it's easiest to open it from your editor's "Open File" dialog rather than hunting for it visually, or just run open .env (Mac) / notepad .env (Windows) from the terminal you already have open.

Find this line:

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Replace the sk-ant-... part with the real key you copied in step 1, save, and close the file. Then, back in the terminal:

npm start

You should see:

Buzzword Decoder proxy listening on http://localhost:3000
  model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
  auth: PROXY_AUTH_TOKEN is not set — /decode is open to any chrome-extension:// caller
        set it before deploying anywhere other than localhost

That last part is expected and fine — it just means this copy is only reachable from your own computer, which is exactly what you want for personal use. Leave this terminal window open (closing it stops the server) and move on to step 5.

Optional: deploy it so it's always on

The steps above only work while that terminal window stays open on your own computer. If you'd rather it run all the time without your laptop needing to be on, Render or Railway will run this exact code with no changes — free to sign up, connect this GitHub repo, and set:

Setting	Value
Root Directory	proxy
Build Command	npm install
Start Command	npm start

Then add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (the same key from step 1) as an environment variable in that platform's dashboard — never paste it into a file you'd commit to GitHub.

Because a hosted URL is reachable by anyone, not just you, also generate a second secret to lock it down. Run this in your terminal:

openssl rand -hex 32

That prints a random string — set it as a second environment variable, PROXY_AUTH_TOKEN, on the same hosting dashboard. Without this, anyone who finds your server's URL could use your Anthropic key; this makes the server reject any request that doesn't include the matching token. You'll paste this same value into the extension's settings in the next step, in the "Auth token" field — the value has to match exactly on both sides.

5. Load the extension

No build step — Chrome loads the plain files directly.

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Turn on Developer mode (top right)
3. Click Load unpacked and select the extension/ folder from this repo
4. Pin "Buzzword Decoder" to your toolbar

It's pre-configured with a working proxy address, so if you skipped the self-hosting steps above, you're done — click Decode This Page and go.

If you did set up your own proxy, click the icon, then change next to the proxy address, and enter:

• Proxy server — http://localhost:3000 if you're running it locally, or your deployed URL if you followed the deploy step above
• Auth token — leave blank unless you set PROXY_AUTH_TOKEN on your own server

Save, then open any page and click Decode This Page.

What you get

• Inline, not a takeover — jargon gets a dotted underline where it already sits on the page; nothing else about the page changes until you hover
• Hover for the translation — a small "Plain English" popover next to the underlined phrase, dismissed by moving your mouse away
• A tone, not just a translation — the rewrites lean dry and a little sarcastic rather than being a flat corporate-to-plain-English swap
• Toolbar status at a glance — the extension icon itself shows idle, working, and done states, so you know it's finished without opening the popup

Cost

Decoding uses claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 — cheap, but not free. Set a spend limit on your Anthropic account (console.anthropic.com → Limits) so a runaway loop or heavy usage can't surprise you. proxy/server.js also caps how much text gets sent per request (MAX_CHUNKS, MAX_CHUNK_CHARS in .env), but that bounds a single request's cost, not total usage over time.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.