Official Web Stores#

The easiest and safest way to install Mol* Linker is through the official browser extension stores. These versions update automatically and have passed rigorous security reviews.

• Install for Google Chrome / Edge / Brave (Coming Soon)
• Install for Mozilla Firefox (Coming Soon)

Manual Installation (Developers & Advanced Users)#

If you want to test the latest features before they hit the web store, or if you want to modify the source code, you can install the extension manually.

Mol* Linker uses a TypeScript build pipeline — you cannot simply load the raw source folder. You need to build it first.

Step 1: Download or Build the Extension#

Option A: Download a Release Zip (Easiest)

1. Go to the GitHub Releases page.
2. Download the latest molstar_linker_chrome-vX.Y.Z.zip or molstar_linker_firefox-vX.Y.Z.zip.
3. Extract the zip file into a folder on your computer.

Option B: Build from Source

The recommended approach uses pixi, which installs all dependencies (Node.js, TypeScript, esbuild) in an isolated environment — no system-level installs required.

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MartinBaGar/molstar_linker.git
cd molstar_linker

1. Install the pixi environment (once):

pixi install

1. Build for your target browser:

pixi run npm run build:chrome    # → dist/chrome/
pixi run npm run build:firefox   # → dist/firefox/
pixi run npm run build           # → both at once

If you already have a compatible Node.js environment, you can also use npm directly:

npm install
npm run build

Step 2: Load into your Browser#

For Chrome / Edge / Brave:

1. Navigate to chrome://extensions/.
2. Toggle Developer mode ON in the top right corner.
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the dist/chrome folder.

For Firefox:

1. Navigate to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on.
3. Navigate into the dist/firefox folder and select the manifest.json file.

Build Output Structure#

After a successful build, the dist/ directory looks like this:

dist/
├── chrome/          ← load this in chrome://extensions
│   ├── manifest.json
│   ├── background.js
│   ├── content.js
│   ├── viewer.js
│   ├── popup.js
│   ├── options.js
│   ├── sandbox.js
│   ├── viewer.html / sandbox.html / ...
│   ├── icons/
│   └── lib/
└── firefox/         ← select manifest.json in about:debugging
    └── ...

Each browser folder is fully self-contained and ready to load.