Chrome extension

The VibeHost Chrome extension adds a Deploy to VibeHost button inside AI canvas environments, and a popup that can capture any webpage as a one-page static deploy. Use it when you have just generated something in a canvas like Gemini Canvas and want a live URL for it without leaving the page.

Install

Install from the Chrome Web Store →

After install, click the puzzle icon in Chrome's toolbar → pin VibeHost. First click opens a popup that walks you through sign-in (Google OAuth, same as the dashboard).

What it does

The first five are AI canvas deploys. The extension reads the canvas's source (HTML / JS / CSS), packages it, and uploads it. The sixth is a page snapshot. The extension serializes the rendered DOM and inlines the assets the page references, so you get a self-contained static copy.

Canvas deploy (Gemini / AI Studio / ChatGPT / Claude / v0)

1. Generate something in your AI canvas of choice.
2. The extension injects a Deploy to VibeHost button next to the canvas's own controls.
3. Click it. A small panel appears:
   • First time: sign in (Google OAuth).
   • Pick the target workspace (defaults to your last-used one).
   • Optional: edit the auto-suggested app name.
4. Click Deploy. The extension reads the canvas, tarballs it, uploads it, and shows the live URL when it is ready.

Later deploys from the same canvas reuse the existing app. Each one creates a new deployment, and the app's primary URL moves to the latest deploy.

Capture & deploy (any webpage)

Use this for pages without an explicit "canvas", such as a blog post, a landing page, or a generated report.

1. Open the page in Chrome.
2. Click the VibeHost extension icon in the toolbar.
3. Pick Capture & Deploy.
4. The extension reads the rendered DOM, inlines linked CSS / images / fonts where possible, and uploads as a single-page static deploy.
5. Live URL comes back in the popup.

It works for archiving an article as it stands today, sharing a generated report from a tool that has no publish flow of its own, or keeping a copy of a page before it changes.

Best-effort inlining. Cross-origin assets that block CORS (some CDN-hosted fonts, hot-linked images on private buckets) can't be inlined, so the snapshot links to their original URL instead. The page still renders while those origins are reachable, but the copy is no longer self-contained. The popup shows a count of inlined vs linked assets so you can spot this before sharing.

Visibility and access

Every extension deploy is private by default, so only you and people with a grant can view it. Change with vibehost app visibility from the CLI or the dashboard:

• Private: workspace owners + explicit grantees only.
• Workspace: anyone in your workspace.
• Public: anyone with the URL.

You can also mint a share link or set a password gate on the resulting app from the dashboard.

Permissions explained

The extension's Chrome permissions:

• activeTab lets it read the page you click the extension on, only when you invoke it and never in the background.
• scripting lets it inject the deploy button into supported canvas pages (Gemini / AI Studio / ChatGPT / Claude / v0).
• storage lets it remember your sign-in and last-used workspace.
• Host permissions, the complete list from manifest.json:
  • https://gemini.google.com/*
  • https://aistudio.google.com/*
  • https://chatgpt.com/*
  • https://v0.dev/*
  • https://claude.ai/*
  • https://api.vibehost.com/*

The extension does not read other tabs, browser history, cookies for unrelated sites, or any data outside the active tab when you trigger a deploy. See the VibeHost privacy page (Chrome extension section) for the full data flow.

Troubleshooting

• "Sign in to deploy" keeps showing. Cookies for vibehost.com got cleared, or you've been signed out. Click Sign in in the popup, complete OAuth, return.
• No Deploy button on the canvas. The canvas site rolled out a UI change and our content script hasn't caught up. File an issue with a screenshot. In the meantime, copy the canvas output into a local file and run vibehost deploy from the CLI.
• Deploy fails with TARBALL_INVALID. The canvas output is too large (size cap), or contains paths we reject (absolute paths, .., symlinks). Inspect with the dashboard's deploy log.
• Live URL still shows the previous version after a redeploy. The new release can take up to about a minute to reach every edge location (52 seconds when measured). Refresh after that.

When to use the CLI instead

The extension is optimised for "I'm already in the AI tool and want this published". For everything else, the CLI is more flexible:

• Local builds (Vite, Astro, Next.js export) → vibehost deploy ./dist
• CI / scripted deploys → CLI + Personal Access Token
• Channels / promote / rollback / custom domains → CLI commands, most of which have an MCP tool too (the cheatsheet lists the gaps)

Both write to the same backend with the same auth, so you can deploy from the extension and keep iterating on the same app from the CLI.

See also

• The canvas deploy recipe walks from Gemini Canvas to a live URL, with screenshots.
• The Quickstart covers the CLI path.
• Grants and visibility explains how to change who can see your extension deploys.
• The coding agent guides cover the path where an agent runs the deploy.