Nova Chrome extension

For KnowledgeCity staff. The extension is published on the Chrome Web Store as an unlisted item, so this page is the way to find it. It works for any KnowledgeCity account — nothing to install on your machine beyond the extension itself, and no setup on Nova's side.

Nova, in your browser.

The same Nova you already message at work — now beside whatever page you're looking at. Ask him a question, or point at something on the screen and tell him what you want done with it. He answers if it's quick, and picks it up as a task if it isn't.

Add to Chrome Chrome Web Store · v3.0.3 · updates itself

Ask

A chat that follows you around

Click Nova's icon and a panel opens next to the page. Ask him anything you'd normally ask him at work — he knows our products, our code and what's in flight. Conversations are kept as separate topics you can switch between, rename and archive, and they are stored with Nova rather than in the browser: switch computers or reinstall, sign in again, and every conversation and its history is still there.

Annotate

Point at it instead of describing it

Press Annotate, drag a box around any part of the page, and say what you want: “change this text to…” or “this is not working”. He gets your words plus a picture of exactly what you pointed at, and takes it from there. Ask a plain question that refers to what's on screen (“how do I clock out here?”) and he gets a picture of your current view too. Every picture you send shows up in the conversation, and you can click it to see it full size.

Installing it

Half a minute, once per computer. Chrome installs him from its own store and keeps him up to date by itself, so this is the last time you have to think about versions.

  1. Press Add to Chrome
    Either this one or the button at the top of the page — they go to the same place. Chrome opens Nova's store listing and asks you to confirm, and mentions he can read and change data on the sites you visit: that's how he sees the page you're pointing at and the errors it throws.
  2. Pin him to the toolbar and sign in
    Click the puzzle-piece icon, pin Nova, then click his face to open the panel. Tip: Ctrl+Shift+U (⌘+Shift+U on a Mac) starts an annotation on any page.
If your Chrome is managed and blocks the store, install it by hand

Same extension, installed the long way. Chrome won't update it for you, so you'll need to repeat this when there's a new version. Chrome treats this copy as a separate extension from the store one, so don't run both — you'd have two Novas and two sign-ins.

  1. Download the zip and unzip it
    You'll get a folder called nova-extension. Keep it somewhere permanent — Chrome loads it from wherever it sits, so don't leave it in Downloads if you clear that out.
  2. Open chrome://extensions
    Paste that into the address bar, then turn on Developer mode with the switch in the top-right corner.
  3. Click “Load unpacked” and choose the folder
    Select the nova-extension folder itself — not a file inside it. Nova appears in your extensions list, and you can pin and sign in as above.

Signing in

There's no new account and no password. You prove who you are with your work email and the Slack account that goes with it.

  • Type your KnowledgeCity email address in the panel.
  • Nova sends a 6-digit code to your Slack direct messages. It's good for ten minutes and works once.
  • Type the code and you're in for 30 days on that browser. Only a live KnowledgeCity Slack account can receive a code, so anyone Nova can't identify is turned away.
  • That is the only time Slack is involved. Your conversations live in the panel, not in Slack, and keep working even if Slack is down.

Worth knowing

He acts as himself

Nova does the work under his own name and the same rules he follows everywhere else. Anything risky still gets checked with a human before it happens.

Your page stays yours

Nova sees a page only when you ask about one. Press Annotate and he gets the area you chose; ask something that refers to what's on screen and he gets that screen, once, at the moment you asked. If you're reporting a fault he also gets the page's error log, stripped of passwords, tokens and email addresses. Nothing is recorded in between, and nothing is kept after the tab closes.

If something looks wrong

Tell Nova in the panel and point at it. That's the fastest route to a fix, and it's exactly what the tool is for. Chrome updates the extension by itself; to force it, open chrome://extensions and press Update.