DEV Community: Bunty Shah

I built a free Chrome extension that adds folders, tags & export to Google Gemini — here's why and how (v1.5.0)

Bunty Shah — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:14:44 +0000

The Problem

I've been using Google Gemini as my primary AI tool for the past 6 months. The AI quality is genuinely excellent - Gemini 2.0, Deep Research, code generation. But there's one thing that kept driving me crazy:

The chat history is a complete mess.

Gemini gives you a flat, undifferentiated list of every conversation you've ever had. No folders. No tags. No reliable search. No way to export anything.

After 3 months of heavy use, I had hundreds of conversations with no way to find anything. ChatGPT added folders. Claude built Projects. Gemini has... a scroll bar.

So I built a fix.

What I Built

Gemini Studio App is a free Chrome extension that adds a full organization and export layer on top of the native Gemini interface.

v1.5.0 Features

Folders
Organize chats into folders by project, client, topic, or anything else. Drag and drop between folders. Nested structure supported.

Tags
Multi-tag any conversation. Filter your entire history by tag. Great for tagging by model used, status, or use case.

Activity Dashboard
A usage analytics tab that shows your Gemini usage patterns over time - which days you use it most, conversation volume trends, most active hours.

Export
Download individual chats or bulk export as:

Markdown (great for Obsidian/Notion)
PDF (for sharing or archiving)
JSON (for custom processing or backup)

Full-text Search
Search across your entire conversation history, not just titles.

The Build

Architecture

The extension uses a content script that hooks into Gemini's DOM. All data is stored locally in the browser using IndexedDB - nothing is sent to any server. The organization layer is entirely client-side.

The Tricky Parts

Export formatting was harder than expected. Gemini renders markdown in its responses, but the underlying DOM doesn't preserve the raw markdown. I had to reverse-engineer the rendered HTML back to clean markdown, which required handling code blocks, tables, lists, and nested formatting correctly. Took 3 iterations to get right.

The Activity Tab wasn't even in the original roadmap. A user asked "can I see when I use Gemini most?" and I said sure, 2 days. It took 2 weeks. Aggregating usage data in a way that's both accurate and performant across thousands of conversations required rethinking the data model entirely.

Gemini UI updates are the ongoing challenge. Google updates the Gemini interface regularly, which can break DOM selectors. I've built a monitoring system to detect breakage quickly, but it still requires rapid patches sometimes.

Demo

Here's a walkthrough of the v1.5.0 features: Demo Video

Install

Free on the Chrome Web Store:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-studio-app/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnninpagc

100% free. No account required. No data leaves your browser.

What's Next

Firefox support (highly requested)
Cross-conversation search with semantic similarity
Template system for prompt management
Workspace sharing for teams

Feedback Welcome

If you use Gemini heavily and have felt this pain, I'd love to hear what features would make this more useful for your workflow. Drop a comment or open an issue on the extension page.

Specifically curious:

Would you want Firefox support? How big a deal-breaker is Chrome-only?
The export-to-Markdown feature has been popular with Obsidian users - should I double down on PKM integrations?
Any Gemini power user workflows I'm missing?

How to Export Google Gemini Chats to PDF, Markdown, JSON — Including Deep Research Citations

Bunty Shah — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 07:26:57 +0000

The Problem: Gemini Has No Native Export

If you use Google Gemini — especially the Deep Research feature — you've hit this wall: there's no way to get your conversation out of the browser in any useful format.

You finish a 30-minute Deep Research session with citations, summaries, and structured analysis. And then you're stuck. Copy-pasting loses formatting. Screenshots lose searchability. There's no export button anywhere.

This is the gap I built Gemini Export Studio to fill.

What Is Gemini Export Studio?

Gemini Export Studio is a free Chrome extension that adds full export capability to Google Gemini. It works on any Gemini conversation — regular chats, code sessions, and full Deep Research reports.

Export formats supported:

PDF (clean, formatted output)
Markdown (Obsidian and Notion compatible)
JSON (developer-friendly structured data)
CSV (spreadsheet-ready)
Plain Text
PNG image

Key Features

Deep Research Citation Preservation

When you run a Deep Research session in Gemini, the output includes dozens of citations. Most workarounds lose these citations. Gemini Export Studio preserves them inline, exactly as they appear in Gemini.

Chat Merging

You can merge up to 20 separate Gemini conversations into a single exported document. Useful for consolidating research across multiple sessions.

PII Scrubbing

Before sharing exports, the extension can automatically redact personally identifiable information (emails, names) from the output.

100% Local Processing

This is the most important feature for privacy: nothing leaves your browser. No servers, no API calls, no accounts required. Ever. All processing happens locally in your Chrome extension.

How to Install

Go to the Chrome Web Store
Search "Gemini Export Studio" or use this direct link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-export-studio/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnnninpagc
Click "Add to Chrome"
Open any Gemini chat
Click the extension icon and choose your export format

Why I Built This

I use Gemini heavily for research synthesis and technical writing. The inability to get clean Markdown output — especially from Deep Research — was a constant friction point.

I also didn't want to use an extension that sends my Gemini conversations to a third-party server. So I built one that doesn't.

The extension is completely free. No subscription, no sign-up, no data collection.

Conclusion

If you use Gemini for research, writing, or development work, Gemini Export Studio closes the export gap that Google hasn't addressed natively.

Install it, try it on your next Gemini session, and let me know what you think in the comments.

Gemini is the best AI for deep research and the worst for actually using the output

Bunty Shah — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:34:26 +0000

Hot take. Hear me out.

Gemini 3.1 Pro with Deep Research is the most powerful tool I've used for synthesizing complex technical information. I've used it to produce architecture documents, LLM pipeline specs, and competitive research that would have taken days manually.

But the moment the research is done, the experience falls apart completely.

The Input Experience: 10/10

Gemini's Deep Research is genuinely outstanding:

2M+ token context window
Multi-step autonomous research
Structured synthesis across dozens of sources
Excellent at technical architecture and system design

You can hand it a problem and come back 20 minutes later to a structured, cited, accurate research brief.

This is legitimately state-of-the-art.

The Output Experience: 2/10

Now try to actually USE that research:

Copy-paste into Google Docs?
All formatting gone. Bullet points become paragraph soup. Tables disappear.

Screenshot it?
A 3,000-word research brief becomes 18 images. Unsearchable. Unusable.

Paste into Notion?
Broken. Every. Single. Time.

Share with a colleague?
You're either sharing a screen or copy-pasting chaos into Slack.

There's no native export. No "Save as PDF." No "Download as Markdown." Nothing.

For a product that costs $20/month (Gemini Advanced), this is embarrassing.

Why This Gap Exists

I think Google treats Gemini as a conversation product, not a knowledge work product.

Conversation products don't need exports. Knowledge work products absolutely do.

Claude has artifacts. ChatGPT has memory and export. Gemini has... a copy button.

The irony is that Gemini's research quality is excellent enough that people WANT to preserve the output. That's a good problem to have. But Google hasn't solved it.

What I Did About It

I got tired of the workarounds and built Gemini Export Studio — a free Chrome extension that adds one-click export to Gemini:

PDF, Markdown, JSON, CSV, Plain Text
No account, no server, 100% local
Works on any Gemini conversation

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-export-studio/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnninpagc

The Real Question

Do you agree that the output/export experience of AI tools is the next big UX frontier?

We obsess over prompting, context windows, model benchmarks. But nobody talks about: once the AI generates something brilliant, how do you actually use it in your real workflow?

Would love to hear what export/integration pain points you're hitting with your AI tools of choice.

Show Dev.to: I built a free Chrome extension to export Gemini chats as PDF, Markdown, JSON & CSV — no server, no account

Bunty Shah — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:31:30 +0000

The Problem Nobody Talks About

Everyone talks about getting INTO Gemini — the right prompts, the right context, the right model.

Nobody talks about getting OUT.

You finish a deep research session. Gemini just synthesized 3 hours of thinking into a structured, brilliant output. And then… you copy-paste it into a doc and watch the formatting collapse.

Or you screenshot it. In 12 images. And lose the structure entirely.

Or you paste it into Notion and spend 20 minutes reformatting.

This was my workflow for months. I build AI architecture systems and use Gemini constantly — for system design docs, research summaries, LLM pipeline specs. The output quality is excellent. The export experience is embarrassing.

So I Built a Fix

Gemini Export Studio — a free Chrome extension that adds a one-click export button directly inside Gemini.

What it does:

✅ PDF — print-ready, preserves formatting, great for sharing

✅ Markdown — perfect for Obsidian, Notion, VS Code, GitHub

✅ JSON — structured data for devs, pipelines, automation

✅ CSV — tables and structured outputs straight to spreadsheets

✅ Plain Text — clean copy for any editor

What it doesn’t do (and why that matters):

❌ No account required

❌ No server — everything runs locally in your browser

❌ No data ever leaves your machine

❌ No subscription, no freemium, no tracking

It’s just a utility. You install it, you use it, it works.

The Technical Side

Built entirely in vanilla JavaScript. No frameworks, no dependencies, no build step. The extension:

Reads the Gemini DOM directly
Parses conversation structure (user prompts + model responses)
Converts to the target format client-side
Triggers a native browser download

The whole thing is ~400 lines of clean JS. Open source on GitHub.

Try It

🔗 Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-export-studio/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnninpagc

👉 Landing page + docs: https://buntys2010.github.io/Gemini-Export-Studio/

What I’d Love From This Community

I’m actively building the next version and making decisions based on real user needs:

Which format do you actually need most? PDF / Markdown / JSON / CSV / something else?

What’s your current Gemini export workflow? (Genuinely curious — copy-paste? screenshot? something clever I haven't thought of?)

What would make this a daily-driver tool for you?

Drop your answers in the comments — I read and respond to every single one.

Why I Built a Local-First Gemini Exporter (PDF, Markdown, JSON, CSV) — And Why You Need One Too

Bunty Shah — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:13:13 +0000

The Problem Nobody Talks About

Gemini is genuinely excellent at research, system design, deep technical drafting, and long-form thinking.

But there's a workflow gap that nobody seems to address: what do you actually do with the output?

Every time I had a genuinely useful Gemini conversation, I hit the same wall:

Copy-paste into Notion? Formatting destroyed.
Screenshot a long chat? 12 ugly images that are useless for anything serious.
Gemini Deep Research output? Copy it out and every citation link vanishes.
Need it as structured data? Start the whole extraction manually.

The model was doing its job brilliantly. The post-processing workflow was completely broken.

So I built Gemini Export Studio — a free, local-first Chrome extension that fixes exactly this.

What It Does

Gemini Export Studio exports any Gemini conversation into 6 formats:

Format	Best For
PDF	Reports, documentation, sharing
Markdown	Obsidian, Notion, GitHub, Bear
JSON	Developers, APIs, structured analysis
CSV	Spreadsheets, Excel, BI tools
Plain Text	Universal, archives
PNG Image	Social sharing, quick visual reference

All processing happens 100% locally in your browser. Zero data is sent to any server.

Why Local-First Matters

Most "AI productivity" tools are quietly data pipelines.

You paste your chat somewhere, it routes through a server, gets stored, analysed, potentially used for training. You never really know.

I built this extension with a non-negotiable constraint from day one: your conversation data never leaves your device.

Here's what that means practically:

No backend server receives your chat content
All export logic runs in Chrome's local JavaScript environment
No analytics on what you export
No account required — install and use immediately
GDPR and CCPA compliant by design (zero collection = zero problem)

For anyone doing sensitive research, client work, or internal architecture notes in Gemini — this is the only export tool I'd personally trust.

The Features That Actually Matter

🔗 Deep Research Export with Citations Preserved

This is the killer feature. Gemini Deep Research produces genuinely valuable outputs — multi-source synthesis with citations. But when you copy it manually, every source link disappears.

Gemini Export Studio reads the DOM properly and preserves all source links and citations in the export. Your research report stays research, not just text.

🔒 PII Scrubbing

Before sharing any export, the extension can automatically redact:

Email addresses
Phone numbers
Names (configurable)

So you can safely share a Gemini conversation with a colleague without manually hunting for sensitive data.

📎 Merge Up to 20 Chats

Real research doesn't live in one conversation. If you've spread your work across multiple Gemini threads, you can add them to a merge queue and combine them into a single clean export document.

☁️ Optional Cloud Sync

Google Drive: OAuth-based sync, entirely optional
Obsidian: Direct vault export for PKM workflows

If you don't want cloud sync — don't enable it. The extension works perfectly without it.

Install It

👉 Chrome Web Store (free):
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-export-studio/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnninpagc

👉 Landing page:
https://buntys2010.github.io/Gemini-Export-Studio/

What I Learned Building It

Privacy is the first question. Before anyone asks about formats or features, they ask: does this send my data anywhere? The answer being "no, and here's exactly why" is more valuable than any feature.

No sign-up removes massive friction. The moment you require an account, half your potential users bounce. A tool that works in 60 seconds after install converts dramatically better.

JSON and CSV are underrated export formats. I expected PDF and Markdown to dominate. Developers and analysts actually want structured data they can pipe into Python, Excel, or their own pipelines.

Merge is a power-user unlock. Once users discover they can stitch multiple research threads into one document, that becomes the feature they rely on most.

Who This Is For

Developers using Gemini for architecture thinking and code review → export to Markdown/JSON
Researchers using Deep Research → export to PDF with citations intact
PKM enthusiasts → export to Markdown for Obsidian/Notion
Analysts → export to CSV for Excel/Sheets
Anyone tired of copy-paste chaos after a great Gemini conversation

It's Completely Free

No paywall. No premium tier for basic exports. No watermarks. No limits on how many conversations you export.

The core export functionality will always be free.

If you use Gemini seriously, give it a try and let me know what workflow is still missing. That's basically my roadmap.

Install free: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gemini-export-studio/oondabmhecdagnndhjhgnhhhnninpagc