033: Ask the site: Chrome's built-in model, or the reader's OpenRouter key, answering from the search index

What is asked

The owner: the next step is a model that talks to the site and its articles, with the reader's OpenRouter key or a local model, now that Chrome's built-in model runs in the browser.

Scenario

Given I ask a question on the search page
Then the question is searched, and the top passages are given to a model with the instruction to answer only from them and to cite them by number
And the answer is shown with the passages beside it, each linked to its page and section

Given my browser has Chrome's built-in model
Then it is used, on my machine, with no key and nothing sent

Given it does not, and I paste an OpenRouter key and choose a model
Then the key is kept in this tab unless I ask to keep it, is sent to openrouter.ai only, and the page says so
And the request and the passages sent are shown

Given neither is available
Then the page says so and shows the passages alone

Mock-up

Under the search box, a second button, Ask; under it the answer, then "From these passages" with the numbered snippets, then "Answered by: Chrome's built-in model" or "by openrouter.ai, model …, with your key". The design is in search in the browser, "Next: asking the site".

Outcome

Shipped in v0.12.9. Ask sits beside Search. assets/search/ask.js takes the best paragraph of each top page (two from the very best, up to eight, about 700 characters each, current wording only), numbers them, and gives them to the model with the instruction to answer only from them and cite them. The answer's citations link to the passages; What the model is given shows exactly what was sent. Chrome's built-in model first (on the device, nothing sent; the download progress shown on first use), the reader's OpenRouter key next (tab-only unless kept; Authorization header to openrouter.ai only; the model, characters and tokens said; a fall-back from the built-in model says why), the passages alone with neither. ?ask=1 asks on arrival. test_ask.mjs checks all three paths with openrouter.ai answered by a route in the test and the built-in model faked by an init script; the key is made up per run.

Not built: the key kept in the master vault, a conversation, tools for the model (search again, open a page), answers kept as notes.

Screenshots