UX Surfaces

The extension exposes itself to the user through three surfaces, each with a specific role.

The Chrome side panel

The primary research surface. A vertical panel attached to the browser window, separate from the page DOM. Rendered by sidepanel.html.

The side panel uses Chrome's native sidePanel API. This is structurally important - it is not an iframe injected into the terminal's page. The implications:

• The side panel cannot be broken by the terminal updating its own DOM, because the side panel is not in the terminal's DOM.
• The side panel does not steal scroll, click events, or keyboard focus from the terminal.
• The side panel persists across navigation within a window - moving from one token to another updates the panel content, not its existence.

The side panel can be opened via the extension toolbar icon, the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+T, or by clicking the in-page trigger pill.

The side panel exposes five tabs - AI, Audit, Feed, Holders, KOLs - plus a hero header showing the token's name, ticker, and copy-address control. A user menu in the top-right handles the active session and exposes the settings view.

The in-page trigger pill and card

A small pill pinned to the bottom-right of every supported terminal page, rendered by the content script inside a closed Shadow DOM. The pill is the lightweight surface - it indicates that Thesium has recognized the token; clicking it opens a compact in-page card with the same data the side panel surfaces, useful for traders who don't want to dedicate a side-panel slot.

The card can be closed; the pill remains. The card supports both token detail and a recents list when the trader is on a supported terminal's homepage but not on a token-detail route.

The in-page pill and card can be disabled in extension settings. When disabled, the data pipeline still runs but no DOM modification of the terminal occurs.

The popup

A fallback surface, used when the side panel API is unavailable (Arc, Vivaldi, certain Chromium forks). The same React app, smaller frame, opened as a standalone window. Functionally equivalent for read-only research.

Keyboard shortcut

Alt+Shift+T opens the side panel for the currently active tab. If the side panel API is unavailable in the current window, the shortcut falls back to opening the popup as a window.

Settings

A minimal settings surface, available from the user menu. Current options:

• In-page trigger and card - enabled by default. Toggle to disable the bottom-right pinned pill and card.

Future settings will appear here as they ship: notification preferences, default panel section, watchlist sync.