Pellet - Web Clipper

Pellet - Web Clipper is an extension for Chrome. It turns the page you’re on — or just the part you selected — into a note or a task in your vault, as an ordinary markdown file.

It works with the Pellet desktop app on the same computer. The clipper hands the page to Pellet over Pellet’s local connection, which only listens to your own machine.

Install it

Get it from the Chrome Web Store. You also need:

• Pellet 0.25.0 or later, running on the same computer, with a vault open.
• A license or a running trial. While Pellet is unlicensed the local connection doesn’t listen at all — see It needs a license.

Desktop only. Phones don’t let Pellet open the local connection, so there’s nothing for the clipper to talk to there.

Connect it to Pellet

Once per computer:

1. In Pellet, open Settings → AI & MCP and turn on Enable local API. Leave Port at 27124 unless you’ve changed it.
2. Next to Access token, click Generate. A token is optional, but use one — without it, any program on this computer can read and change your vault through the connection.
3. In the clipper, click its toolbar button, then the gear (Settings). Under General → Pellet connection, paste the token into API token and check Port matches Pellet’s.
4. Still there, click Copy next to This extension’s origin. It starts with chrome-extension://.
5. Back in Pellet, paste it into Allowed origins (Settings → AI & MCP), on a line of its own.
6. In the clipper’s settings, click Test connection. You want Connected to vault “…” — can create tasks and notes.

Why Allowed origins matters

Pellet won’t create anything for a browser extension it hasn’t been told to trust. Without the origin, the clipper can look connected — it can still read your vault’s name — and then every save is refused with Pellet doesn’t trust this extension yet. Test connection checks both, so it catches this before your first clip does.

If it doesn’t connect

• Could not reach Pellet (or Pellet is offline in the clipper) — Pellet isn’t running, the local API is off, or the ports don’t match. The Local API card in Pellet’s settings says Running when it’s listening.
• Unauthorized — the token in the clipper doesn’t match Pellet’s. Copy it across again.
• Pellet has no vault open — open one, then try again.
• Pellet doesn’t trust this extension yet — the origin isn’t in Allowed origins.

Save a page as a note

Click the toolbar button, or press ⌘⇧O (CtrlShiftO on Windows and Linux). With Note chosen at the top, the clipper fills in:

• Title — the page’s title, without the site name tacked on the end.
• Properties — by default the title, the page’s address as source, author, published date, the date you clipped it, the description, and the tag clippings.
• Body — the page’s main article as markdown. Code blocks keep their language, and the tip and warning boxes on documentation sites become callouts.
• Folder — Clippings by default. Clear it to save at the top of the vault; it suggests your vault’s folders as you type.

Change anything you like, then Add to Pellet. The note opens in Pellet once it’s saved — switch that off with Open in Pellet after saving in the clipper’s Settings → General. The ⋯ beside the button offers Copy to clipboard and Save file instead.

The note goes into whichever vault Pellet has open.

Quick clip — AltShiftO saves the page straight away, without opening the clipper.

Some pages don’t let extensions read them — chrome:// pages, the Chrome Web Store, the PDF viewer. Those are saved as a link only, and the clipper says so.

Save just a selection

Select some text on the page first, then open the clipper. The Body holds your selection instead of the whole article. Right-clicking a selection and choosing Save this page does the same.

Save it as a task

Choose Task at the top of the clipper. The title starts as the page’s title, and you can set Due date, Priority, Group, Tags (separated by commas), Board and Notes. Leave Link current page as source ticked to keep the page’s address on the task, then Create task.

Two shortcuts from the right-click menu:

• Create Pellet task from selection — the selected text becomes the task.
• Add this page as a Pellet task — the page’s title, linked to the page.

These use the defaults under Tasks in the clipper’s Settings → General: Default group, Default priority and Default Kanban board.

In Gmail, an open email gets a ✓ Pellet button beside its subject. It makes a task that links back to the email.

New tasks go to your Inbox folder — or, if the board you picked has a Board folder set, into that.

Keep the page’s images

Normally a clipped note’s images stay as links to the website, so they need the internet to show. To save them into your vault instead, turn on Save images into the vault in the clipper’s Settings → General → Clipping.

Chrome then asks for access to all sites — images come from many different servers, so no shorter list would cover them. The clipper only uses that access to download the images of pages you clip, and it never changes a website. Say no and the switch turns itself back off.

Saved images go to your attachments folder, the same place as an image you drop into a note — see Images and files. An image over 8 MB, past the hundredth on a page, or that fails to download stays a link, and the clipper tells you how many.

Video and audio players — YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts — come across as players you can press play on in the note. Switch off Keep video and audio embeds if you’d rather not.

Popup, in the page, or side panel

The clipper can open three ways. Choose which one the toolbar button uses with Open behavior, in the clipper’s Settings → General:

• Popup — the default. It closes itself once the note is saved.
• Embedded in the page — a panel on the right of the page that stays open after saving, so you can clip several things in a row. ✕ or Esc closes it. Pages that don’t let extensions in get the popup instead.
• Side panel — Chrome’s own side panel, which also stays open.

The fourth choice, Reader, opens reader view (below).

You don’t have to change the setting to try them: the popup has an Open in the page button, and the right-click menu has Open in the page and Open side panel.

Templates

A template decides what a clip becomes: its name, its folder, its properties and its body. Everything above uses the one called Default. Add your own in the clipper’s settings, under Templates, and pick one from the menu at the top of the clipper.

Each template has:

• Template triggers — pick this template automatically on matching pages, one rule per line: the start of a web address (https://example.com/blog/), a /regular expression/, or schema:@Recipe to match the page’s structured data. The longest matching address wins.
• Behavior — Create new note, add to an existing note or to today’s daily note (at the bottom or the top), or Overwrite note.
• Note name and Note location — the file’s name and folder. Variables work here: {{title}}, {{date|date:"YYYY-MM-DD"}}.
• Vault — only clip with this template while Pellet has that vault open, so a work template can’t land in your personal vault.
• Properties and Note content — {{content}} is the article as markdown, or your selection if you made one.

The Variables page in the clipper’s settings lists every variable and filter, each with an example. In the clipper itself, the Show variables button lists the values the page you’re on offers.

Highlighter and reader view

• Highlighter — the Highlighter button in the clipper, AltShiftH, or right-click → Add to highlights. Highlight text and images on any page; they’re still there when you come back. Clip behavior, in the clipper’s Settings → Highlighter, decides what they do to a clip: Highlight the page content, Replace the page content with just your highlights, or Do nothing. View highlights lists every one, grouped by site.
• Reader view — the Reader view button, AltShiftR, or right-click → Open reader view. The page as a clean article, with themes and your choice of size, width and spacing in Settings → Reader.

Shortcuts

Keys	What it does
⌘⇧O / CtrlShiftO	Open the clipper
AltShiftO	Quick clip
AltShiftH	Highlighter on or off
AltShiftR	Reader view on or off

If a shortcut shows Not set in the clipper’s Settings → General → Keyboard shortcuts, another extension is probably using those keys. Open shortcut settings takes you to the page where you choose your own.

Privacy

What the clipper reads, stores and sends is set out in the Pellet - Web Clipper privacy policy.