Extensions By Selfhood Studios : A Private, Local-First Toolkit for Chrome

In an era where browser extensions often demand cloud accounts, constant syncing, and broad access to user data, Selfhood Studios takes a noticeably different route. Its website, Extensions by Selfhood, presents a collection of eight premium Chrome extensions designed around a local-first philosophy: tools for downloads, research, screenshots, bookmarks, tab sessions, task management, and browser-based creative work, with privacy positioned as a core product value rather than an afterthought.[^1][^2]

The site is built around a simple but compelling idea: the browser is already where much of modern work happens, so it should also be a capable place to capture information, organize knowledge, create visual assets, and stay focused. Selfhood Studios, described as built in London, frames its extensions as practical desktop-like utilities that work within Chrome while keeping the user in control of their information.[^3]

A focused extension ecosystem

Instead of offering a single all-in-one extension, Selfhood Studios separates different workflows into dedicated products. This approach can make each tool feel more focused: a person documenting a product workflow has different needs from a researcher saving web sources or a designer editing visual assets.

The catalogue spans eight areas: download handling, research, screenshots, knowledge management, session and bookmark organization, productivity, tutorial creation, and creative editing. The unifying proposition is that these utilities are local-first by default, meaning the product family emphasizes keeping data on the device rather than making remote storage the assumed destination.[^1][^3]

Extensions at a glance

Lumina: screenshots without compromise

Lumina is positioned as more than a quick screenshot button. It combines capture with a professional, layer-based editing workflow, enabling users to crop, annotate, add backgrounds, and place screenshots into device mockups without flattening the project into a final image too early. That non-destructive approach matters because it lets creators return later to revise a callout, crop, label, or visual composition rather than rebuilding it from scratch.[^4]

For developers, product teams, technical writers, and content creators, this is particularly useful. A web developer could capture a feature, add an editable browser-frame mockup and annotations, then update those assets after the interface changes—all while retaining an organized local screenshot library.[^4]

Hibiki: turning actions into guides

Hibiki tackles one of the most tedious forms of digital communication: explaining how to perform a workflow. Rather than manually taking screenshots after every click, it records a process and identifies meaningful interactions such as clicks, inputs, and navigation, capturing a clean screenshot for each important step.[^5]

The result is a better path from “I know how this works” to a reusable tutorial, onboarding document, support article, or internal standard-operating procedure. With annotation, redaction, organization, and PDF, HTML, and Markdown export options, Hibiki is especially relevant for teams that document software, train users, or publish technical content.[^5]

Vaelith: bookmarks as usable knowledge

Browser bookmarks are usually simple link lists. Vaelith reimagines them as a private, AI-enabled personal knowledge system, offering semantic search, a living knowledge graph, cited chat, local embeddings, and on-device summaries.[^6]

That framing gives saved web material more context. Instead of remembering the exact title or folder where an article was stored, a user could search by meaning, trace relationships through a knowledge graph, or query their own saved collection with citations. For researchers, students, developers, and heavy web users, this could turn years of scattered bookmarks into something closer to a searchable reference library.[^6]

Kairo: work management inside Chrome

Kairo brings a broad productivity workspace to Chrome’s side panel. It includes task tracking, Kanban organization, notes, focus timers, quick capture, a command palette, analytics, site blocking, and AI co-pilot capabilities.[^7]

Its value lies in reducing app-switching. Someone researching a project, writing code, or planning content can keep their immediate tasks and notes beside the active browser tab rather than repeatedly moving between Chrome and a separate task-management app. The site-blocking and focus tools also show that Kairo is intended not only to organize work, but to protect attention while that work is being done.[^7]

Shibui: desktop-style image editing in the browser

Shibui extends the suite beyond productivity and information management into creative work. It advertises non-destructive layers, blend modes, curves, selective adjustments, brushes, and AI-assisted editing, bringing many expected desktop-editor concepts to a browser-tab environment.[^8]

This makes Shibui an interesting companion to Lumina. Lumina appears optimized for polished screenshots and product visuals, while Shibui is aimed at broader image manipulation and creative composition. Together, they suggest that Selfhood Studios sees Chrome not merely as a reading tool, but as a capable creative workspace.[^8][^4]

Privacy as the product principle

The most distinctive thread across the site is its privacy message. Selfhood Studios repeatedly describes the collection as local-first and says that users’ data stays theirs; individual products reinforce this with local workflows, on-device AI features, local embeddings, and local export options.[^9][^3][^6]

This is a meaningful proposition for anyone handling sensitive work: researchers saving sources, creators keeping draft assets, teams documenting internal workflows, or professionals managing personal task data. However, prospective users should still review the specific extension’s Chrome Web Store permissions and the studio’s privacy policy before installation, since the exact data access requirements can vary by tool. The site maintains a dedicated privacy-policy page covering how its extensions collect, use, store, disclose, and protect data.[^9]

Who the website serves

Selfhood Studios is best suited to people who spend substantial time in Chrome and want specialized tools without treating cloud sync as mandatory.

• Developers and product teams can use Lumina for release visuals, Hibiki for internal documentation, and Kairo for work planning.[^5][^4][^7]
• Researchers and knowledge workers can use Vaelith to preserve, search, and connect web-based sources more intelligently.[^6]
• Creators and marketers can make shareable screenshots in Lumina, edit broader visual assets in Shibui, and produce repeatable tutorials through Hibiki.[^8][^4][^5]
• Privacy-conscious users may appreciate the suite’s explicit local-first positioning and emphasis on retaining control over work data.[^3][^9]

Final perspective

Extensions by Selfhood is not simply a directory of Chrome add-ons. It is a cohesive vision for a more capable browser: one where screenshots remain editable, tutorials are generated from real actions, bookmarks become a knowledge base, tasks sit beside the work, and creative editing happens without leaving the tab.

The website’s strongest differentiator is the combination of polished, workflow-specific tools with a local-first privacy stance. For people who want to make Chrome a more complete work environment—without automatically handing their research, files, and personal organization to a cloud service—Selfhood Studios is a thoughtfully targeted extension ecosystem.