A Chrome extension that overlays a universal reader on top of any government portal — read it in your language, see its full structure, search across languages.
🌐 sinhaankur.github.io/GovLens · 📚 User Guide · 🔒 Privacy · 📦 Releases
Government websites are some of the worst-built sites on the internet. They're slow, in the wrong language, full of unexplained acronyms, time you out mid-form, and bury what you actually need under five layers of menus. Hundreds of millions of people deal with that every year — to file taxes, apply for passports, claim benefits, register businesses.
GovLens doesn't fix gov sites. It overlays a layer that makes them usable.
Four tools in one Chrome side panel that activates the moment you land on any government portal — Indian (.gov.in), UK (.gov.uk), US (.gov), Canadian (.gc.ca), EU (.europa.eu), Australian (.gov.au), and 19 more national TLDs.
| 🌐 | Translate | Auto-detect the page language. Translate the whole page or just a selection into 100+ languages — including 80+ Indian regional / Adivasi / North-East languages and historic Kaithi & Tirhuta scripts. |
| 🗺 | Navigate | Every page section, every form (with field counts), every PDF, every nav menu — listed in one panel. Click anything to scroll there with a flash highlight. |
| 🔍 | Search | Cross-language search — type your query in any language. Click any result and the page scrolls to the exact Nth occurrence and pulses red for 4 seconds. |
| 📊 | Score | A 0–100 usability grade across 8 axes (accessibility, navigation, readability, mobile-friendliness, trust signals, etc.) with concrete fixes. History tracks improvements over time. |
Plus: region-aware jargon explainer (PAN, GSTIN, HMRC, NIN, SSN, FAFSA…), form auto-save with undo, AI summarise, retro floating Ctrl+F bar, searchable language picker.
Three-engine cascade. The side panel shows which one will answer before you click.
- 🟢 On-device AI (Chrome 138+) — free, private, runs entirely on your machine
- 🟡 Google Translate (free, internet) — covers the long tail of common languages
- 🔵 Anthropic Claude (BYOK paid) — premium quality, handles transliteration of historic scripts (Kaithi, Tirhuta), works for any language via prompt
Most users never need an API key.
git clone https://github.com/sinhaankur/GovLens.git- Open
chrome://extensions - Toggle Developer mode (top-right)
- Click Load unpacked → select the
govlens-extension/folder - Pin the GL icon to your toolbar
- Visit any
.gov.in,.gov.uk,.gov, etc. page → click GL
Submission in review (May 2026). Link will be added once approved.
Most translators ship with the 22 scheduled languages and call it done. GovLens goes further:
| Tier | Languages |
|---|---|
| 22 Official (scheduled) | Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese, Urdu, Sanskrit, Kashmiri, Nepali, Konkani, Maithili, Sindhi, Bodo, Dogri, Manipuri, Santali |
| Hindi belt regional | Bhojpuri (~150M), Awadhi, Magahi, Chhattisgarhi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bundeli, Kumaoni, Garhwali, Hindko, Rajasthani |
| Bihar & Jharkhand | Angika, Bajjika, Khortha, Surjapuri, Tharu, Pali |
| West & South | Tulu, Kodava, Bhili, Saurashtra, Badaga, Toda |
| Tribal & Adivasi | Gondi, Kurukh, Mundari, Ho, Kharia, Sauria Paharia, Ao Naga, Angami, Nyishi, Adi, Apatani |
| North-East | Mizo, Khasi, Kokborok, Garo, Dimasa, Karbi, Hmar |
| Himalayan | Ladakhi, Lepcha, Sikkimese, Balti, Torwali, Kashmiri Pahari |
| Historic scripts | Kaithi 𑂍𑂶𑂘𑂲 (older Bhojpuri/Magahi/Maithili) · Tirhuta 𑒞𑒱𑒩𑒯𑒳𑒞𑒰 (older Maithili) — AI transliterates to Devanagari then translates |
A vocabulary-based heuristic distinguishes Bhojpuri/Awadhi/Magahi/Maithili/Marathi from standard Hindi at detection time, since all five share the Devanagari script.
- No analytics. No tracking. No GovLens server exists.
- Form drafts stay in your browser.
- Your API key (if you add one) stays in your browser.
- Translation runs on-device by default.
- The only outbound calls are to
translate.googleapis.com(free fallback) orapi.anthropic.com(only if you added a key, only when you click Translate).
Full disclosure: PRIVACY.md · Privacy policy on the site
GovLens/
├── govlens-extension/ The Chrome extension (MV3)
│ ├── manifest.json
│ ├── sidepanel.{html,css,js} Main UI — three pillars + score
│ ├── content.js In-page work — jargon, forms, jumps
│ ├── background.js Service worker — badge + side panel
│ ├── regions.js Gov-domain detection (25+ countries)
│ ├── jargon.js Per-region acronym dictionaries
│ ├── langpicker.js Searchable language combobox
│ ├── scoring.js 8-axis page-grade analyser
│ ├── overlay.css Floating toolbar, tooltip, pulse
│ └── icons/
├── site/ GitHub Pages site (auto-deployed)
│ ├── index.html Landing
│ ├── docs.html User guide
│ ├── privacy.html Privacy policy
│ └── styles.css, docs.css, main.js
├── submission/ Web Store upload package
│ ├── govlens-vX.Y.Z.zip
│ ├── store-icon-128.png
│ ├── screenshot-{1,2,3}-*.png
│ ├── promo-tile-440x280.png
│ ├── marquee-1400x560.png
│ └── SUBMISSION.md Field-by-field paste guide
├── .github/
│ ├── workflows/pages.yml Auto-deploy site on push
│ ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/
│ └── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
├── PRIVACY.md Privacy policy (markdown — Web Store URL target)
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
├── SECURITY.md
├── LICENSE
├── USABILITY_ANALYSIS.md UX audit
├── SMOKE_TEST.md Pre-submit manual test plan
├── JOBSEEKER_COMPANION.md Future-feature design doc
└── README.md You are here
- v2.0 — Side panel rebuild, three engines, 25+ countries
- v2.1 — Searchable picker, score history, 100+ languages, audit fixes
- v2.1.2 — Picker overlay portal fix, Framer-style polish
- v2.2 — Real Translator API model-download progress, predicted-engine UX polish
- v2.3 — Job-seeker companion (see JOBSEEKER_COMPANION.md)
- v3.0 — Shadow-DOM translation overlay (no page DOM mutation)
See CHANGELOG.md for shipped versions.
PRs welcome — bug fixes, new languages, new gov-domain TLDs, accessibility improvements. Read CONTRIBUTING.md first.
For the lay of the land:
- USABILITY_ANALYSIS.md — UX audit + prioritised fix backlog
- SMOKE_TEST.md — manual test plan
- submission/SUBMISSION.md — Web Store submission + update workflow
- Inspired by the millions of people who have ever rage-clicked their way through a gov portal.
- Built on Chrome's side panel API and the new built-in AI (Translator + Summarizer).
- Fonts: DM Sans, Space Mono, Noto Sans Devanagari — all open licensed.
- Design language drawn from neobrutalism — sharp corners, hard shadows, bold colour, no apology.
MIT · Use it, fork it, ship it.
GovLens is not affiliated with any government. It is an independent, free, open-source project built to make public-sector portals more accessible.