I used Claude Code to build the browser feature I've been wanting for years

Published Nov 14, 2026, 7:30 AM EST Mahnoor Faisal is a tech journalist covering AI and productivity tools with bylines at XDA, SlashGear, MakeUseOf, Laptop Mag, and Android Police. She's been writing professionally since she was sixteen, and has since penned hundreds of articles. This includes in-depth coverage of AI tools like NotebookLM to breaking news across the AI space. Her passion for technology started when she received her first iPod Touch (4th generation) on her 8th birthday, and she's been deep in the tech world ever since. Currently pursuing a degree in computer science, Mahnoor brings both a journalist's eye and a technical foundation to her coverage of how AI is reshaping the way we work and learn. I'm always switching between browsers, and if there's one thing I've learned from trying so many of them, it's that browsers are certainly not one-size-fits-all. It's practically impossible to find a browser that has every single feature you want. One might have the perfect interface but lack a feature you rely on, while another might have that exact feature but fall short in other areas. That is, unless you're the developer of the browser or you commit to building one yourself. While AI-assisted coding tools have made it possible for even non-technical people to do the latter, building an entire browser just to get a few features you want seems a little excessive. So, I figured I'd try something a little less ambitious. Instead of building a browser from scratch or constantly switching between existing ones, I decided to use Claude Code to bring one of my favorite features from another browser to the one I use every day. Zen's Glance feature is simply too good to leave behind The one feature that made moving on difficult Credit: Zen is easily one of my favorite browsers, thanks to its minimalist interface, excellent tab management, and privacy-focused approach. However, it isn't without its shortcomings, including some performance issues, a lack of support for DRM-protected streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, and high RAM usage. So, while there's plenty to love about Zen, I recently made the very tough decision to move on from it. Though I've managed to adjust to the using a different browser, there's one feature I haven't been able to let go of: Glance. This feature lets you do exactly what its name suggests: take a quick glance at a webpage without having to open it into a new tab. All you need to do is hold down the Alt/Option key and click a link. The page will then open up in a floating preview window over your current tab. As a journalist, my research process involves opening an absurd amount of tabs. More often than not, I open those tabs to quickly verify something, and a few seconds later, I realize I don't actually need them anymore. Yet, instead of closing them right away, I leave them open until my tab bar becomes an absolute mess. Sometimes, I'm simply trying to check whether a page even contains the information I'm looking for, only to realize it doesn't and move on to the next one. That's exactly why Glance is so useful. It lets me quickly preview a page without adding yet another tab to the pile. Claude Code turned Glance into a Chrome extension in 20 minutes Why switch browsers when you can recreate the best bits? Well, turns out all I needed to do was give Claude Code a prompt, sit back, and wait for it to work its magic. Around 20 minutes later, I had a working Chrome extension that brought one of my favorite Zen features to Chrome. I intentionally asked Claude Code to package the feature as a Chrome extension because I use several Chromium-based browsers, and I wanted something I could easily install across all of them rather than building a separate version for each browser. I used Opus 5.5 for this, set it to Auto mode, so I wouldn't have to constantly grant it permissions, and sent it a detailed prompt. I included an explanation of how Zen's Glance feature works and asked Claude Code to recreate the experience as closely as possible. I also outlined a few features I wanted, including resizable and draggable preview windows, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to expand a preview into a regular tab. Since some websites block embedded content, I made sure to ask Claude Code to account for those limitations and come up with a workaround wherever possible. Since I'm traveling right now, I decided to use Claude Code on the web rather than running it through my terminal like I usually do. This way, it could keep working in the cloud even when my laptop was closed, and I could get on with exploring the city while Claude Code worked on the extension. The final result had no business being this good Not bad for 20 minutes of work Once Claude Code was done building the extension, all I needed to do on my end was download the files, unzip the folder, and head to chrome://extensions. Here, I toggled on Developer Mode in the top-right corner, clicked Load unpacked, and selected the extracted folder containing the extension. Just like that, my very own version of Glance was installed and ready to use in Chrome. As soon as I installed it, the extension automatically opened a settings page, and I was immediately surprised by just how many customization options Claude Code had included. I could change the keyboard shortcut used to trigger a preview, adjust the preview window's size and appearance, and even choose whether clicking outside the window would close it. There was also an option to remember the window's last position and size, along with a fallback for websites that don't allow embedded previews. I then headed to Google, searched for XDA, held down the Option key on my keyboard, and clicked the first result. Voila! XDA opened in a floating preview window right on top of my Google search results, without opening a new tab or navigating away from the page I was on. It worked exactly as I'd hoped! I tried it with links within articles, too, and it worked perfectly fine. The preview window also had all the options I needed, including the ability to copy a link to my clipboard or open the page in a new tab if I wanted to explore it further. This is why I've fallen in love with vibe coding There are a lot of negative things to be said about vibe coding. It's coming under fire for everything from security vulnerabilities and poorly written code to making it easier than ever to flood the internet with low-quality software. While these concerns are valid, the biggest appeal of vibe coding to me will always be the freedom to build exactly what I want without having to wait for developers to add a feature or settle for an app that only ticks some of my boxes.