How Polaris actually works — no marketing fluff.
Do I need Claude or ChatGPT open to search my conversations?
No. Once Polaris has indexed your conversations (by visiting those platforms with a tab open), the data lives locally in your browser. You can search anytime — with all AI tabs closed, even with no internet connection.
I just installed Polaris. Why isn't anything showing up?
Your index starts empty. Visit each AI platform once — open Claude.ai, ChatGPT, or Gemini in a tab — and Polaris will capture your existing conversation list. After that first visit, everything you've had open is searchable.
What if I start a new conversation — will Polaris see it?
Yes, the next time you open that platform's tab. Polaris syncs whenever the page is open, not continuously in the background. The popup shows a "last synced" timestamp per platform so you can see exactly how fresh your index is.
What exactly does Polaris store?
Only conversation titles and dates — not the messages inside. It reads the list shown in each platform's sidebar. Nothing is sent anywhere; everything is stored in your browser's local database (IndexedDB).
Why can't Polaris index in the background automatically?
Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini don't have public APIs for fetching conversation history. Polaris has to read the page directly, which means the tab needs to be open. It's a limitation of how browser extensions work — and the same reason your data never leaves your device.
Does Gemini/ChatGPT already have built-in search? Why do I need Polaris?
They do — each platform searches its own conversations. Polaris searches all three at once. When you can't remember whether you had that conversation on Claude or ChatGPT, Polaris finds it in one search.