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NetPin
Documentation

NetPin Developer Docs

Introduction

Welcome to the official documentation for NetPin. NetPin is a highly optimized, fully open-source Chrome extension that reveals the physical server location and infrastructure details of any website you visit.

By empowering users with data transparency, NetPin forces hosting providers and large tech corporations to be accountable for where data is being routed and stored globally.

Installation (Developer Mode)

Since NetPin is actively in development and currently bypassing the Chrome Web Store for faster iterations, you will need to manually install it via Developer Mode.

Step 1: Download the Source

First, clone the NetPin repository to your local machine using git:

git clone https://github.com/01iamysf/NetPin.git

Step 2: Load into Chrome

  1. Open Google Chrome or any Chromium-based browser (Edge, Brave, Arc).
  2. Navigate to chrome://extensions in your URL bar.
  3. In the top right corner, toggle Developer mode to ON.
  4. Click the Load unpacked button that appears in the top left.
  5. Select the NetPin directory you cloned in Step 1.

The extension should now appear in your browser's toolbar. Pin it for quick access!

Architecture

NetPin is built using the latest Manifest V3 specifications for Chrome Extensions to guarantee maximum performance and security.

Background Service Worker

The core of NetPin runs inside a non-persistent background Service Worker. It utilizes the chrome.webRequest API to passively observe the network requests a website makes. When a new top-level navigation occurs, it resolves the IP address of the destination server.

IP Geolocation APIs

Once the IP is retrieved, NetPin queries our decentralized nodes to map the IP address to a physical geolocation, ISP, and sustainability score. These queries are proxied to ensure that your originating IP address is never exposed to the endpoint.

Data Privacy

We believe in absolute data sovereignty. NetPin is designed with a strict "Local-First" architecture.

  • No Tracking: We do not use Google Analytics or any third-party telemetry scripts.
  • No Central Database: Your queries are processed on-the-fly and immediately discarded. We have no user accounts and no logs.
  • Open Source Auditability: Our codebase is public. You do not need to trust us; you can compile the extension yourself.

Contributing

We are actively looking for contributors! If you want to help us democratize the web, you can pick up an issue from our GitHub repository.

# Create a new branch git checkout -b feature/your-amazing-idea # Commit your changes git commit -m "feat: implement amazing idea" # Push to the branch git push origin feature/your-amazing-idea

Once pushed, open a Pull Request and our maintainers will review it within 48 hours.