Installing the extension

Refresh Pilot installs in a couple of clicks, like any Chrome extension. This page walks you through the normal install, pinning the icon so it's always in reach, and a developer route if you have the source code instead.

Before you start

Refresh Pilot needs Chrome 116 or newer. If you're not sure which version you have, open the ⋮ menu → Help → About Google Chrome — Chrome shows its version and updates itself right there.

Install from the Chrome Web Store

1. Open the Chrome Web Store in a new tab.
2. Search for "Refresh Pilot — Auto Refresh & Page Monitor" and open its listing.
3. Click the blue Add to Chrome button.
4. Chrome asks you to confirm — click Add extension.
5. That's it. The extension is installed and its icon is added to your toolbar (usually tucked away behind the puzzle piece 🧩).

Pin the icon to your toolbar

Chrome hides new extensions behind the puzzle piece. Pinning takes two clicks and means Refresh Pilot is always one click away:

1. Click the puzzle piece 🧩 to the right of the address bar.
2. Find Refresh Pilot in the list and click the pin 📌 next to it.

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Once pinned, the icon lives in your toolbar — and while a page is refreshing it even shows a live countdown badge.

What you'll see after installing

On the very first install, Refresh Pilot opens the web dashboard in a new tab (dashboard.refreshpilot.com) so you land straight in it. It opens in guest mode — the header reads Guest User · Not signed in — and it live-syncs with the extension in this same browser. There's no sign-up form and no account to create: everyday auto-refreshing is FREE forever, and in guest mode nothing is stored in the cloud. (An account is only needed for PRO.)

You can close that tab any time and drive everything from the popup: click the icon and a small popup appears with four tabs (Interval, Timer, Tabs, Monitor) — that popup is your control center, and the popup tour explains every part of it.

For developers: load it unpacked

If you have the Refresh Pilot source code folder instead of the store listing, you can load it directly. The extension is a Manifest V3 extension, currently version 2.1.0.

1. Type chrome://extensions in the address bar and press Enter.
2. Turn on the Developer mode switch in the top-right corner.
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the source folder — the one that contains manifest.json.
5. Refresh Pilot appears in the list. Pin the icon as described above.