The Reality Button

A Chrome extension that lets you select any online claim and instantly receive a grounded credibility assessment.

What it does

The Reality Button analyzes text (headlines, social posts, claims) and returns:

• Verdict (true / false / misleading / mixed / unclear)
• Confidence score
• Concise explanation
• Supporting sources

Why I built this

Misinformation spreads faster than verification. Most people don’t fact-check because it’s too slow and inconvenient.

This project reduces that friction to one click.

---

How it works

Frontend

• Chrome extension with a popup UI and user-initiated right-click action
• Users can paste a claim or verify selected webpage text without broad page access

Backend

• Node.js server deployed on Google Cloud Run

AI + Retrieval

• Supports Gemini 3.6 Flash (recommended default), Gemini 3.5 Flash, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
• Enables live Google Search grounding for current information and supporting sources
• Parses output into structured format

Architecture Chrome Extension → Cloud Run API → Gemini (with search grounding) → Structured response

---

Key design decisions

1. Grounded AI (not just LLM output)

The system uses live search instead of relying on model memory, which is critical for:

• current events
• political claims
• fast-changing information

2. BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

Users provide their own Gemini API key:

• avoids centralizing user credentials and usage costs
• lets users retain control of their own quota and billing settings
• mirrors real-world API-enabled products

3. Robust parsing over strict JSON generation

Instead of forcing fragile JSON from the model:

• the system uses structured text
• parses deterministically on the backend
• improves reliability

---

Example

Input "Vaccines cause autism"

Output

• Verdict: FALSE
• Confidence: 95%
• Explanation + sources (CDC, WHO)

---

How to run locally

1. Backend

cd Server
npm install
node server.js

2. Chrome extension

Go to chrome://extensions Enable Developer Mode Click "Load unpacked" Select project folder

---

Setup

In the extension:

• Follow the guided setup to create and add a Gemini API key
• Review and accept the data-use disclosure
• Choose a supported Gemini model in Settings

---

Status

Public-release candidate with guided onboarding, grounded verification, minimized Chrome permissions, and documented privacy practices.

---

Privacy

Read the Privacy Policy for details about claim processing, API-key handling, retention, and user controls.

Future improvements

• Better confidence calibration
• Claim clustering and repeated-claim detection
• Caching to reduce API calls
• Source-to-claim citation mapping