ChemPal Documentation - v0.0.13-beta.5

Note

WORK IN PROGRESS - Plenty of bugs exist and were working on them as time permits.

Open source project aimed at helping amateur chemistry hobbyists find the best deals on chemical reagents. There are plenty of similar services out there for businesses, universities and research institutions, but none are available for individuals and hobbyists. ChemPal only searches suppliers that sell to individuals and ship to residences.

Demo

chem-pal example

Installation

This is currently in beta, so its not in the Chrome webstore. But you can get the latest release from the releases page.

Download the .crx asset, then go to your Chrome extensions, and click "Load Packed", then select the .crx file and import it.

Node version

Make sure youre on node v22.15.0 and npm v10.9.2 or higher (use nvm if needed)
Windows NVM: Installer is here (i've never tried it)
OSX: Run brew install nvm, then follow the steps about updating your ~/.bash_profile that it shows you in the output.

After nvm is installed, run:

nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts
node --version # Should output v22.15.0

Install pnpm (package manager)

npm install -g pnpm

Building the extension

For local development — loading as an unpacked extension:

git clone https://github.com/jhyland87/chem-pal.git
cd chem-pal
pnpm run setup
pnpm run build

Then import the build/ folder as an unpacked Chrome extension.

Warning

pnpm run build produces a development build and includes the MSW mock service worker plus source maps. Do not submit the output of pnpm run build to the Chrome Web Store.

For a Chrome Web Store submission bundle, use:

pnpm run build:prod

This runs the production Vite build and packs the extension via tools/pack-extension.js. The resulting artifact is the only build intended for store submission.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
pnpm run setup

# Run unit tests
pnpm run test

# Run the build.
pnpm run build