The life of a software engineer is often a battle against friction. We build complex systems, and much of our tooling is designed to manage that complexity. But sometimes, the most persistent friction comes not from large architectural challenges, but from small, repetitive "papercut" tasks that accumulate over time.
For me, one such task was handling Bearer tokens.
My daily workflow, like that of many developers working on modern web applications, involves interacting with authenticated APIs. This requires a token, which is typically obtained by logging into the application. The subsequent cycle is familiar to many:
- Log in to the web application.
- Open the browser's developer tools.
- Navigate to the "Network" tab.
- Trigger an API request.
- Find the relevant request in the list.
- Click to view its headers.
- Locate the
Authorizationheader. - Carefully select and copy the Bearer token string.
- Paste the token into an API client like Postman or a terminal for a
curlcommand.
Individually, this sequence takes perhaps 15-30 seconds. But when repeated dozens of times a day, it becomes a noticeable drag on productivity and, more importantly, on focus. It's a classic context-switching problem disguised as a trivial task.
Design Goals for a Solution
I decided to build a tool to solve this. Before writing any code, I established a few core design principles, as the goal was not to build a feature-rich product but to create a sharp, effective tool that would seamlessly integrate into my existing workflow.
-
Do One Thing Well. The tool should only concern itself with Bearer tokens. It would not handle other authentication schemes, manage multiple tokens, or offer complex configuration. Its sole purpose would be to capture and provide the most recent Bearer token.
-
Zero Configuration. The tool must be useful the moment it is installed. Any requirement for setup, even a single options page, would introduce friction and violate the core purpose of the tool.
-
Minimal Interface. The user interface should be almost non-existent. The ideal interaction is to get the token with the fewest clicks possible. The value is in the clipboard, not in the extension itself.
-
Passive and Performant. The tool must not interfere with the browser's performance or the user's workflow. It should passively inspect network traffic in the background without any noticeable overhead.
Implementation: Ignauth
The result is Ignauth, a simple Chrome extension built on these principles.
It uses the chrome.webRequest API to observe the headers of outgoing requests. It specifically looks for the Authorization header and, if the value matches the Bearer <token> pattern, it stores the token in its local storage.
The extension's browser action (the icon in the toolbar) serves as the entire UI. When clicked, it copies the most recently captured token directly to the clipboard. That's it. There are no other buttons or options.
The workflow is now reduced to:
- Log in to the web application.
- Click the Ignauth icon.
- Paste the token.
Conclusion
Ignauth is a deliberately simple tool, born from a desire to solve a personal, recurring annoyance. It is a testament to the idea that sometimes the most impactful developer tools are not the largest, but the ones that are most focused on removing a single point of friction.
By automating this one small task, it helps preserve the most valuable resource a developer has: their focus.
Ignauth is available on the Chrome Web Store.