How the Gist reader works
Swipe. That is the whole interaction. Click the Gist icon, read the one-slide Gist, swipe if you want more, close when done.
Click the Gist icon on any supported page and the reader opens as an overlay on top of what you are reading. The original page stays underneath — Gist never replaces it and never navigates you away.
The gesture
- Swipe right (or press
→) — next layer. - Swipe left (or press
←) — previous layer. - Esc — close the reader.
The layers progress in a fixed order: Gist → Story → Logic → Counter-argument → Steelman. Stop at any of them.
Opening the overlay
The Gist icon lives in your Chrome toolbar. If it is hidden, click Chrome's puzzle icon, find Gist, and pin it. See Install Gist on Chrome.
On a supported page, clicking opens the overlay and starts processing. On an unsupported page, the extension says so — and offers to send the URL to /try instead.
What the reader does not do
- Does not rewrite the page. Gist is always an overlay, never a replacement.
- Does not decide for you. The original source is one click away at any layer.
- Does not produce one kind of summary. See The layers.
What is next
- The layers — what Gist, Story, Logic, Counter-argument, and Steelman mean.
- Help: No overlay appears — if the reader does not open when you expect it to.