Frequently Asked Questions About Celerity Extension

Answers to common questions about using, configuring, and troubleshooting the Celerity new tab Chrome extension, including shortcuts, themes, and storage.

Celerity aims to stay out of your way, but occasionally a setting, behavior, or edge case needs a bit more explanation. Browse the questions below — if you do not find your answer here, use the feedback form (flask icon, top-right corner) to get in touch.

Why isn't Celerity appearing on my new tab?

A few things can prevent Celerity from taking over the new tab page:

• Extension disabled. Go to chrome://extensions and confirm that the Celerity toggle is on.
• Conflict with another extension. Only one extension can control the new tab page at a time. Disable any other new-tab extensions — such as custom dashboards or speed-dial tools — and reload Chrome.
• Stale Chrome session. Close and reopen Chrome entirely. A full restart clears cached page assignments that can persist after toggling extensions.

How do I open a site if the search bar doesn't activate?

The search bar will not open in two situations:

• A modal or prompt is already open. Celerity deliberately stands down while the Settings, Help, Feedback, or confirmation prompt is visible, so your keystrokes do not interfere with those forms. Close any open modal first, then press any character key to activate search.
• A form field has focus. If the cursor is inside an input or textarea on the page, Celerity will not intercept your typing. Click away from the field to return focus to the page, then start typing.

Can I use Celerity in Incognito mode?

Chrome disables all extensions in Incognito by default. To enable Celerity there:

1. Go to chrome://extensions.
2. Find Celerity and click Details.
3. Toggle Allow in Incognito on.

Note that Celerity stores shortcuts in localStorage, which is separate per profile and per browsing mode, so your shortcuts in Incognito will start fresh unless you import a config file.

Where are my shortcuts stored? Are they synced?

Celerity stores your shortcuts locally in the browser’s localStorage under the key commands. Your selected theme is stored under selectedTheme. There is no server-side storage and no cloud sync — your configuration lives entirely on the device and browser profile where you set it up.

To move your configuration to another device or profile, use Export to download a JSON file and Import to load it on the other end. Find both options in Settings (gear icon) under the Config section.

How do I add a shortcut that searches within a site?

Site search relies on a searchTemplate — a URL path with {} as a placeholder for your query. The built-in shortcuts for Gmail (g), YouTube (y), GitHub (gh), and others already include search templates, so you can type y cats or gh react immediately.

To add a search template to a custom shortcut:

1. Open Settings and click Export to download your current config as a JSON file.
2. Open the file in a text editor and locate your shortcut entry.
3. Add a searchTemplate property. For a site whose search URL is https://example.com/search?q=my+query, the template would be "/search?q={}".
4. Save the file and click Import in Settings to load it back in.

Example JSON entry:

"ex": {
  "name": "Example",
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "searchTemplate": "/search?q={}"
}

I deleted all my shortcuts by accident. How do I restore the defaults?

Open Settings (gear icon), scroll to the Config section, and click Reset to Default. After confirming the prompt, Celerity restores all 12 built-in shortcuts — Gmail, YouTube, Netflix, ChatGPT, GitHub, Reddit, WhatsApp, Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Amazon — and resets the theme to system default.

Reset to Default replaces your entire shortcut list. Export your config first if you want to preserve any custom shortcuts you have added.

What does the Void theme look like?

Void is Celerity’s darkest theme — it uses a deep black background designed for distraction-free, low-light use. Unlike the standard Dark theme, which uses dark greys, Void removes almost all background brightness for a minimal, high-contrast look.

Switch to it by opening Settings (gear icon), finding the Theme dropdown, and selecting Void.

Can I have more than one shortcut key pointing to the same site?

Yes. Shortcut keys are just map keys — nothing stops two entries from sharing the same URL. Add a second shortcut with a different key but the same URL. For example, you can have both y and yt pointing to https://youtube.com/. Both will open YouTube, and both will support site search if you include the same searchTemplate in each entry.

What happens if I type a shortcut key that I haven't set up?

Celerity falls back gracefully. If your input does not match a configured shortcut key and is not a URL, Celerity sends your full input to Google Search. No key is reserved — an unrecognized key simply becomes a search query, so you will never get stuck or see an error.

How do I submit feedback or report a bug?

Click the flask icon in the top-right corner of any new tab page to open the feedback form. From there you can:

• Select a feedback type: Bug Report, Feature Request, Suggestion, or Other.
• Write your message.
• Optionally add a contact email if you would like a reply.
• Pick an emotion icon to share how you are feeling about the extension.

Submissions are sent directly to the Celerity developer via email. If the form fails to send, the error message will display a direct email address you can use instead.