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Extension Issues

Extension Issues

Section titled “Extension Issues”

This page covers problems specific to the Overwatch Chrome extension, including installation, platform detection, alert extraction, and connectivity with the Helper CLI.

Extension Not Appearing

Section titled “Extension Not Appearing”

Problem: After installation, the Overwatch extension icon does not appear in the Chrome toolbar.

Cause: Chrome hides newly installed extensions behind the puzzle-piece icon by default. The extension may also have failed to install or may be disabled.

Solution:

  1. Click the puzzle-piece icon (Extensions menu) in the Chrome toolbar and look for Overwatch Companion
  2. Click the pin icon next to the extension name to keep it visible in the toolbar
  3. If the extension is not listed, go to chrome://extensions and verify it is installed and enabled
  4. If installation failed, remove any existing version and reinstall from the Chrome Web Store
  5. Restart Chrome after installation if the extension still does not appear

Tip: After a Chrome update, extensions occasionally get disabled. Check chrome://extensions if the icon disappears unexpectedly.

Side Panel Not Opening

Section titled “Side Panel Not Opening”

Problem: Pressing the keyboard shortcut does not open the Overwatch side panel.

Cause: Another extension or Chrome itself may have claimed the same keyboard shortcut, or the extension does not have permission to run on the current page.

Solution:

  1. Check for keyboard shortcut conflicts: go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts and verify the Overwatch shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+I / Cmd+Shift+I) is not assigned to another extension
  2. If there is a conflict, reassign the Overwatch shortcut to a different key combination
  3. As an alternative, right-click the Overwatch extension icon and select Open Side Panel
  4. Verify the extension has permission to access the current site: click the extension icon and check for a “Allow on this site” prompt

Note: The default shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I / Cmd+Shift+I may conflict with Chrome DevTools on some systems. Reassign it at chrome://extensions/shortcuts if needed.

Monitoring Platform Not Detected

Section titled “Monitoring Platform Not Detected”

Problem: The extension does not recognize that you are on a supported monitoring platform.

Cause: The extension matches URLs against a list of supported platform patterns. If the URL does not match (e.g., a custom domain, a self-hosted instance, or a subdomain not in the list), detection will not trigger.

Solution:

  1. Confirm your monitoring platform is supported: Datadog, Grafana (Cloud and self-hosted at grafana.net), New Relic, PagerDuty, Prometheus, SigNoz, Elasticsearch, AWS CloudWatch
  2. Refresh the page --- the content script only injects on initial page load
  3. If you use a custom domain for a self-hosted platform (e.g., grafana.yourcompany.com), open the extension options and add the custom domain to the Allowed Sites list
  4. After adding a custom domain, reload the monitoring page

Alert Context Not Injected

Section titled “Alert Context Not Injected”

Problem: The extension detects the platform but does not extract alert data into the AI chat.

Cause: The extension uses DOM selectors and network interception to extract alert context. If the monitoring platform updated its UI layout or API response format, the extraction scripts may no longer match the expected structure.

Solution:

  1. Refresh the monitoring page and wait for it to fully load before opening the side panel
  2. Make sure the page is displaying an active alert or incident --- the extension only extracts context when alert data is visible
  3. Check the extension popup for an “Alert detected” indicator --- if it shows no alert detected, the DOM selectors may need updating
  4. Report the issue to support@overwatch-observability.com with the platform name and a screenshot of the alert page (with sensitive data redacted)

Note: Monitoring platforms occasionally update their UI. If extraction worked previously and stopped, it is likely a platform UI change rather than an Overwatch bug. Report it so the content scripts can be updated.

Login Expired in Extension

Section titled “Login Expired in Extension”

Problem: The extension shows a login prompt or “Session expired” message even though you are logged in to the dashboard.

Cause: The extension maintains its own authentication session. JWT tokens expire after a set period, and the extension session can expire independently of the dashboard session.

Solution:

  1. Click the extension icon in the toolbar and select Sign In
  2. Enter your Overwatch credentials --- the extension will obtain a fresh JWT token
  3. If sign-in fails, log in to the Overwatch dashboard first, then retry the extension login
  4. Clear the extension’s stored data if the issue persists: go to chrome://extensions, find Overwatch Companion, click Details > Clear Data, and sign in again

Network Errors in Extension

Section titled “Network Errors in Extension”

Problem: The extension shows network errors, failed requests, or cannot reach the Overwatch API.

Cause: The extension may be configured with the wrong API URL, CORS policies may block requests from the extension origin, or a browser extension (ad blocker, privacy tool) may be interfering.

Solution:

  1. Open the extension options (right-click extension icon, then Options) and verify the API URL is correct
  2. Check that the API URL uses HTTPS and does not have a trailing slash
  3. Disable other browser extensions temporarily to rule out interference --- ad blockers and privacy extensions sometimes block API requests made by other extensions
  4. Open Chrome DevTools (F12 > Network) while using the extension and look for blocked or failed requests
  5. If you see CORS errors, the Overwatch backend may need to add the extension’s origin to its allowed origins list --- contact your administrator

Helper CLI Not Detected

Section titled “Helper CLI Not Detected”

Problem: The extension does not show the Helper CLI as connected, even though the binary is running.

Cause: The extension communicates with the Helper CLI over a local connection. If the Helper binary is not running, the session token does not match, or the local port is blocked, the extension cannot detect it.

Solution:

  1. Confirm the Helper binary is running: look for it in your system tray, or run ps aux | grep overwatch-helper in a terminal
  2. Restart the Helper binary --- it re-registers with the extension on startup
  3. Verify the session token matches: the Helper uses the same authentication session as the extension. If you re-authenticated in the extension, restart the Helper so it picks up the new token
  4. Check that no firewall or security software is blocking localhost connections on the Helper’s port
  5. If the issue persists, download a fresh Helper binary from Settings > Helper CLI in the dashboard

Tip: The Helper CLI status indicator in the extension side panel shows “Connected” (green), “Disconnected” (gray), or “Error” (red). Hover over it for a diagnostic message.

Still Stuck?

Section titled “Still Stuck?”