# Install the IPFS Companion Browser Extension

IPFS Companion allows you to interact with your IPFS node and the extended IPFS network through your browser. The add-on is available for Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and any other Chromium-based web browser.

It enables support for ipfs:// and ipns:// addresses, automatically loads websites and file paths from a local IPFS gateway, allows you to easily import and share a file with IPFS, and more.

# Prerequisites

For its full functionality to be enabled, IPFS Companion requires a local IPFS node. As such, it is recommended that you have an IPFS node installed and running on your computer. Any one of the following will satisfy the requirement:

# Install

The easiest way to install IPFS Companion is through your browser's specific extensions and add-ons store:

Firefox (opens new window) \| Firefox for Android (opens new window)	Chrome (opens new window) \| Brave (opens new window) \| Opera (opens new window) \| Edge (opens new window)
(opens new window)	(opens new window)

# Features

IPFS Companion supercharges your browser for the DWeb with features including the following:

# Detect URLs with IPFS paths

IPFS Companion detects and tests requests for IPFS-like paths, such as /ipfs/{cid} or /ipns/{peerid_or_host-with-dnslink}, on any website. If a path is a valid IPFS address, it is redirected to load from your local gateway, which converts data from one protocol to another. The gateway at localhost will also automatically switch to a subdomain to provide a unique origin for each website. Providing a unique origin accommodates operations that are restricted to content that shares the same protocol, domain, and port, also known as same-origin content (opens new window).

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmbWqxBEKC3P8tqsKc98xmWNzrzDtRLMiMPL8wBuTGsMnR → http://localhost:8080/ipfs/QmbWqxBEKC3P8tqsKc98xmWNzrzDtRLMiMPL8wBuTGsMnR → http://bafybeigdyrzt5sfp7udm7hu76uh7y26nf3efuylqabf3oclgtqy55fbzdi.ipfs.localhost:8080

# Detect DNSLink-enabled URLs

IPFS Companion detects DNSLink info in the DNS records of websites. DNSLink is a simple protocol that links content and serviceability from DNS and leverages the DNS distributed architecture. See Glossary > DNSLink. If a site uses DNSLink, IPFS Companion redirects the HTTP request to your local gateway:

http://docs.ipfs.tech → http://localhost:8080/ipns/docs.ipfs.tech → http://docs.ipfs.tech.ipns.localhost:8080/

# Detect pages with `x-ipfs-path` headers

IPFS Companion also upgrades transport to IPFS if it finds the x-ipfs-path in any HTTP response headers. This acts as a fallback for cases when an IPFS path is not present in the URL.

# Toggle redirects globally or per site

You can disable and re-enable local gateway redirects in several ways:

Suspend redirects globally in IPFS Companion's preferences.
Suspend redirects per site using the toggle under the current tab or in IPFS Companion's preferences.
Add x-ipfs-companion-no-redirect to the URL itself as a hash (example (opens new window)) or query parameter (example (opens new window)).

# Access frequently-used IPFS actions from your browser bar

IPFS Companion enables you to quickly and easily access common actions from your browser bar with just a few clicks:

See how many peers you're connected with a glance at the cube icon in your browser bar.
Check your IPFS API and gateway status by clicking the cube icon to reveal the main menu.
Right-click images and other page assets to easily add them to IPFS, including the option to preserve file names.
Choose the Quick Import/Share... option in the main menu for quick drag-and-drop import from a browser tab.
Pin or unpin IPFS resources directly from the main menu.
Copy shareable public gateway links, IPFS content paths, or CIDs of IPFS resources directly from the main menu.
Launch the IPFS Web UI dashboard (opens new window) from the main menu with a single click.
Toggle gateway redirects or switch all IPFS Companion features on or off quickly and easily from the main menu.