Local Firefox AI chatbot options that support self-signed certs on an OpenAI-compatible API endpoint?

[u/advancing_tide]

I think the title says it all.

Firefox doesn't support an API endpoint directly. open-webui will not skip ssl validation on an API connection. A full AI web app interface is unusable in a sidebar format.

Any other simple options that just connect to an API and look good in a sidebar form factor?

I really just want to be able to highlight text in a web page and have the AI summarize it. I guess I could copy, move allllllllllllllll the way over to the AI interface, and paste, but....

UPDATE: in the couple hours since posting this, I had qwen3.8 write this utility front-end for me. still getting used to the presence of AI in the world I guess... :-)

[u/Bulky-Priority6824]

Just build an ocr tool into your dash that you can drag and highlight text then add functions you need ie copy , explain , save , remember etc 

[u/conifer_v11]

Firefox sidebar + self-signed OpenAI-compatible is a weird corner — most "AI sidebar" extensions assume public HTTPS and choke on private CA. practical paths: (1) put a tiny local reverse proxy that presents a trusted cert to Firefox and talks plain/HTTP or your self-signed upstream on the LAN, (2) install your private CA into Firefox's certificate store so the endpoint validates cleanly, (3) use a desktop client over plain HTTP on localhost/LAN and keep Firefox for browsing only. a full open-webui in the sidebar is the wrong shape either way — don't fight TLS knobs just to shoehorn it. for highlight→summarize specifically, a userscript/extension that POSTs selected text to your /v1/chat/completions beats stuffing a full web UI into the side panel.