The desktop app and Chrome extension

GPTree has two companions to the web app, and they point in opposite directions. The Chrome extension moves conversations out of ChatGPT and into GPTree. The desktop app moves context about your real work into GPTree. Neither is required, and each exists for one specific job.

The extension: a Branch button inside ChatGPT

On the Chrome Web Store it's listed as "GPTree - Branch, Compare, Merge", and it does exactly one thing: it adds a "Branch in GPTree" button right inside ChatGPT. One click imports the conversation into GPTree, where you can branch it. Sign in with Google is what connects the extension to your account.

The scenario it was built for: you're 30 messages into a ChatGPT thread and you hit a fork. Two directions worth trying, and linear chat forces you to pick one and abandon the other. Click the button, the thread lands in GPTree, and you branch from whichever point you like. Once imported, it's a normal GPTree conversation, so everything else (compare, merge, projects) applies to it too.

It's Chrome only (it lives on the Chrome Web Store), and the button lives inside ChatGPT. Narrow on purpose.

The desktop app and Watching

The desktop app is a native shell around GPTree, and its reason to exist is Watching: opt-in context capture. There's a "Start watching" control in the header. Turn it on and GPTree keeps a running sense of what you're working on, then uses that as context in your conversations, so they stop starting from zero about what you've been doing all morning.

Consent is the switch itself. Nothing is captured until you turn Watching on, and while it runs a live indicator reads "Watching - N captured this session", so you always know it's active and roughly how much it has picked up. "Stop watching" sits in the same header spot. Private windows are never captured, and the capture engine is local (the app labels it that way right in the UI).

One macOS setup step: Watching needs the Accessibility permission before it can capture anything. You'll grant it under System Settings, in Privacy.

And the limitation, stated plainly: Watching is desktop only. There's no version of it in the web app or on your phone, so if context capture is the draw, the download is the price.

Which to install first

If your history lives in ChatGPT, start with the extension. Importing a real thread you actually care about is the fastest way to feel what branching adds, much faster than starting cold with a toy prompt.

If GPTree is already your main tool and you're tired of re-explaining your work to it every session, the desktop app is the one. Turn Watching on when you sit down, watch the capture counter tick, and let your conversations arrive already oriented.

Phones are a separate story: the mobile app is the real GPTree in a native shell, with native login and push notifications, not a cut-down remake. But between these two, pick by where your problem is. Stranded ChatGPT threads mean the extension; a context-blind assistant means the desktop app.