Thunderbird Ollama Translator

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A Thunderbird addon that translates emails using local Ollama - Complete privacy, no data sent online EVER.

✨ Features

• 🏠 100% Local - No data sent online, EVER
• 🌍 10 Languages - Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
• 🖱️ Context Menu - Right-click to translate to any language
• ⚡ Fast - Uses translategemma model (3GB, optimized for translations)
• 🔒 Absolute Privacy - Everything processed locally, zero tracking
• 🌐 Multilingual interface - The addon is available in 7 languages: 🇮🇹 Italian, 🇬🇧 English, 🇩🇪 German, 🇫🇷 French, 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇵🇹 Portuguese, 🇷🇺 Russian (automatically adapts to Thunderbird's language)

📋 Requirements

1. Ollama installed on your PC

   • Download from: https://ollama.ai

2. An Ollama model downloaded

   • Recommended: ollama pull translategemma (3GB, optimized)
   • Alternatives: llama3.2, mistral

3. Thunderbird 128 or later (ESR and non-ESR)

⚠️ Important note: Before using the addon, you'll need to configure OLLAMA_ORIGINS (see "Initial Configuration" section below).

📦 Installation

Method 1: XPI File (Recommended)

1. Download the thunderbird-ollama-translator.xpi file
2. Open Thunderbird
3. Go to Menu > Tools > Add-ons
4. Click the gear icon ⚙️ in the top right
5. Select "Install Add-on from file..."
6. Select the .xpi file
7. Confirm installation

Method 2: From Folder (Development)

1. Extract files to a folder
2. Open Thunderbird
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+A (or from Menu > Tools > Add-ons)
4. Click the gear icon ⚙️
5. Select "Debug Add-ons"
6. Click "Load Temporary Add-on..."
7. Select the manifest.json file from the folder

⚙️ Initial Configuration

1. Open addon settings

• Menu > Tools > Add-ons > "Ollama Translator" > Preferences

2. REQUIRED Configuration: OLLAMA_ORIGINS

Why is it needed? For security reasons, Ollama blocks requests from browser extensions. You must explicitly authorize Thunderbird.

Recommended value (more secure):

OLLAMA_ORIGINS=moz-extension://*

Allows only Firefox/Thunderbird extensions to access Ollama. Blocks all external websites.

How to configure:

Windows (CMD):

setx OLLAMA_ORIGINS "moz-extension://*"

Then close and reopen the terminal and start Ollama:

ollama serve

Linux (permanent):

echo 'export OLLAMA_ORIGINS="moz-extension://*"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
ollama serve

macOS (permanent):

echo 'export OLLAMA_ORIGINS="moz-extension://*"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
ollama serve

Alternative option (if you also need local apps):

OLLAMA_ORIGINS=moz-extension://*,http://localhost:11434

3. Configure addon

• Target language: Italian, English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
• Ollama URL: http://localhost:11434 (default)
• Test connection: Click to verify that Ollama is reachable
• Model: Select translategemma (recommended) or another installed model

4. Save

• Click "Save"

🎯 How to Use

Context Menu (Recommended)

1. Open an email you want to translate
2. Right-click on the email body
3. Select "Translate with Ollama ▶" and choose the language
   • The selected language will appear in bold
   • This choice becomes the default
4. Wait for the message "Translation completed"

Show Original

• After translation, right-click on the text
• Select "Show Original" to restore the original text

🔒 Security

✅ What is Secure

• No data sent online EVER - Everything is processed locally by Ollama
• Local connection - Communicates only with localhost:11434
• No tracking - No statistics, tracking, or remote logs
• No API key - No API key or registration required
• Open Source - Fully inspectable code

🔐 Required Permissions

The addon requires only these Thunderbird permissions:

• messagesRead - Reads email content
• messagesModify - Replaces text with translation
• menus - Adds context menu
• storage - Saves settings
• tabs - Injects script into email
• http://localhost/* - To communicate with local Ollama

No access to external services

No access to:

• ❌ Address book, calendar, chat
• ❌ Account credentials
• ❌ Thunderbird database
• ❌ File system (except localhost for Ollama)

🚨 Troubleshooting

"Error: Ollama error: 403 Forbidden" ⚠️

CAUSE: Ollama blocks requests from browser extensions for security reasons.

COMPLETE SOLUTION:

1. Stop Ollama if it's running (Ctrl+C in the terminal where ollama serve is running)

2. Configure the environment variable (recommended value for security):

   Windows (CMD):

   setx OLLAMA_ORIGINS "moz-extension://*"

   Linux:

   echo 'export OLLAMA_ORIGINS="moz-extension://*"' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc

   macOS:

   echo 'export OLLAMA_ORIGINS="moz-extension://*"' >> ~/.zshrc
   source ~/.zshrc

3. Close and reopen the terminal, then start Ollama:

   ollama serve

4. Verify the configuration:

   • Open Thunderbird
   • Go to addon settings
   • Click "Test connection"
   • Should show "Connection successful: X models available"

Note: moz-extension://* allows only Firefox/Thunderbird extensions to access Ollama, blocking external websites (more secure).

📜 Changelog

v1.5.0

• Deterministic tab/preview routing — translating from a separate email tab no longer interferes with the preview pane (and vice versa)
• Context menu now appears only in the email body (not in folder pane or message list)
• Programmatic messageDisplayScripts registration for broad Thunderbird compatibility (128 ESR to 147+)

v1.0.0

• Initial release with Ollama-only local translation

📝 License

MIT License - Free to use, modify and distribute.

🤝 Support

If you have problems:

1. Open the console (Ctrl+Shift+I in a Thunderbird tab)
2. Right-click on the email > Translate to Italian
3. Look for blue messages [Translator] in the console
4. Copy error messages and share them

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Happy translating! 🎉