Lightning Autofill Docs

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Settings ​

Subscription ​

  • Activation – If you subscribed to the Plus or Pro plan, you first need to activate your plan to unlock the premium features. To activate, enter the invoice number from our welcome email or Stripe’s order confirmation email in the “invoice number” text field and click the Activate button. After a few seconds, the button should change to “✔ Activated” to confirm that your subscription has been activated successfully.

  • Manage subscription – Once you have an active subscription, you can manage it through Stripe’s customer portal. Click the Manage Subscription button to access this portal where you can:

    • Update your payment method
    • Switch subscription plans
    • Cancel your subscription
    • Change your email address
    • View your invoices

  • Referral code – Share your referral code with friends and colleagues to earn stackable discounts on your subscription. For more information, see our referral program. Click on the referral code or the icon next to it to copy the code to your clipboard.

Operation ​

  • Attributes to remove – Check this box to automatically remove attributes on page load. Enter the attributes as a space-separated list. This is a good way to remove attributes that can be annoying (e.g., autocomplete) or prevent Lightning Autofill from working properly (e.g., readonly). No autofill rules are required for this option to work, but the site you’re on needs to match the active profile’s site filter if one is defined.

  • Autofill active profile only – Check this box to only execute autofill rules in the active profile (the profile you last executed or selected in Options). Uncheck this box if you want all rules from all profiles to be executed if the URL matches the site filter. Note that if you disable this option, every rule should have a site filter or it can lead to unexpected results since overlapping rules can conflict with each other. This option can be overridden with the all parameter in Advanced.

  • Autofill delay – Check this box to add a delay before Lightning Autofill rules are executed. This option should no longer be required starting with Lightning Autofill v6.8.0 since it monitors the web page for dynamically generated fields and autofills them as they are inserted into the document. Note that this setting does not apply to backup rules, which are always executed 250ms after page load. This option can be overridden with the delay parameter in Advanced.

  • Randomize delay – Check this box to add a random offset of between -0.5 and 0.5 seconds to the delay time you set above. This should make Lightning Autofill behave more like a human and hence less likely to be identified as a bot. This option is useful for sites where you have a limited time to do something and they block bots from automating the task using bot detection techniques.

  • Back up text fields – Check this box to automatically save text fields in case the browser crashes. Now you can have the peace of mind that while you’re inputting data into a form, everything you type is backed up in real time. The backup rules are saved to a special profile called “Backup - website domain”. Backup profiles are unique in that they will always be automatically executed without having to set the profile as active. To avoid polluting the profiles list, backup profiles are only displayed on the Options page where you can manage them there. Note that password fields are never backed up for your own protection.

  • Debug mode – Check this box to show debugging messages in the developer tools Console panel. To open the console, press Ctrl + Shift + J. This is useful for troubleshooting if you want to see which rules are executed on a particular web page.

  • Execute in order – Check this box to execute rules in the order in which they appear in the rules table. By default, rules may execute in a different order for maximum performance. Enable this option if you need rules to execute in the exact order shown.

  • Expand variables – Check this box to replace a {…} variable with its output. Variables allow you to resuse boilerplate text across rules, autofill forms with dummy data, and whatever else you can dream up. Available variables:

    • {@variable_name} – This variable outputs the text or JavaScript return value assigned to the variable defined in the Variables tab.
    • {_variable_name} – This variable outputs the scraped text assigned to the variable defined in the SCRAPE action.
    • {field ID} – This variable outputs the value of the referenced Name or Value field. The field ID is displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over the Name or Value field. Note that you can only reference another field within the same profile unless the active profile is “All”; also, you can’t reference a field that is blocked by a site filter. Examples: {n1}, {v2}
    • {<number>++}/{<number>--} or {<number>+<step>}/{<number>-<step>} – The variable containing ++/-- increments/decrements the number by one every time it is autofilled. To specify a custom iteration step, add +/- and the step amount after the number ({10++} is equivalent to {10+1} and {10--} is equivalent to {10-1}).
    • {#} or {#<number>} – This variable outputs a random number. You can specify the number of digits after # ({#1} is equivalent to {#}). Example: to generate a random telephone number, you would enter ({#3}) {#3}-{#4}
    • {#<number>-<number>} – This variable outputs a random number within a range (inclusive). Example: to generate a random number between 1 and 100, you would enter {#1-100}
    • {$} or {$<number>} – This variable outputs a random alphanumeric string. You can specify the number of characters after $ ({$1} is equivalent to {$}). Example: to generate a 16-character alphanumeric string, you would enter {$16}
    • {a} or {a<number>} – This variable outputs a random lowercase alphabetic string (a–z). You can specify the number of characters after a ({a1} is equivalent to {a}). Example: to generate a 10-character lowercase alphabetic string, you would enter {a10}
    • {A} or {A<number>} – This variable outputs a random uppercase alphabetic string (A–Z). You can specify the number of characters after A ({A1} is equivalent to {A}). Example: to generate a 10-character uppercase alphabetic string, you would enter {A10}
    • {%} or {%<number>} – This variable outputs a random hexadecimal string. You can specify the number of characters after % ({%1} is equivalent to {%}). Example: to generate a random CSS hex color value, you would enter {%6}
    • {word1|word2|word3|...} – This variable acts like a text spinner, randomly outputting one word from a list of words that you specify. Example: to output “red”, “green”, or “blue” randomly, you would enter {red|green|blue}
    • {(word1|word2|word3|...)} – This variable is like a text spinner (see above), except every time a word is outputted it is removed from the list (you can call it a shrinking text spinner).
    • {word1,word2,word3,...} – This variable outputs the words in sequential order as listed instead of randomly. When the last word in the list is outputted, it starts from the beginning again. Example: to output “red”, “green”, and “blue” in that order, you would enter {red,green,blue}
    • {(word1,word2,word3,...)} – This variable is like a sequential list (see above), except every time a word is outputted it is removed from the list (you can call it a shrinking sequential list).

    👇 NOTE

    For text spinners and sequential lists, you need to escape the following characters with a backslash (\): , | ( ) { }.

    Variables can be used in the following locations:

    • {field ID} variables can be used in the Name column of all rule types, and in the Value column of all rule types except for JavaScript rules.
    • {@variable_name} and {_variable_name} variables can be used where {field ID} variables are supported, plus in profile/rule site filters and text clips.
    • All other variables can only be used in the Value column of Text, Password, Select, Checkbox/Radio, and action rules.

  • Manual mode – Check this box to trigger Lightning Autofill only when you select a profile to execute under Execute Profile. If you don’t like the idea of Lightning Autofill automatically filling out forms and prefer to manually choose which profile to execute, then this option is for you. This option can be overridden with the forcefill parameter in Advanced. When in manual mode, the Lightning Autofill bolt icon is blue so that you can easily tell which mode you’re in.

    💡 TIP

    Hotkeys go really well with manual mode, so be sure to set them for profiles that you intend to use frequently. You can also set a global hotkey to open the infobar and quickly search for a profile to execute.

  • Overwrite by default – Check this box to set the default form fill method to Overwrite. This option does not apply to backup rules, which always default to Safe mode.

  • Parse labels – Check this box to try and use the form field’s label text for the Name column when generating autofill rules from the infobar. This works on fields with the aria-labelledby attribute or bound to a <label for="..."> element. We recommend enabling this option for Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, but experiment to see whether it works well on all other forms because when enabled, Lightning Autofill can generate overly generic autofill rules, which could lead to unexpected results.

  • Profile expiration – Check this box to automatically delete profiles that have expired. The expiration date needs to be included in the profile name using the syntax “Expires: YYYY-MM-DD” (e.g., My profile [Expires: 2024-08-01]). Every day at midnight, Lightning Autofill will delete all profiles (and associated rules) that have an expiration date equal to or older than the current date.

  • Reveal password – Check this box to enable you to reveal the password in password form fields whenever you click into the field or hover your mouse pointer over it.

  • Site filters – Check this box to automatically add a site filter when generating autofill rules (highly recommended). Given the sample URL https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=autofill#top, here is the site filter that would be defined for each policy:

    • Domain = google.com
    • Domain + Path (default) = google.com/search
    • Domain + Path + Query = google.com/search?hl=en&q=autofill
    • Domain + Path + Query + Hash = google.com/search?hl=en&q=autofill#top

  • Skip hidden fields – Check this box to bypass autofilling fields that are not visible on the screen. This option can be used to avoid fields that are intentionally hidden (e.g., <input name="trap" style="display:none">) to act as a honeypot to detect spambots and render the form submissions invalid. Read this article for more information.

  • Text expansion delimiter – Check this box to enable text expansion. Enter the character you would like to use as the shortcode delimiter, which also acts as the autocompletion trigger if you type the character twice in a row. Any character is accepted, but a symbol or punctuation mark is recommended. For example, if the character is : (the default), then typing :: would display the autocomplete widget and typing :<shortcode>: would expand the shortcode into the full text without showing the autocomplete widget. Shortcodes are defined in the Text Clips tab. Hotkeys are available for the autocomplete widget.

  • Turbo mode – Check this box to boost the autofilling speed for each field, which can add up if the form has a lot of fields. By default, there is a 0–10 millisecond delay after each keyboard event is dispatched to simulate a human filling out a field by hand, but you can bypass this artificial lag by enabling turbo mode. It is disabled by default because there’s a slim chance some forms may not autofill 100% reliably if the autofill operation is too fast.

Interface ​

  • Auto-close infobar – Check this box to automatically close the Lightning Autofill infobar after executing a profile, after generating rules, or after either operation. If you leave this option disabled, the infobar will remain open until you manually close it by clicking the “×” icon, pressing Esc (focus needs to be inside the infobar), reloading the page, or navigating to a new page.

  • Context menu – Check this box to access Lightning Autofill from the right-click context menu. You can choose to group the profiles by category (categories are prefixed before the profile name using the same syntax as text clips), group the profiles by the first character in the profile name (this makes navigating much easier if you have a ton of profiles), or display all profiles as a flat list. If you remove the context menu by disabling this option, you can always access Lightning Autofill by right-clicking on the extension icon (lightning bolt) in the toolbar. Note that context menu items for text fields (“Insert text clip” and “Add rule for this field”) will always be visible.

  • Filter profiles – Check this box to only show profiles in the infobar whose site filter matches the current web page. This option ignores rule-level site filters and performs the match strictly based on the profile-level site filter.

  • Fluid layout – Check this box to resize the rules table and text boxes to fill the viewport (visible window height) to reduce scrolling. Keep this option enabled if you want the controls at the bottom of the page to always be visible without having to scroll down.

  • Hide backup profiles – Check this box to suppress showing backup profiles in the Profiles list. If you have the “Back up text fields” option enabled, your Profiles list can quickly be flooded with backup profiles, so this is a way to keep it clean.

  • Icon badge – Check this box to show the number of rules executed on the extension icon (lightning bolt). If you do not see the lightning bolt icon, then it’s likely hidden away in an extensions submenu. For example, in Chrome try clicking the icon that looks like a puzzle piece; if the lightning bolt icon is there, click the pin icon to ensure Lightning Autofill is always visible on the toolbar.

  • Import/Export text box – Check this box to enable the legacy text box that was used for both the import (as input) and export (as output) operations.

  • Mask passwords – Check this box to blur passwords in the Form Fields table. This is to improve security in case someone is standing behind you or looking over at your screen. The password is revealed when you click into the field.

  • Review changes – Check this box to add an extra step where you can review the imported and/or restored data before clicking Save to confirm the changes. If you leave this option disabled, then Lightning Autofill will automatically save after every import/restore operation, which is a little risky because the incoming data could be corrupt or not what you expected.

  • Sound effects – Check this box to play sound effects after every autofill operation. Keep in mind that Lightning Autofill also works on hidden iframes, so if this option is enabled and on the rare occasion you go to a page that triggers an autofill rule only in the hidden iframe, then you will still hear the sound effect even if nothing is autofilled in the main (parent) document.

    💡 TIP

    You can customize the sound effects by replacing sound.ogg with your own audio file. Refer to this StackOverflow answer to see where the extension files are stored. There are two requirements for the audio file: ❶ it has to be in Ogg Vorbis format, and ❷ it has to be at least 0.4 seconds in length.

  • Theme – Check this box to enable a color scheme for the Options page. A bunch of themes are included, but you can choose your own colors by selecting Custom from the dropdown menu. If this option is disabled, the default theme will be Light or Dark based on your system preference.

  • Tooltips – Check this box to show helpful tooltips when you hover the mouse pointer over buttons and some other GUI controls. Sometimes the tooltips can get in the way of reading what’s on the screen, so if you’re already familiar with the interface, you can disable this option.

Experimental ​

👇 NOTE

The options in this section are considered experimental. They provide a sneak peek of new features, but they may not be in a stable state. Please keep this in mind when enabling these options. Please report any bugs you encounter in the #issues channel on our Discord server.

  • Autofill CAPTCHAs – Check this box to automatically solve CAPTCHA challenges. Currently, only Google’s reCAPTCHAs are supported, but we hope to be able to add other types down the road as they become more reliable. You can test this feature on the sample form, but don’t reload this page too many times or you might be flagged as a bot and get the “automated queries” error message.

    💎 PRO

    This feature is only available to Pro subscribers.

  • Bi-directional cloud sync – Check this box to enable two-way cloud synchronization. With this option enabled, changes that you make in the active Google Sheets spreadsheet are automatically synced to Lightning Autofill. In theory, you could manage all your data in Google Sheets and never have to open the Options page.