What is Arcweight?
Arcweight is a Chrome extension that adds a Connection Strength rating system to LinkedIn. It lets you classify every connection as Strong, Medium, or Weak, then uses those ratings to help you filter searches, sort results, and find the best path to reach anyone through shared connections.
LinkedIn treats all connections the same. Arcweight gives you a way to distinguish the people you actually know well from the ones you barely remember accepting. That distinction becomes powerful when you need to find the right introduction, filter out noise in search results, or figure out who can get you in touch with a specific person.
Getting Started
Arcweight runs as a Chrome extension on desktop (PC or Mac). There is no mobile version.
Installation
- Install Arcweight from the Chrome Web Store.
- Pin the extension by clicking the puzzle piece icon in Chrome's toolbar and pinning Arcweight. Then click the Arcweight icon and sign in with your Google account.
Download your connections for bulk rating
You can start rating connections one at a time right away, but if you have a large network, the fastest way to get going is to bulk rate your connections. This requires downloading your data archive from LinkedIn — a one-time step:
- Go to LinkedIn Settings → Data Privacy → Download Your Data.
- Select "Download larger data archive" (the default option) and click Request archive.
- LinkedIn will email you when it's ready — this can take anywhere from a few minutes to 24 hours.
Once you have the file, click "Bulk Rate & Invite" in the Arcweight popup and upload it. You'll be able to see all your connections in a sortable table, rate them individually or in bulk, and paste lists of names to match and rate from other sources. See the Bulk Rate & Invite section for full details.
Rating Connections
When you visit a 1st-degree connection's LinkedIn profile, Arcweight shows a badge below their name. Click it to open the rating modal, then choose Strong, Medium, or Weak.
Your rating is saved immediately and will appear everywhere that person shows up across LinkedIn: in search results, on their profile, in your connections list, and in shared connections views.
You can change a rating at any time by clicking the badge again. Ratings are private to you unless you explicitly choose to share them through the invite flow. For full details on how your data is handled, see our Privacy Policy.
Rating connections one by one is useful as you browse LinkedIn, but to rate your network efficiently, use Bulk Rate & Invite — a dedicated page where you can rate from a sortable table or paste a list of names to match and rate in bulk.
The Connection Strength Scale
Arcweight uses a simple three-level scale, represented as a green intensity gradient:
Strong means you know this person well. You could call them, they'd pick up, and they'd take action on your behalf. Dark green.
Medium means you've had real interaction. You could send them a message and expect a response, but the relationship has limits. Medium green.
Weak means the connection is thin. Maybe you met briefly, accepted a request, or have minimal interaction history. Light green.
Unrated means you haven't rated this person yet. Shown as light gray.
Badges on LinkedIn
Once you've rated connections, Arcweight shows color-coded badges in several places across LinkedIn:
Profile pages
On a 1st-degree connection's profile, a badge appears under their name reading "CS: Strong," "CS: Medium," "CS: Weak," or "Rate Connection Strength" if unrated. Click it to set or change the rating.
Search results
When you search for people on LinkedIn, each 1st-degree result shows a small colored badge next to the person's name and degree indicator. This lets you visually scan search results and immediately see who your strong connections are.
Connections page
Your connections list at linkedin.com/mynetwork shows inline badges next to each person's name.
2nd-degree profiles
When you visit a 2nd-degree connection's profile, Arcweight shows an SCI (Shared Connection Index) badge instead of a rating badge. This score tells you how reachable that person is through your mutual connections. See the SCI section for details.
Filtering & Sorting
On any LinkedIn search results page, connections page, or shared connections page, Arcweight injects a branded filter bar near the top of the results.
Filter pills
The filter bar shows four toggles: Strong, Medium, Weak, and Unrated. Click any pill to hide or show connections of that rating. For example, toggling off "Weak" and "Unrated" leaves only people you've rated Strong or Medium.
Sort Results
Click "Sort Results" to reorder the visible search results by Connection Strength. Strongest connections rise to the top. Click again to reverse the order, and again to restore LinkedIn's original order.
On pages with a mix of 1st-degree and 2nd-degree results, sorting groups 1st-degree connections (sorted by CS) above 2nd-degree connections (sorted by SCI score).
Your filter settings also carry over to Scan All Pages — the expansion panel will only include connections that match your active filters.
Scan All Pages
LinkedIn paginates search results across multiple pages (typically 10 results per page). By default, Arcweight can only filter and sort the page you're currently viewing.
Click "Scan All Pages" in the filter bar to have Arcweight automatically scan across all pages of the current search. It loads each page in the background, extracts every result, and builds a consolidated expansion panel on the right side of the screen.
The expansion panel shows results across all pages, sorted by Connection Strength (1st-degree) and SCI (2nd-degree), with ratings visible at a glance. Scanning runs both forward and backward from your current page so nothing is missed.
The panel respects your filter bar settings — only connections matching the active filters (Strong, Medium, Weak, Unrated) are included. For example, if you toggle off everything except "Unrated" before scanning, the panel will only show unrated connections from across all pages.
Copy Names to Clipboard
The 1st-degree section header in the expansion panel includes a "Copy names" button. Click it to copy all visible 1st-degree names to your clipboard, one name per line. The button respects your active filter settings — if you have only "Unrated" selected in the filter bar, only unrated names are copied.
This is especially useful in combination with the Match a List tab. For example, you can run a LinkedIn search (by company, title, keyword, etc.), select "Unrated" in the filter bar, scan all pages, then click "Copy names" to get a clean list of unrated connections matching your search. Paste that list directly into Match a List, choose a rating, and rate them all in seconds.
Bulk Rate & Invite
The Bulk Rate & Invite page is where you work with your whole network at once — both rating connections at scale and inviting the people you know best to join Arcweight. It has four tabs: Browse & Rate and Match a List for rating, and Share Arcweight and Invitation for inviting.
Rating connections one at a time on LinkedIn is fine for a handful of people, but if you have hundreds or thousands of connections, it's slow. The rating tabs let you rate your entire network from a single screen — either by browsing a sortable, filterable table or by pasting a list of names from another source.
Downloading your connections from LinkedIn
Before you can rate in bulk, you need to download your data archive from LinkedIn:
- Go to Settings → Data Privacy → Download Your Data on LinkedIn.
- Select "Download larger data archive" (the default option) and click Request archive.
- LinkedIn will email you when it's ready — this can take anywhere from a few minutes to 24 hours.
- Download the archive from LinkedIn (it arrives as a ZIP file containing a Connections CSV).
Uploading to Arcweight
Open the page by clicking "Bulk Rate & Invite" in the Arcweight popup. You can upload the ZIP file directly — Arcweight will find the Connections file inside it automatically. Or if you prefer, unzip the archive yourself and upload just the Connections CSV file.
Once uploaded, the file is parsed and stored in your browser's local storage. Your connections data never leaves your computer — it's only used locally to display the table and match names.
Browse & Rate
The Browse & Rate tab shows all your connections in a sortable table with columns for name, company, position, connection date, and rating. You can rate any connection directly from the table using the inline S / M / W buttons.
The toolbar at the top provides several ways to narrow down the list:
- Search — Filter by name, company, position, or connection date.
- Rating filter — Toggle pills to show only Strong, Medium, Weak, or Unrated connections.
- Company dropdown — Select a specific company to see only connections from that organization.
- Date range — Filter by when you connected (useful for finding recent additions or old contacts).
For bulk actions, select multiple connections using the checkboxes, then use the action bar at the bottom to rate them all at once.
Match a List
The Match a List tab is designed for situations where you have a list of names from another source — a CRM export, a spreadsheet, a list from memory — and want to rate them all quickly.
Paste names into the text area (one per line), choose a rating, and click "Match & Preview." Arcweight matches each name against your connections using flexible name matching that handles accented characters, common suffixes (MBA, PhD, etc.), and partial matches.
The results are grouped into categories:
- Matched — Unrated connections that were found. These will receive the rating you selected.
- Already rated — Connections that were found but already have a rating. Use the Override checkbox to replace their existing rating.
- Ambiguous — Names that matched multiple connections. Use the dropdown to pick the right person.
- Unmatched — Names that couldn't be found in your connections. You can clear these from the list.
Review the results, then click "Apply" to save all ratings at once.
Refreshing your connections file
Your connections data is stored locally and doesn't update automatically. If you've added new connections on LinkedIn since your last upload, click the "Update" link on the page and re-upload a fresh file. Arcweight will prompt you to refresh after 60 days.
Stats in the header
The dark header bar at the top of the page shows how many of your loaded connections are rated Strong, Medium, Weak, and Unrated. These counts reflect only your loaded connections — they may differ slightly from the totals shown in the extension popup, which counts all rated connections including any not in your current CSV.
Share Arcweight — building an invite list
The Share Arcweight tab helps you invite the people you know best to join Arcweight. When a connection you invite joins, they can see how strongly you're connected across your network — so they instantly know when you're a warm path to someone they want to reach — and you both earn extra free days.
The tab builds your invite list from the connections you've rated Strong. To reach those people by email, it matches them against your Google Contacts:
- Rate your strong connections first, using the Browse & Rate or Match a List tabs.
- Export your contacts from Google Contacts in the Google CSV format — export both "Contacts" and "Other contacts" for the best coverage.
- Upload the file (or files) on the Share Arcweight tab.
Arcweight matches your strong connections to email addresses and produces two lists: Ready to invite (a strong connection with an email found) and No email found (invite these on LinkedIn instead, or add their email to your contacts and re-upload). Your contacts file is processed entirely in your browser — it is never uploaded to or stored by Arcweight, and it is discarded when you leave the page.
Generating an invitation
Once your Ready-to-invite list is built, uncheck anyone you don't want to invite, then click Generate Invitation. Arcweight switches to the Invitation tab, which gives you:
- Your invite link — a personal link (
arcweight.com/?ref=…) you can reuse anywhere: a LinkedIn post, your email signature, a direct message. - A ready-to-send email — a BCC recipient list, a subject line, and a body, each with a Copy button.
Generating an invitation also turns on Path Sharing for your account if it isn't already — that is what lets the people you invite see your connection strengths once they join. You can review or change Path Sharing anytime from the Arcweight popup. For Path Sharing to actually surface your ratings to others, your LinkedIn Connection visibility setting (Settings → Visibility → Connection visibility) must also be on — if it's off, LinkedIn won't show you as a shared connection in others' searches.
Open a new email in your own mail client, paste in the BCC list, subject, and body, personalize the note however you like, and send it. The invitation is sent by you, from your own email — Arcweight never sends it for you and never receives the recipients' email addresses.
When someone you invite installs Arcweight, the referral is automatically credited to you — whether they arrive through your invite link or were on your invite list. There is nothing the invitee has to do for attribution to work; they simply install.
Shared Connection Index (SCI)
SCI is a numeric score that measures how reachable a 2nd-degree connection is through your shared connections. The higher the SCI, the stronger your indirect path to that person.
How SCI is calculated
For each mutual connection you share with a 2nd-degree person, Arcweight multiplies two scores: your rating of that mutual connection, and (if known) the mutual connection's rating of the target. These products are summed across all shared connections.
The rating scale assigns numeric values: Strong = 3, Medium = 2, Weak = 1, Unrated = 1.5. If an intermediary hasn't rated the target (which is the default until they respond to an invite), their score defaults to 1.5.
Where SCI appears
SCI badges appear on 2nd-degree search results and on 2nd-degree profile pages. On profile pages, an initial approximate score appears immediately (based on the mutual count shown on the page), then Arcweight refines it in the background by loading the actual shared connections data. In the expansion panel, 2nd-degree connections appear in their own section, sorted by SCI.
Why SCI matters
Not all 2nd-degree connections are equally reachable. If your one shared connection with someone is Weak, your path to that person is thin. If you share five mutual connections you've all rated Strong, that person is very reachable. SCI quantifies this so you can prioritize who to pursue and through whom.
Best Path to Anyone
When you view the shared connections between you and a 2nd-degree contact, Arcweight shows a path pill next to each intermediary. The path pill has two halves:
- The left half shows your rating of the intermediary (S, M, W, or ? for unrated).
- The right half shows the intermediary's rating of the target person (if they've submitted one through the invite flow).
Arcweight sorts shared connections by the strength of the full path (your rating multiplied by the intermediary's rating). The best introductions rise to the top: an intermediary you know well who also knows the target well.
Inviting Others to Rate
The invite flow (sometimes called "organic pull") is how Arcweight gets other people to contribute their ratings, filling in the missing information about how well your intermediaries know the people you're trying to reach.
How it works
- On a shared connections page, Arcweight shows "Ask" buttons next to each intermediary.
- Clicking "Ask" opens a modal with two options: send a LinkedIn message or compose an email. Both include a personalized link to a rating page.
- The recipient clicks the link and rates the target person on arcweight.com/rate (no extension or account required).
- Their rating feeds back into your SCI scores and path pills.
Invite tracking
Each invite gets a short URL token with a status: Pending, Viewed, or Rated. The "Ask" button updates in real time to reflect the current status, so you can see whether someone has opened or completed your request.
The viral loop
After rating, the recipient sees a confirmation page with an invitation to install Arcweight themselves. Every "ask" is an introduction to the product for the person receiving it.
Rating Before Installing
People can rate connections through the invite flow without having an Arcweight account or the Chrome extension. Their ratings are stored securely and linked to their LinkedIn identity. See the Privacy Policy for details on how pre-account data is handled and migrated.
If they later install the extension and sign in, their pre-account ratings are automatically migrated to their authenticated account. Nothing is lost.
Privacy & Security
Your ratings are private
By default, only you can see your ratings. They are stored in your authenticated account and are not visible to anyone else on LinkedIn or Arcweight. If you enable Path Sharing (controlled via a toggle in the extension popup), your ratings may be visible to other Arcweight users in the specific context of introduction paths. Note that LinkedIn's own Connection visibility setting (Settings → Visibility) must also be on for Path Sharing to be effective — if your LinkedIn connections list isn't visible to others, you won't appear as a shared connection in their searches, and Arcweight has no path pill on which to share a rating. See our Privacy Policy for full details on how Path Sharing works and what is disclosed.
What data is collected
Arcweight stores the minimum necessary to function: your Google account email (for authentication), the LinkedIn profile slugs and names of people you rate, and the ratings themselves. No browsing history, messages, or other LinkedIn activity is collected. For a complete description of the data we collect and how we use it, see our Privacy Policy.
Authentication
Sign-in uses Google OAuth through Chrome's built-in identity system. Arcweight never sees or stores your Google password.
Cross-user lookups
When the extension checks whether an intermediary has rated a target (for the path pill right-half), these lookups are handled by a secure server-side function that returns only the rating value, never any other user data. If no rating exists, the function returns nothing (not an error), preventing any information leakage about who uses Arcweight.
Your rights
You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time. Depending on your location, you may have additional rights under laws like the GDPR or CCPA. For details on your rights and how to exercise them, see our Privacy Policy.
Who Uses Arcweight?
Sales professionals
SDRs and AEs doing outbound prospecting on LinkedIn can filter search results to surface warm paths instead of cold outreach. When targeting a specific account, SCI scores identify which shared connections offer the strongest introduction path.
Recruiters
Recruiting teams can quickly identify which candidates in a search they already have a real relationship with, and find the best path to reach passive candidates through shared connections.
VCs and fundraisers
Founders asking "who can intro me to this partner?" get a quantified answer. VCs evaluating deal flow can see which portfolio founders have the strongest paths to a prospective company.
Business development
Partnership and BD professionals can map the strength of their network into a target company, identifying the best introduction paths for high-value relationships.
Anyone with a large LinkedIn network
If you have hundreds or thousands of connections and often struggle to remember who you actually know, Arcweight helps you cut through the noise and find the signal.
Troubleshooting
Badges aren't appearing
First, make sure you're signed in (click the Arcweight icon in the Chrome toolbar). If you recently reloaded the extension at chrome://extensions, you need to also refresh any open LinkedIn tabs. The old page still has the previous version of the content script, which becomes invalid after a reload.
Badges disappeared after navigating
LinkedIn is a single-page app, so some navigation transitions can briefly disrupt injected elements. Badges should re-appear within a second or two. If they don't, a page refresh will restore them.
Filter bar looks misaligned
The filter bar initially appears at full width while LinkedIn loads its search results. Once the results column appears (usually within a second), the bar repositions itself into the correct column. This is normal behavior.
"Extension context invalidated" errors in console
This happens when you reload the extension at chrome://extensions but don't refresh the LinkedIn tab. The old content scripts can no longer communicate with the updated extension. Refresh the LinkedIn tab to fix it.
SCI shows 0 on a profile with mutual connections
If you encounter this, it may be a text-parsing edge case. The extension reads the mutual connections text on the profile page to determine the count. Refresh the page; if the issue persists, please report it.
Rating modal doesn't appear when clicking the badge
Ensure you're on a 1st-degree connection's profile. Arcweight only shows the rating modal for people you're directly connected to. For 2nd-degree connections, you'll see an SCI badge instead.
Path Sharing is on, but I'm not appearing in other people's paths
Path Sharing in Arcweight needs a matching LinkedIn setting to actually work. LinkedIn's Connection visibility setting (Settings → Visibility → Connection visibility) must be On. If it's off, LinkedIn hides your connections list from others — including hiding you as a shared connection in their searches — so Arcweight has no path pill on which to surface your rating, no matter what your Arcweight settings are. Turn LinkedIn's Connection visibility on, and Arcweight Path Sharing then operates normally.
FAQ
Is Arcweight free?
Yes. Arcweight is currently free.
Does Arcweight work on mobile?
No. Arcweight is a Chrome extension and only works in the Chrome desktop browser on PC or Mac.
Can other people see my ratings?
No. Your ratings are private by default. The only way someone sees a rating you've made is if you enable Path Sharing, which reveals a single rating value in a specific context (the intermediary path pill). You control this via a toggle in the extension popup. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.
Can I rate 2nd-degree connections?
No. Ratings are only available for 1st-degree connections (people you're directly connected to on LinkedIn). For 2nd-degree connections, Arcweight calculates an SCI score based on your mutual connections.
What happens if LinkedIn changes their website?
LinkedIn updates its interface frequently. Arcweight is designed with fallback selectors and structural detection so it continues working through most changes. If a major LinkedIn update breaks something, an extension update will be released.
How do I update Arcweight?
Arcweight updates automatically through the Chrome Web Store. Chrome checks for extension updates periodically and installs them in the background.
Can I export my ratings?
Not currently, but this is on the roadmap for a future version.
I rated someone but the badge still shows "Unrated"
This can happen briefly if the page loaded before the rating was saved. Wait a moment and the badge should update. If it persists, refresh the page.
Where does my LinkedIn connections file go when I upload it?
Your connections file is parsed and stored entirely in your browser's local storage. It never leaves your computer and is never sent to Arcweight's servers. It's only used locally to populate the Bulk Rate & Invite table and match names.
Do I need to re-upload my connections file every time?
No. The file is stored in your browser and persists across sessions. You only need to re-upload if you want to refresh it with new connections you've added on LinkedIn since the last upload.
Can I upload the ZIP file directly, or do I need to unzip it first?
Either way works. Arcweight can read LinkedIn's ZIP archive directly and will find the Connections file inside it automatically. You can also unzip it yourself and upload just the Connections CSV file.
Why didn't my name match in "Match a List"?
The matching algorithm handles accented characters, common suffixes (MBA, PhD, etc.), and partial matches, but it relies on the names in your connections file. If someone goes by a nickname on LinkedIn that's different from what you pasted (e.g., "Bill" vs. "William"), it may not match. Names that match multiple connections will appear as "ambiguous" so you can pick the right person.
Will bulk rating overwrite my existing ratings?
Not by default. In Browse & Rate, connections that already have a rating show their current badge instead of the S / M / W buttons. In Match a List, already-rated connections appear in a separate "already rated" group with an Override checkbox — you have to explicitly opt in to replace an existing rating.
What does the "Copy names" button in the expansion panel do?
After running Scan All Pages, the 1st-degree section of the expansion panel has a "Copy names" button that copies all visible names to your clipboard (one per line). It respects your active filters — so if you only have "Unrated" selected, only unrated names are copied. You can paste these names directly into the Match a List tab for quick rating.