Chrome Extension Support

Electron supports a subset of the Chrome Extensions API, primarily to support DevTools extensions and Chromium-internal extensions, but it also happens to support some other extension capabilities.

Note: Electron does not support arbitrary Chrome extensions from the store, and it is a non-goal of the Electron project to be perfectly compatible with Chrome’s implementation of Extensions.

Loading extensions

Electron only supports loading unpacked extensions (i.e., .crx files do not work). Extensions are installed per-session. To load an extension, call ses.loadExtension:

const { session } = require('electron')
session.defaultSession.loadExtension('path/to/unpacked/extension').then(({ id }) => {
  // ...
})

Loaded extensions will not be automatically remembered across exits; if you do not call loadExtension when the app runs, the extension will not be loaded.

Note that loading extensions is only supported in persistent sessions. Attempting to load an extension into an in-memory session will throw an error.

See the session documentation for more information about loading, unloading, and querying active extensions.

Supported Extensions APIs

We support the following extensions APIs, with some caveats. Other APIs may additionally be supported, but support for any APIs not listed here is provisional and may be removed.

Supported Manifest Keys

• name
• version
• author
• permissions
• content_scripts
• default_locale
• devtools_page
• short_name
• host_permissions (Manifest V3)
• manifest_version
• background (Manifest V2)
• minimum_chrome_version

See Manifest file format for more information about the purpose of each possible key.

chrome.devtools.inspectedWindow

All features of this API are supported.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.devtools.network

All features of this API are supported.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.devtools.panels

All features of this API are supported.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.extension

The following properties of chrome.extension are supported:

• chrome.extension.lastError

The following methods of chrome.extension are supported:

• chrome.extension.getURL
• chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.management

The following methods of chrome.management are supported:

• chrome.management.getAll
• chrome.management.get
• chrome.management.getSelf
• chrome.management.getPermissionWarningsById
• chrome.management.getPermissionWarningsByManifest

The following events of chrome.management are supported:

• chrome.management.onEnabled
• chrome.management.onDisabled

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.runtime

The following properties of chrome.runtime are supported:

• chrome.runtime.lastError
• chrome.runtime.id

The following methods of chrome.runtime are supported:

• chrome.runtime.getBackgroundPage
• chrome.runtime.getManifest
• chrome.runtime.getPlatformInfo
• chrome.runtime.getURL
• chrome.runtime.connect
• chrome.runtime.sendMessage
• chrome.runtime.reload

The following events of chrome.runtime are supported:

• chrome.runtime.onStartup
• chrome.runtime.onInstalled
• chrome.runtime.onSuspend
• chrome.runtime.onSuspendCanceled
• chrome.runtime.onConnect
• chrome.runtime.onMessage

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.scripting

All features of this API are supported.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.storage

The following methods of chrome.storage are supported:

• chrome.storage.local

chrome.storage.sync and chrome.storage.managed are not supported.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.tabs

The following methods of chrome.tabs are supported:

• chrome.tabs.sendMessage
• chrome.tabs.reload
• chrome.tabs.executeScript
• chrome.tabs.query (partial support)
  • supported properties: url, title, audible, active, muted.
• chrome.tabs.update (partial support)
  • supported properties: url, muted.

Note: In Chrome, passing -1 as a tab ID signifies the “currently active tab”. Since Electron has no such concept, passing -1 as a tab ID is not supported and will raise an error.

See official documentation for more information.

chrome.webRequest

All features of this API are supported.

NOTE: Electron’s webRequest module takes precedence over chrome.webRequest if there are conflicting handlers.

See official documentation for more information.