Krawlify is on the Chrome Web Store. For one machine that is the whole answer: add it, confirm the permissions, and Chrome handles updates from then on.
The other two routes exist because some people cannot or would rather not install from the store — a fleet managed by policy, an air-gapped machine, or plain unwillingness to trust someone else's signature on something that attaches a debugger to your browser. All three install the same code from the same repository.
| Route | Auto-updates | Needs admin rights | Extension ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| A — Chrome Web Store | Yes, by Chrome | No | oonpeili… |
| B — enterprise policy | Yes, from your host | Yes | pobcccfh… |
| C — load unpacked | No | No | oonpeili…, same as A |
Install one, not several. The store copy and the self-hosted CRX are signed with different keys, so Chrome sees them as two unrelated extensions with two different IDs. Both attached at once means two toolbar entries, two sets of settings, and two clients competing for the same tabs. Route C is the other way round: the published ZIP shares the store's ID, so it will not load alongside route A at all.
Option A — the Chrome Web Store
The route for a normal machine. Open the listing, press Add to Chrome, confirm the permission prompt. Chrome checks for updates on its own schedule, and there is no developer-mode nag on launch.
| Listing | Krawlify, under Developer Tools |
|---|---|
| Extension ID | oonpeiliblmkimphjhhfaghpjbjmogon |
Chrome will ask you to approve debugger, tabs, tabGroups, storage and alarms. The debugger permission is the one worth reading twice — it is what lets an automation client drive tabs, and Chrome shows a persistent banner for as long as it is attached. Cookies and <all_urls> are optional and stay off until you grant them on the options page.
To force-install the store copy across a fleet, the policy value is the ID and Google's update service:
oonpeiliblmkimphjhhfaghpjbjmogon;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crxDrop that value into whichever platform recipe below matches your fleet.
Option B — enterprise policy, from a CRX you host
For machines you administer, when you want the package to come from your infrastructure rather than Google's. Chrome installs the extension itself, keeps it enabled, and polls your update manifest roughly every five hours. You need administrator rights on the machine, and the update URL must be HTTPS.
Chrome refuses to install a .crx by clicking a link on a web page. That is not a gap in these instructions — it is the reason this route goes through a policy at all.
Downloads
Version 0.1.1, extension ID pobcccfhnlgnmfgbjbidpflioolbadia
| File | Used by |
|---|---|
| krawlify.crx | The signed package, fetched by Chrome under an enterprise policy. Also published under its version, as krawlify-0.1.1.crx — that is the name updates.xml points at, so both have to stay reachable |
| updates.xml | The update manifest Chrome polls, roughly every five hours |
| krawlify.zip | The unpacked route — extract it, then load the folder. Also as krawlify-0.1.1.zip |
| install.json | The same facts in machine-readable form: version, ID, policy value and the URL of each file above |
The policy value
The extension ID and the update URL, joined by a semicolon:
pobcccfhnlgnmfgbjbidpflioolbadia;https://krawlify.com/install/updates.xmlThe three recipes below use that value. Substitute the Web Store value from Option A if you would rather Chrome fetched the package from Google.
Windows
Add the value under ExtensionInstallForcelist. Values are numbered strings starting at 1.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallForcelist
1 = pobcccfhnlgnmfgbjbidpflioolbadia;https://krawlify.com/install/updates.xmlmacOS
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome \
ExtensionInstallForcelist \
-array "pobcccfhnlgnmfgbjbidpflioolbadia;https://krawlify.com/install/updates.xml"Linux
Write /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/krawlify.json — or /etc/chromium/policies/managed/ if you run Chromium.
{
"ExtensionInstallForcelist": [
"pobcccfhnlgnmfgbjbidpflioolbadia;https://krawlify.com/install/updates.xml"
]
}Verify
Restart Chrome, then open chrome://policy and press Reload policies — the entry should be listed with status OK. The extension itself appears at chrome://extensions, force-installed and not removable by hand.
Option C — load unpacked
Fine for trying a build of your own, or for development. It costs you two things, and they are permanent: Chrome nags about developer mode on every launch, and nothing auto-updates.
The ZIP published here carries the Web Store signing key in its manifest, so it loads under the store ID oonpeiliblmkimphjhhfaghpjbjmogon rather than one generated from its folder. That is deliberate — it is the same package the store build is made from — but it means this ZIP and Option A are the same extension as far as Chrome is concerned, and it will not load while the store copy is installed. Remove that one first. A folder you build yourself, without a key in the manifest, does get an ID of its own.
- Download krawlify.zip and extract it somewhere permanent — Chrome loads the folder from disk on every start, so a temporary directory will break it.
- Open
chrome://extensions. - Turn on Developer mode, top right.
- Click Load unpacked and select the extracted folder — the one containing
manifest.json.
After installing
- Open the options page from the extension's toolbar entry. It opens in a tab.
- Set the Server URL to the relay you run — the same URL your crawler will use. For a local relay that is
http://127.0.0.1:9333. - Copy the token. Your browser generated it; the relay has none of its own. It is what tells a multi-tenant relay whose browser to use.
- Press Connect in the popup. It shows the live connection state and every tab the crawler has open — and nothing else.
Your token is both identity and credential. Anything holding it can drive your browser. Use an https:// relay for anything not on your own machine, and use Renew Token on the options page to cut off anything still holding the old one.
Requirements
- Google Chrome 125 or later.
- A relay to point it at — the extension ships pointed at the hosted
alpha.krawlify.com, which is alpha and carries no uptime commitment; run your own for anything you depend on. - A CDP-speaking client: Puppeteer, Playwright, the Krawlify app, or anything that speaks the protocol.
Permissions requested: debugger, tabs, tabGroups, storage and alarms. Optional and off by default: cookies and <all_urls>. What each is for, and what is transmitted where, is set out in the privacy policy.
Building it yourself
The extension and the relay live in one repository — github.com/kamenarov/krawlify-relay, MIT licensed. Clone it, run npm run pack with your own --base-url, and you get a CRX signed with your key and an updates.xml pointing at your host. That is the same command that produces the files above, and it is the honest way to run this if you would rather not trust someone else's signature on something that attaches a debugger to your browser.
The relay is also published as a container image, so you do not have to build that half at all:
docker pull kamenarov/krawlify-relay:0.1.0Removing it
A Web Store install is removed like any other: right-click the toolbar icon and choose Remove from Chrome, or use chrome://extensions. Under an enterprise policy, delete the value you added and restart Chrome — a force-installed extension cannot be removed from that page while the policy is in place. An unpacked extension is removed from that page directly. Either way, uninstalling deletes the relay URL, the token and the connection state that were stored in chrome.storage.local. Nothing else was kept.