Browser extensions Beta

Polypane has experimental support for regular Chromium browser extensions, along with support for developer tools extensions.

In the Polypane address bar you will find a puzzle piece icon, similar to Chrome. Click this to toggle the visibility of the browser extension list, or right-click it to open the extension manager.

Beta: Polypane's support of regular browser extensions is currently experimental and has limitations outlined below.

Extensions work on a single pane at a time

Chromium extensions only work for a single pane at the same time, so a puzzle piece is shown in front of a pane title to indicate which pane is currently the extension target. Interacting with any pane will make that pane the target and the puzzle piece icon will become visible there.

Supported extensions

The extensions below are known to work with Polypane:

• WAVE
• MetaMask
• VisBug
• 1Password
• Simple Translate
• Linguix
• LastPass
• Checkbot
• Lorem Ipsum Generator
• Web Developer
• Grammarly
• Dashlane

We also support a large number of developer tool extensions:

• Angularjs Batarang
• Angular DevTools
• Angular State Inspector
• Alpinejs devtools
• Apollo Client Developer Tools
• Axe Devtools
• Backbone Debugger
• CSS Shapes Editor
• CSS Stacking Context
• CSS Feature Toggles
• Cycle.js
• DOM treemap
• Ember Inspector
• MobX Developers Tools
• React Developer Tools
• Redux DevTools
• Vue.js devtools
• Vue Devtools beta
• jQuery Debugger
• Svelte Developer Tools
• Preact DevTools
• Meteor DevTools
• XState DevTools

If you use a particular extension not listed here, please let us know and we'll add it.

Limitations

Polypane is built on Electron, which has limited support for the chrome extension API. This meansthere are a few limitations, and not all extensions will work. If an extension doesn't work and you think it should, let us know.

• Only Manifest v2 extensions are currently supported
• Extensions using the "sync" storage API will fail silently
• Extensions using the WebRequest API do not have access beyond the currently loaded page.

Install extensions

You can install Chromium extensions (addons) in Polypane through the extension manager. To open the Extension manager:

1. Go to the "Edit" main menu, then "configurators", then "Browser extensions".
2. Right click the Devtools icon or the Extensions icon in the header to open the submenu and select "Extensions manager".
3. Click the "Manage extensions" button in the devtools pane.
4. Use the Command bar.

You can add, remove and reload/update devtools extensions via this manager.

When you reload devtools we automatically fetch the latest version from the Chrome web store.

To add an extension, Select the name of one of the preconfigured devtools in the form and click the plus button.

Chrome webstore ID

You can also fill in a Chrome webstore ID and we will fetch the specified developer tool. Please be aware we can't guarantee these will work. To find a Chrome webstore id, search for the extension in the Chrome store. The URL will look like this:

chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/react-developer-tools/fmkadmapgofadopljbjfkapdkoienihi?hl=en

You will need just the bolded part, or the last part after the slash (without the ?hl= part).

React-devtools 4.27 is broken in Polypane

The current release of React-devtools does not work with any Electron-based applications, so when you install it in Polypane we use a downgraded version 4.25. Once react-devtools works with Electron again, we'll use the latest version again.

Troubleshooting extensions

Some extensions might prevent Polypane from launching correctly or cause it to crash. If you cant uninstall these extensions though the manager, the extension can be removed manually by following the next steps:

First, close Polypane fully. Then open the following directory:

• On Windows: %APPDATA%/Polypane/
• On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Polypane/
• On Linux: ~/.config/Polypane/

In that directory there is a file called polypane-extensions. This file has no extension, but it's a plaintext file containing JSON. You can either delete this entire file, or edit it to remove the offending extension. When you have done so you can restart Polypane again.