CLOE — Custom Links Opened Externally

A Chromium extension that selectively opens links from PWAs in your system default browser.

It uses:

• A Chromium MV3 extension to intercept link clicks in standalone PWA windows
• A Rust native messaging host to call xdg-open <url> (Linux) or open <url> (macOS)
• Configurable URL patterns (regex) to control which links are intercepted

Quick Install

Run the one-liner — it downloads everything and walks you through setup:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iltumio/cloe/main/scripts/install-all.sh | bash

Or install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iltumio/cloe/main/scripts/install-all.sh | bash -s -- v0.1.0

The script will:

1. Download the native host binary (auto-detects OS and architecture)
2. Download and unpack the extension to ~/.local/share/cloe/extension
3. Prompt you to load the extension in Chromium and paste the extension ID
4. Register the native messaging host

Manual install

Click to expand step-by-step instructions

1. Load the extension

• Download cloe-extension.zip from the latest release and unzip it
• Open chrome://extensions
• Enable Developer mode
• Click Load unpacked and select the unzipped folder
• Copy the extension ID

2. Install the native host

Run the install script (replace <extension_id> with your ID from step 1):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iltumio/cloe/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- <extension_id>

Or to install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iltumio/cloe/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- <extension_id> v0.1.0

The script auto-detects your OS and architecture (Linux/macOS, x86_64/aarch64), downloads the correct binary, and registers the native messaging host.

3. Restart Chromium and relaunch your PWA windows.

Building from source

If you prefer to build locally instead of using pre-built binaries:

git clone https://github.com/iltumio/cloe.git
cd cloe
./scripts/install-native-host.sh <extension_id>

This requires a Rust toolchain.

Configuration

Open the extension options (chrome://extensions → CLOE → Details → Extension options) to:

• Intercept all links — toggle to open every link externally
• URL patterns — add regex patterns for specific URLs (e.g. ^https://meet\.google\.com/)
• Presets — quickly add patterns for popular services (Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, etc.)

If no patterns are configured and "Intercept all" is off, no links are intercepted.

Supported platforms

OS	Architecture	Binary
Linux	x86_64	cloe-host-linux-x86_64
Linux	aarch64	cloe-host-linux-aarch64
macOS	x86_64	cloe-host-macos-x86_64
macOS	aarch64	cloe-host-macos-aarch64

Structure

• extension/ — Chromium extension (MV3)
• native-host/ — Rust native messaging host
• scripts/install-all.sh — One-line installer (extension + native host)
• scripts/install.sh — Download + install native host only (requires extension ID)
• scripts/install-native-host.sh — Build from source + install

Notes

• This intercepts HTTP(S) links in standalone PWA display mode — both normal link clicks and programmatic navigations (window.open, location.href, location.assign, location.replace).
• If native messaging fails, it falls back to in-app navigation.
• Re-run the install script whenever the extension ID changes.

License

MIT