Extensions

Install Chrome Web Store extensions in Lilo, manage their permissions and site access, keep them updated, and set up the password manager you already use.

Lilo runs Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store. This page shows how to install one, choose where it runs, keep it up to date, and set up a password manager.

Install an extension

The extension installs into the profile of the window you install it from. Each profile has its own extensions, cookies and storage. When you import from another browser, Lilo reinstalls that browser’s extensions from the store.

Use and pin extensions

The extensions you have turned on are listed in Lilo > Extensions, and in the Extensions popover that the extensions button of the address bar opens; a turned-off extension shows only in Settings > Extensions. In the popover, each extension has a pin button: its tooltip reads Pin to the address bar, and clicking it keeps the extension’s button in view. Click it again (Unpin from the address bar) to put it back.

When an extension asks to reach the site you are on, its row in the Extensions popover shows an Allow button (“Let this extension access this site”).

Manage an extension

Open Settings > Extensions and click an extension under Installed to see its details:

• Enabled turns it on or off.
• Permissions lists what it asked for.
• Site access: All sites runs it on every site it asked for; Selected sites runs it only on the sites you add.
• Allow in private Spaces lets it run on pages in private Spaces. It is off until you turn it on.
• Allow user scripts lets it run the scripts it registers, such as a script manager’s user scripts. Turn it on only for extensions you trust.
• Keyboard shortcuts shows the extension’s commands; click one to record a new shortcut.
• Chrome Web Store opens its store page, with reviews and the developer’s page.
• Remove Extension… deletes the extension and its data.

If you have more than one profile, the Profile menu at the top of Settings > Extensions shows the extensions of another profile.

Keep extensions up to date

Update extensions automatically, in Settings > Extensions under Updates, is on by default: Lilo installs new versions from the Chrome Web Store as they come out. To look for updates now, click Check Now next to Check for updates, or choose Lilo > Extensions > Check for Extension Updates.

An update that asks for more access is never installed on its own. The extension keeps running on its current version, and Update appears next to it in Installed. When you click it, Lilo turns the extension off and lists the new access: Accept and Enable installs the update, Keep Disabled leaves the extension off on its current version, with Review to decide again later.

Set up a password manager

Lilo has no password manager of its own and does not save what you type into a page’s login form. Credential storage and autofill come from your password manager’s extension.

The managers on offer are Bitwarden, 1Password, Proton Pass, Dashlane, NordPass and KeePassXC. Each one installs and starts in Lilo’s own tests, signed out. Proton Pass and Dashlane also mark a test login form; Dashlane logs an error at startup that Chrome does not, and 1Password and Bitwarden fail some runs. NordPass and KeePassXC add their element to the test login form, as in Chrome; nothing else they do on a page is checked, and autofill with a signed-in account is not verified for any of them. Extension compatibility has the result for each.

• 1Password: to unlock with the 1Password app and Touch ID, add Lilo in the app’s Settings > Browser > Add Browser. The app connects on its own only to the browsers it already knows.
• KeePassXC: the extension fills from the KeePassXC app on your Mac. That connection was not part of the tests.
• iCloud Passwords is listed as Soon: its extension cannot reach its helper in Lilo until Apple grants Lilo the entitlement it requires.

What works and what differs

Lilo runs Manifest V3 extensions on WebKit’s extension runtime, with additions of its own where WebKit lacks a Chrome API. Most extensions behave as in Chrome. The main differences:

• Manifest V2 extensions do not run.
• webRequest can observe requests but not block them. Ad blockers such as uBlock Origin Lite, AdGuard and Adblock Plus do block ads in Lilo’s tests.
• An extension that changes the search engine or the home page has no effect on them.
• An extension runs in Private Spaces only once you allow it there (Allow in private Spaces).
• The Chrome Web Store sees Lilo as Chrome, so its install button works. Websites see Lilo as Safari. Extensions read a Chrome identity, and the servers an extension’s worker, popup or panel contacts see Chrome’s user agent. Google does not endorse Lilo and could change the store so that installs or updates from Lilo stop working.

Extension compatibility lists every API difference, the extensions tested with their results, and the details of native messaging.

Load an extension you are developing

To run an extension from a folder on disk, go to Settings > Advanced, find Load an unpacked extension under Developer tools, and click Load Unpacked Extension…, then choose the folder that holds its manifest.json. The extension’s details then offer Reload, which reads the folder again to pick up your changes.

If an extension does not work, see Troubleshooting.