Manifest

You must set manifest_version to (at least) 2 to use this API.

Usage

The commands API allows you to define specific commands, and bind them to a default key combination. Each command your extension accepts must be listed in the manifest as an attribute of the 'commands' manifest key. An extension can have many commands but only 4 suggested keys can be specified. The user can manually add more shortcuts from the chrome://extensions page.

Supported keys: A-Z, 0-9, Comma, Period, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, Insert, Delete, Tab and the arrow keys (Up, Down, Left, Right).

Note: All key combinations must include either Ctrl* or Alt. Combinations that involve Ctrl+Alt are not permitted in order to avoid conflicts with the AltGr key. Shift can be used in addition to Alt or Ctrl, but is not required.

* Also note that on Mac 'Ctrl' is automatically converted to 'Command'. If you want 'Ctrl' instead, please specify 'MacCtrl'.

Certain Chrome shortcuts (e.g. window management) always take priority over Extension Command shortcuts and can not be overwritten.

{
  "name": "My extension",
  ...
  "commands": {
    "toggle-feature-foo": {
      "suggested_key": {
        "default": "Ctrl+Shift+Y",
        "mac": "Command+Shift+Y"
      },
      "description": "Toggle feature foo"
    },
    "_execute_browser_action": {
      "suggested_key": {
        "windows": "Ctrl+Shift+Y",
        "mac": "Command+Shift+Y",
        "chromeos": "Ctrl+Shift+U",
        "linux": "Ctrl+Shift+J"
      }
    },
    "_execute_page_action": {
      "suggested_key": {
        "default": "Ctrl+E"
        "windows": "Alt+P",
        "mac": "Option+P",
      }
    }
  },
  ...
}

In your background page, you can bind a handler to each of the commands defined in the manifest (except for '_execute_browser_action' and '_execute_page_action') via onCommand.addListener. For example:

chrome.commands.onCommand.addListener(function(command) {
  console.log('Command:', command);
});

The '_execute_browser_action' and '_execute_page_action' commands are reserved for the action of opening your extension's popups. They won't normally generate events that you can handle. If you need to take action based on your popup opening, consider listening for an 'onDomReady' event inside your popup's code.