Chrest: healthier window and tab hygiene

---

Chrest is a CLI tool and Chrome extension that allow you to manage Chrome via REST. Chrest was inspired by (and somewhat forked from) TabFS.

Chrest consists of two parts:

1. Chrome Extension: (/extension)
2. Native Messaging Host & CLI Client: chrest (/)

Examples

Note: to keep Chrest slim, Chrest does not include pretty-print JSON or HTTP Request construction, but there are other wonderful tools you can use for that like http and jq.

• Getting all windows and tabs:

  $ http --ignore-stdin --offline localhost/windows |
  $   chrest client |
  $   jq
  > [
  >   {
  >     "alwaysOnTop": false,
  >     "focused": false,
  >     "height": 1400,
  >     "id": 1531273373,
  >     "incognito": false,
  >     "left": 1411,
  >     "state": "normal",
  >     "tabs": [
  >       {
  >         "active": true,
  >         "audible": false,
  >         "autoDiscardable": true,
  >         "discarded": false,
  >         "favIconUrl": "https://github.githubassets.com/favicons/favicon.svg",
  >         "groupId": -1,
  >         "height": 1279,
  >         "highlighted": true,
  >         "id": 1531273367,
  >         "incognito": false,
  >         "index": 0,
  >         "mutedInfo": {
  >           "muted": false
  >         },
  >         "pinned": false,
  >         "selected": true,
  >         "status": "complete",
  >         "title": "friedenberg/chrest",
  >         "url": "https://github.com/friedenberg/chrest",
  >         "width": 1128,
  >         "windowId": 1531273373
  >       }
  >     ],
  >     "top": 20,
  >     "type": "normal",
  >     "width": 1128
  >   }
  > ]
  

• Creating a new window with some URL's:

  $ http --ignore-stdin --offline localhost/windows \
  $   urls[]=https://github.com/friedenberg/chrest |
  $   chrest client |
  $   jq
  > {
  >   "alwaysOnTop": false,
  >   "focused": false,
  >   "height": 1400,
  >   "id": 1531273390,
  >   "incognito": false,
  >   "left": 0,
  >   "state": "normal",
  >   "tabs": [
  >     {
  >       "active": true,
  >       "audible": false,
  >       "autoDiscardable": true,
  >       "discarded": false,
  >       "groupId": -1,
  >       "height": 1279,
  >       "highlighted": true,
  >       "id": 1531273391,
  >       "incognito": false,
  >       "index": 0,
  >       "lastAccessed": 1708099951989.452,
  >       "mutedInfo": {
  >         "muted": false
  >       },
  >       "pendingUrl": "https://github.com/friedenberg/chrest",
  >       "pinned": false,
  >       "selected": true,
  >       "status": "loading",
  >       "title": "",
  >       "url": "",
  >       "width": 1128,
  >       "windowId": 1531273390
  >     }
  >   ],
  >   "top": 0,
  >   "type": "normal",
  >   "width": 1128
  > }
  

• Closing a window:

  $ http --ignore-stdin --offline DELETE localhost/windows/1531273390 |
  $   chrest client |
  $   jq
  

Installation

1. Clone this repo: git clone github.com/friedenberg/chrest

2. Go to Chrome extensions

3. Enable Developer mode (top-right corner)

4. Load-unpacked the extension/ folder from this repo

   Take note of the extension ID, it looks like lbgclgjcapgipnneocphmhckebhbbkac

5. go build

6. ./chrest install <extension ID>

7. Add $HOME/.local/bin to your $PATH

8. Reload the extension in Chrome to start the service worker

9. Try http --ignore-stdin --offline localhost/windows | ./chrest client | jq

example:

# fish shell
go build -o chrest cmd/main.go; and ./chrest install lbgclgjcapgipnneocphmhckebhbbkac

Todo

• mutate bookmark endpoints
• proper PUT endpoints for windows and tabs
• history endpoints

Known Issues

• Chrome will turn off service workers when there are no windows left, so at least 1 window needs to exist for chrest to be running. I may add a fallback in chrest to use AppleScript to create a new window if the server is not running.