chrome.omnibox

Description

The omnibox API allows you to register a keyword with Google Chrome's address bar, which is also known as the omnibox.

A screenshot showing suggestions related to the keyword 'Chromium Search'

When the user enters your extension's keyword, the user starts interacting solely with your extension. Each keystroke is sent to your extension, and you can provide suggestions in response.

The suggestions can be richly formatted in a variety of ways. When the user accepts a suggestion, your extension is notified and can take action.

Manifest

You must include an omnibox keyword field in the manifest to use the omnibox API. You should also specify a 16x16-pixel icon, which will be displayed in the address bar when suggesting that users enter keyword mode.

For example:

{
  "name": "Aaron's omnibox extension",
  "version": "1.0",
  "omnibox": { "keyword" : "aaron" },
  "icons": {
    "16": "16-full-color.png"
  },
  "background": {
    "persistent": false,
    "scripts": ["background.js"]
  }
}

Examples

To try this API, install the omnibox API example from the chrome-extension-samples repository.

Types

DefaultSuggestResult

A suggest result.

Properties

  • description

    string

    The text that is displayed in the URL dropdown. Can contain XML-style markup for styling. The supported tags are 'url' (for a literal URL), 'match' (for highlighting text that matched what the user's query), and 'dim' (for dim helper text). The styles can be nested, eg. dimmed match.

DescriptionStyleType

Chrome 44+

The style type.

Enum

"url"

"match"

"dim"

OnInputEnteredDisposition

Chrome 44+

The window disposition for the omnibox query. This is the recommended context to display results. For example, if the omnibox command is to navigate to a certain URL, a disposition of 'newForegroundTab' means the navigation should take place in a new selected tab.

Enum

"currentTab"

"newForegroundTab"

"newBackgroundTab"

SuggestResult

A suggest result.

Properties

  • content

    string

    The text that is put into the URL bar, and that is sent to the extension when the user chooses this entry.

  • deletable

    boolean optional

    Chrome 63+

    Whether the suggest result can be deleted by the user.

  • description

    string

    The text that is displayed in the URL dropdown. Can contain XML-style markup for styling. The supported tags are 'url' (for a literal URL), 'match' (for highlighting text that matched what the user's query), and 'dim' (for dim helper text). The styles can be nested, eg. dimmed match. You must escape the five predefined entities to display them as text: stackoverflow.com/a/1091953/89484

Methods

setDefaultSuggestion()

Promise 
chrome.omnibox.setDefaultSuggestion(
  suggestion: DefaultSuggestResult,
  callback?: function,
)

Sets the description and styling for the default suggestion. The default suggestion is the text that is displayed in the first suggestion row underneath the URL bar.

Parameters

  • A partial SuggestResult object, without the 'content' parameter.

  • callback

    function optional

    Chrome 100+

    The callback parameter looks like: 

    () => void

Returns

  • Promise<void>

    Chrome 100+

    Promises are only supported for Manifest V3 and later, other platforms need to use callbacks.

Events

onDeleteSuggestion

Chrome 63+ 
chrome.omnibox.onDeleteSuggestion.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

User has deleted a suggested result.

Parameters

  • callback

    function

    The callback parameter looks like: 

    (text: string) => void

    • text

      string

onInputCancelled

chrome.omnibox.onInputCancelled.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

User has ended the keyword input session without accepting the input.

Parameters

  • callback

    function

    The callback parameter looks like: 

    () => void

onInputChanged

chrome.omnibox.onInputChanged.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

User has changed what is typed into the omnibox.

Parameters

  • callback

    function

    The callback parameter looks like: 

    (text: string, suggest: function) => void

    • text

      string

    • suggest

      function

      The suggest parameter looks like: 

      (suggestResults: SuggestResult[]) => void

onInputEntered

chrome.omnibox.onInputEntered.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

User has accepted what is typed into the omnibox.

Parameters

onInputStarted

chrome.omnibox.onInputStarted.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

User has started a keyword input session by typing the extension's keyword. This is guaranteed to be sent exactly once per input session, and before any onInputChanged events.

Parameters

  • callback

    function

    The callback parameter looks like: 

    () => void