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Installing the extension without the Chrome Web Store

The npm package carries a full copy of the reins extension. If you can't (or don't want to) install from the Chrome Web Store, reins extension stages it for Chrome's Load unpacked — no repo checkout, no build, no reins allow.

npm i -g @karnstack/reins
reins extension

That prints the exact steps; in full:

  1. reins extension — copies the bundled extension to ~/.reins/extension/.
  2. Open chrome://extensions (or dia://extensions, brave://extensions, …).
  3. Enable Developer mode (top right).
  4. Load unpacked → select ~/.reins/extension.
  5. reins status — the extension finds the daemon and connects on its own.

No reins allow step: the sideload build's manifest pins a public key (packages/cli/sideload-key.json), so its extension ID is the same on every machine and ships in the CLI's built-in allowlist.

Updating

Sideloaded extensions don't auto-update. After upgrading the CLI:

reins extension       # re-stages the matching extension version

then click ⟳ Reload on the reins card in chrome://extensions. The target path never changes, so Chrome keeps the registration.

Caveats

  • Chrome shows its usual developer-mode reminders for unpacked extensions on some platforms. That's inherent to sideloading; the store build has no such nag.
  • The sideloaded extension and a store-installed reins have different IDs and can coexist — but run one at a time (disable the other in chrome://extensions) so two connections don't both drive your tabs.
  • Working from a source checkout instead? That flow (per-machine dev ID + reins allow) is RUNNING.md.