How do you trigger a chrome extension via a keyboard shortcut? - google-chrome-extension

Question

I wrote a short chrome extension that works as intended when I click on it on my extension list.
Ie. my code runs onClicked (chrome.action.onClicked.addListener(...))
I would like to add a keyboard shortcut (eg. Ctrl+Shift+Q) but not sure how.
Any ideas?
For context: I don't really know javascript, I'm hacking this together as a helper for myself in my day to day work.

Answer 1

You can use a command.
First step is to add the command to the manifest.json file. I added an example down below it should look very similar to your, but the part you really need is the "commands": {} section. This tells chrome to pay attention to when a user hits "Ctrl+Shift+Q". Note you can add multiple commands, like in the example below.
{
"name": "Getting Started Example",
"description": "Build an Extension!",
"version": "1.0",
"manifest_version": 3,
"background": {
"service_worker": "background.js"
},
"devtools_page": "devtools.html",
"commands": {
"name-of-command-passed-into-function": {
"suggested_key": "Ctrl+Shift+Q",
"description": "do somthing"
}
"shortcut2": {
"suggested_key": "Ctrl+Shift+A",
"description": "do somthing else"
}
},
"options_page": "options.html",
"permissions": ["storage", "activeTab", "scripting","tabs"],
}
Now when the user hits "Ctrl+Shift+Q" or "Ctrl+Shift+A", chrome will loos for some very specific code to run:
chrome.commands.onCommand.addListener((command,tab) => {
//do stuff here
});
Add this code and change the //do stuff here, to the code you want to run. The command property will simply be a string that matches what was types into the manifest, "name-of-command-passed-into-function" or "shortcut2". This is how you tell which command shortcut the user entered, but if you only need one, then delete the second one from the manifest file.