---
id: chrome-extensions
title: "Chrome Extensions"
---

:::note
Extensions only work in Chrome / Chromium in non-headless mode, launched with a persistent context.
:::

The following is code for getting a handle to the [background page](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/background_pages) of a [Manifest v2](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv2/) extension whose source is located in `./my-extension`:

```js
const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  const pathToExtension = require('path').join(__dirname, 'my-extension');
  const userDataDir = '/tmp/test-user-data-dir';
  const browserContext = await chromium.launchPersistentContext(userDataDir,{
    headless: false,
    args: [
      `--disable-extensions-except=${pathToExtension}`,
      `--load-extension=${pathToExtension}`
    ]
  });
  let [backgroundPage] = browserContext.backgroundPages();
  if (!backgroundPage)
    backgroundPage = await browserContext.waitForEvent('backgroundpage');

  // Test the background page as you would any other page.
  await browserContext.close();
})();
```

```python async
import asyncio
from playwright.async_api import async_playwright

path_to_extension = "./my-extension"
user_data_dir = "/tmp/test-user-data-dir"


async def run(playwright):
    context = await playwright.chromium.launch_persistent_context(
        user_data_dir,
        headless=False,
        args=[
            f"--disable-extensions-except={path_to_extension}",
            f"--load-extension={path_to_extension}",
        ],
    )

    if len(context.background_pages) == 0:
        background_page = await context.wait_for_event('backgroundpage')
    else:
        background_page = context.background_pages[0]

    # Test the background page as you would any other page.
    await context.close()


async def main():
    async with async_playwright() as playwright:
        await run(playwright)


asyncio.run(main())
```

```python sync
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

path_to_extension = "./my-extension"
user_data_dir = "/tmp/test-user-data-dir"


def run(playwright):
    context = playwright.chromium.launch_persistent_context(
        user_data_dir,
        headless=False,
        args=[
            f"--disable-extensions-except={path_to_extension}",
            f"--load-extension={path_to_extension}",
        ],
    )
    if len(context.background_pages) == 0:
        background_page = context.wait_for_event('backgroundpage')
    else:
        background_page = context.background_pages[0]

    # Test the background page as you would any other page.
    context.close()


with sync_playwright() as playwright:
    run(playwright)
```