Extension installed · bridge not registered

You're three commands away from
a connected extension.

The Taprun extension talks to a CLI on your machine through Chrome Native Messaging — an OS-supervised channel, no network port. After a one-time setup, Chrome launches the bridge on demand whenever you trigger a tap. Pick up the commands from the Tap popup, or copy them from here.

Install the CLI and register the bridge

required · ~60 seconds · macOS / Linux

Two commands, one time. The extension ID is pinned via the manifest "key" field, so tap bridge setup takes no flag — no copy-pasting from the popup.

# Install the CLI
$ brew install LeonTing1010/tap/taprun
# or
$ curl -fsSL https://taprun.dev/install.sh | sh

# Register the Chrome Native Messaging manifest (no daemon, no port)
$ tap bridge setup

Then open Chrome and click the Taprun toolbar icon — the bridge launches automatically when this extension's service worker activates. The popup should say Connected to local bridge. The bridge lives only as long as the extension is active; closing all Chrome windows shuts it down, and re-opening Chrome wakes it back up.

Optional · Wire your AI agent

Claude Code · Cursor · Windsurf · Codex · any MCP host

Auto-edit your MCP host's config so it can call Tap as an MCP tool. Independent from Step 1 — these are two separate channels.

$ tap mcp connect           # auto-detects host, edits config

Then quit and reopen your AI agent (it only re-reads MCP config on launch). After that you can ask it "run the github-stars tap" and it dispatches via MCP.

Optional · Run taps from the terminal

scripts · cron · CI · no AI agent involved

Saved taps run directly from the shell. The extension is only invoked when a tap needs your authenticated browser session.

$ tap ls                      # list saved taps
$ tap run github/stars       # execute one

Windows users: the Chrome-extension bridge is honest-warning until verified — use the headless / Playwright path via npx -y @taprun/cli. +1 demand for native bridge support here.

Verify it worked

Click the Taprun icon in your Chrome toolbar.
Connected: Connected to local bridge
Still red? The popup tells you which failure mode you hit:
- Setup required → Step 1 second command (tap bridge setup) hasn't run yet.
- Bridge not running → the extension's service worker isn't active. Make sure a Chrome window is open and click the Taprun toolbar icon. If it persists, check host.log next to the tap binary for a host crash.
- Chrome blocked the host → Restart Chrome to clear the crash lockout.
- Bridge down → See troubleshooting below.

Still disconnected? Four things to check

Native-messaging host not registered — The extension talks to the CLI through Chrome's Native Messaging transport, not a network port. The host manifest must exist at ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/dev.taprun.daemon.json (macOS) or ~/.config/google-chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/dev.taprun.daemon.json (Linux). Run tap bridge setup (no flag — the extension ID is pinned in the manifest) to (re)register it. (The filename still says ".daemon" for historical reasons; post-2026-05-14 the NM host IS the dispatch core — there's no separate daemon process. Renaming the file would force a coordinated CLI+extension release, which is impractical, so we kept the legacy name and guard it with a static cross-repo test instead.)
Chrome blocked the host (crash lockout) — If the host has crashed ≥5 times in ~3 minutes, Chrome refuses to launch it again for ~10 minutes. The popup will say "Chrome blocked the host". Restart Chrome to clear the lockout. Then check host.log next to the tap binary for the underlying crash reason.
MCP host not restarted — Claude Code / Cursor only re-read MCP config on launch. Quit fully (not just close the window) and reopen.
Service worker asleep — Chrome MV3 puts background workers to sleep after ~30s idle. Click the Taprun extension icon once to wake it; it reconnects within a second.