KGet Capture

A Chromium browser extension that sends downloads to KGet, KDE's download manager, instead of the browser's built-in downloader.

• Right-click a link/image/video/audio and choose "Download with KGet".
• Or toggle auto-capture from the toolbar so every download is handed off automatically, with the correct filename.
• A desktop notification fires when a capture finishes downloading.

Requirements

• Linux with KGet installed and running (or set to autostart)
• A Chromium-based browser: Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Vivaldi, or Edge
• python3, dbus-send
• curl or wget, for the one-line remote installer below (skip if you'd rather download and run install.sh yourself)
• notify-send, optional, for the completion notification
• kwriteconfig6 (KDE Frameworks), optional, silences KGet's own duplicate notification

Install everything on your distro:

Fedora

sudo dnf install kget python3 dbus-tools libnotify kf6-kconfig

Arch / Manjaro

sudo pacman -S kget python dbus libnotify kconfig

Debian / Ubuntu / KDE neon

sudo apt install kget python3 dbus-bin libnotify-bin kf6-kconfig-bin

openSUSE

sudo zypper install kget python3 dbus-1 libnotify-tools kconfig-tools

(notify-send and kwriteconfig6 package names shift around between distro versions. If a command above fails, drop that one package and search your package manager for the binary name instead. Everything else still works without them.)

Install

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store: <CHROME_WEB_STORE_URL> (placeholder, fill in once the listing is live).

2. Click the extension's toolbar icon. The popup detects that the native messaging host isn't set up yet and shows a one-line command; run it in a terminal, then click "I ran it, check again" in the popup:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andwati/kget-capture/main/install-remote.sh | bash
   

   (or with wget: wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andwati/kget-capture/main/install-remote.sh | bash)

   This downloads the latest release and runs its install.sh, which registers the native host for every supported browser it finds installed and prints any remaining setup warnings. No git clone required. If you'd rather run it yourself: download and extract kget-capture-vX.Y.Z.zip (the source archive, not kget-capture-extension-vX.Y.Z.zip) from the Releases page, then from inside that folder run ./install.sh directly.

3. Open your browser's download settings (chrome://settings/downloads, brave://settings/downloads, etc.) and turn off "Ask where to save each file before downloading". Chrome shows this dialog itself, before the extension gets a chance to intercept the download, so this one-time change is required (no extension API can do it for you).

Building from source

Contributing, or want to run an unreleased version? Load the extension unpacked instead of step 1 above:

git clone https://github.com/andwati/kget-capture.git
cd kget-capture
./install.sh

(Or, for an already-tagged version without cloning: download and extract kget-capture-extension-vX.Y.Z.zip from the Releases page instead. It's already just extension/'s contents, unpacked at the zip root the way Chrome expects. You'll still need kget-capture-vX.Y.Z.zip for install.sh, per step 2 above.)

Then in chrome://extensions: enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and select the extension/ directory (from your clone, or the extracted extension zip). install.sh prints the extension's fixed ID so you can confirm it loaded correctly.

Usage

• On-demand: right-click a link/image/video/audio → "Download with KGet".
• Automatic: click the toolbar icon and flip "Auto-capture all downloads" on or off. The badge shows "ON" (green) or "OFF" (grey).

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Removes the native messaging host registrations and installed host script. Remove the extension itself via chrome://extensions (or the Chrome Web Store listing); that step can't be scripted.

Releases

Prebuilt releases are published on the Releases page; each vX.Y.Z tag push builds and publishes one automatically, as three zips:

• kget-capture-vX.Y.Z.zip: full source, for install.sh/install-remote.sh.
• kget-capture-extension-vX.Y.Z.zip: just the extension, manifest at the zip root, key field intact, for manual "Load unpacked" installs.
• kget-capture-store-vX.Y.Z.zip: same extension, but with key stripped, for uploading to the Chrome Web Store dashboard. The Store rejects any manifest containing key ("key field is not allowed in manifest") since it assigns its own permanent ID on first publish, which won't match the pinned ID (keys/extension-id.txt) the other zips use. After the first successful Store publish, update native-host/com.kget_capture.host.json's allowed_origins to include the Store-assigned ID alongside the pinned one, so both installs can reach the native host.

Known limitations

• blob:/data:/file:/filesystem: URLs can't be captured. There's no real network URL to hand to KGet, so these proceed normally through Chrome.
• Auto-capture has a brief head start. Manifest V3 removed blocking webRequest, so Chrome begins the download before the extension can cancel it. A small/partial temp file may transiently appear before it's erased.
• No editable dialog. Captures start immediately with no chance to rename the file or pick a folder beforehand: KGet only skips its interactive dialog when given a destination path up front, so instant capture and an editable prompt are mutually exclusive.
• Chrome may still show its own "Save As" dialog if you skipped step 3 of Install above.
• KGet must already be running. If it's not, captures fail silently; check the service worker console for the actual error (see Troubleshooting).

Troubleshooting

• install-remote.sh fails to look up the latest release? It queries GitHub's API, which rate-limits unauthenticated requests (60/hour per IP); wait a bit, or fall back to the manual install.sh steps in Install above.
• Check native host registration: confirm ~/.config/<browser>/NativeMessagingHosts/com.kget_capture.host.json exists and its path points at an executable file (~/.local/share/kget-capture/kget_capture_host.py).
• Inspect the extension's logs: on chrome://extensions, find "KGet Capture", click "service worker" under "Inspect views" to open its console.
• Test D-Bus directly:

  dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.kde.kget /KGet \
    org.kde.kget.main.addTransfer string:"https://example.com/file.zip" string:"$HOME/Downloads/file.zip" boolean:true
  

  If this fails with ServiceUnknown, KGet isn't running.
• Download-complete notification not showing? Confirm notify-send is installed (command -v notify-send); without it, kget_capture_host.py skips the notification entirely rather than erroring. Otherwise, check that the transfer actually reached 100%: kget_capture_host.py polls org.kde.kget.transfer.percent on the new transfer's D-Bus object path (e.g. /KGet/Transfers/9, printed by the addTransfer call above) until it hits 100, so a stuck/erroring transfer never fires one. This notification is separate from KGet's own built-in "Download Finished" event. install.sh disables that one because KGet only fires it for transfers it observed in a non-finished state at least once, so it silently skips small/fast downloads that complete before that first observation.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.