A Chrome (and other Chromium-browser) extension that sends downloads to KGet, KDE's download manager, instead of (or in addition to) the browser's built-in downloader.

Right-click any link, image, video, or audio element and choose "Download with KGet" to send it straight to KGet — it starts downloading immediately into your Downloads folder, no dialog.
A toolbar toggle enables auto-capture: while on, every download Chrome starts is cancelled and handed off to KGet the same way, automatically, with the correct filename (resolved by Chrome itself, so it's right even for URLs whose path is just an opaque ID). Defaults to ON.
KGet's own "Download Finished" desktop notification is enabled on install, so you still get feedback once a capture completes.

Requirements

Linux with KGet installed (and running, or set to autostart)
One of: Google Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Vivaldi, Microsoft Edge
python3 and dbus-send on PATH (standard on virtually all Linux/KDE systems already)
kwriteconfig6 (ships with KDE Plasma) — optional, only used to enable the download-finished notification; install still works without it

Install

git clone <this-repo-url> kget-capture
cd kget-capture
./install.sh

install.sh registers a native messaging host for every supported browser it finds installed, then prints the extension's fixed ID and next steps:

Open chrome://extensions (or your browser's equivalent).
Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle).
Click Load unpacked and select this repo's extension/ directory.
Confirm the loaded extension's ID matches the one install.sh printed.

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

This removes the native messaging host registrations and the installed host script. You'll still need to remove the unpacked extension yourself via chrome://extensions — that step can't be scripted.

Releases

Pushing a tag matching v*.*.* (e.g. v1.0.0) triggers a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) that zips extension/ and publishes it as a GitHub Release with auto-generated release notes. Bump "version" in extension/manifest.json before tagging so the packaged extension's version matches.

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

Known limitations

blob:/data: URLs can't be captured. There's no real network URL to hand to KGet, so these downloads proceed normally through Chrome (a console warning is logged in the extension's service worker).
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 different folder beforehand — rename/move it afterward in KGet or your file manager if needed. This is intentional: KGet only skips its interactive "New Download" dialog when given a real destination path up front, so instant capture and an editable prompt are mutually exclusive given KGet's D-Bus API.
The context-menu capture can't always get the correct filename. Auto-capture gets the real filename for free from Chrome's own Content-Disposition resolution. Right-click captures don't have that — the extension only has the raw URL — so KGet falls back to guessing from the URL path, which is wrong for opaque/signed URLs (e.g. cloud storage links). Fixing this would require broad host permissions and an extra HTTP request per right-click, which isn't worth it for now.
Chrome may still show its own "Save As" dialog. This is controlled by Chrome's own Ask where to save each file before downloading setting (chrome://settings/downloads) — no extension API can read or suppress it, and if it's on, Chrome shows the picker before our extension gets a chance to see the download at all. Turn that setting off for auto-capture to work without an extra prompt.
KGet must already be running. If it's not, captures fail silently from the user's perspective — check the service worker console for the actual error (see Troubleshooting).

Troubleshooting

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-finished notification not showing? install.sh enables it via kwriteconfig6 --file knotifyrc --group "Event/kget/finished" --key Action Popup. Check System Settings → Notifications → Applications → "KGet Download Manager" to confirm it's on, or disable it the same way with kwriteconfig6 --file knotifyrc --group "Event/kget/finished" --key Action None.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.