How to run Chrome apps via command line?

Don't really know if this will work for you as I never tested it but I found this site with many chromium command line options : http://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/#app You should take a look at the --app option.

--app : Specifies that the associated value should be launched in "application" mode.

--app-id: Specifies that the extension-app with the specified id should be launched according to its configuration.


To find the command that runs the app:

  1. Go to the Chrome Apps page (chrome://apps)
  2. Right click an icon and create shortcut on the desktop
  3. Right click an icon that appeared on the desktop and click Properties
  4. Copy the command

The command is as follows:

google-chrome --user-data-dir=$HOME/.config/google-chrome \
              --profile-directory=Default \
              --app-id=$APP_ID

Note: You will need to replace $APP_ID with the exact application ID (i.e. aapocclcgogkmnckokdopfmhonfmgoek) and $HOME with the path to your home directory. You can probably omit --user-data-dir and --profile-directory if you are using default values, but this is how Google Chome implements their launchers.

You can find the application ID a number of different ways.

  • Instructions and a helpful utility are available at https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2714278?hl=en.

  • You can find the ID in the webstore URL, for example the ID for Google Docs is aohghmighlieiainnegkcijnfilokake (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-docs/aohghmighlieiainnegkcijnfilokake)

  • You can goto the Extensions preferences page at chrome://extensions and enable Developer mode. You can then view the ID for installed extensions.