The browser extension

This page explains how to fill passwords and codes in Chrome, Edge and Firefox with the Lockra extension: installing and pairing it, filling and saving, and the settings that decide what it may do.

Available Available from version 0.10.0, on Windows, macOS and Linux. You

load the extension from the folder Lockra keeps it in: see Installing the extension, also for where the stores stand.

The extension keeps no passwords of its own. It asks Lockra on the same computer, over a connection encrypted between the two, and only while Lockra runs and is unlocked; Lockra decides whether a page may be filled, and with which login. The extension locks and unlocks with Lockra and never asks for the master password.

Signing up with a generated password, adding the code, and signing in page by page with both filled in: the extension with the real app, on a made-up site.

What you need

• Lockra 0.10.0 or later on Windows, macOS or Linux, running on the same computer as the browser (0.11.1 or later to load the extension from Lockra's folder, which updates it).
• Chrome or Microsoft Edge 133 or later, or Firefox 140 or later. Lockra also sets up Chromium and Brave, which install the same package as Chrome. Browsers installed as a Snap or a Flatpak are not supported (Platform notes).
• Logins in the vault (Passwords).

Installing the extension

Browser	Where from	Status
Chrome, Edge, Brave, Chromium	Lockra's extension folder, loaded unpacked	Available
Microsoft Edge	Microsoft Edge Add-ons	In development
Firefox	Firefox Add-ons	In development

The extension is not in the Chrome Web Store. From version 0.11.1, Lockra carries the extension of its own version and keeps it in a folder of its own, which Chrome, Edge and Brave load unpacked:

1. In Lockra, open Settings › Browser and turn on Browser integration (Turning on browser integration). Extension folder then shows the folder, with Copy path and Open folder:

   System	Folder
   Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Lockra\browser\extension
   macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Lockra/browser/extension
   Linux	~/.local/share/Lockra/browser/extension

2. Open the browser's extensions page (chrome://extensions, edge://extensions or brave://extensions) and turn on Developer mode. Leave it on: without it the browser turns an unpacked extension off when it reloads.

3. Choose Load unpacked and pick that folder: paste the copied path into the dialog.

The extension's card shows the ID flgfdomeabdfbebfjonaocddjcamgblk, the same as the extension Edge Add-ons will publish; Lockra connects to no other Chromium extension. If you loaded the extension from a release package before, load Lockra's folder all the same: under the same ID it takes the old one's place and stays paired.

Download the extension package, in the same section, opens the release's lockra-extension_<version>_chromium-unpacked.zip of Lockra's version: unzip it into a folder you keep and load that folder instead (with Lockra 0.10, this is the way). An extension installed that way does not update with Lockra: replace the folder's files with a newer release's package and choose the reload button on the extension's card. The release's other Chromium file, lockra-extension_<version>_chromium-store.zip, is the stores' package: loaded unpacked it gets another ID and cannot connect. Removing the extension forgets the pairing, so pair again after loading it anew. Once Edge Add-ons lists the extension, Edge can install it from there instead; remove the unpacked one first, since both have the same ID.

Firefox installs an extension only once Firefox Add-ons has signed it, so the Firefox extension comes with its listing.

Updating with Lockra

Available Available from version 0.11.1.

Chrome, Edge and Brave never update an extension loaded unpacked, so Lockra does: each time it updates, it puts the new extension in its folder as it starts. The extension finds it and reloads itself once none of its popup, options page or menus is open, and stays paired; pages already open use the new extension once they are reloaded.

When the extension is older than Lockra, its popup says so and, for one that came another way, asks to load Lockra's folder instead. Settings › Browser shows each paired extension's version and marks one older than Lockra Update available. Firefox keeps no unpacked extension, so none of this applies there.

When the extension needs a reload

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

The browser may go on running the extension's older background after its folder changed, while the popup, the options page and the menus read the new files as they open: some of their buttons would then do nothing. The popup and the options page say so and offer Reload the extension, and the menu by a field shows "Lockra's extension needs a reload" with the same button instead. After the reload, reload the pages that are already open. From then on the extension also takes a new copy of the same version by itself, as Lockra starts again with it; the note stays for a background that cannot.

Turning on browser integration

1. In Lockra, open Settings › Browser and turn on Browser integration. Lockra writes a connection file (a native-messaging manifest) for each browser it finds on this computer, so the extension can reach it; on Windows, a registry entry under your user account points to each file.
2. Lockra offers to keep running after its window closes, since the extension works only while Lockra runs: Keep running turns that on (Running in the background).

Browsers then lists each browser and how it stands: Connected while a paired extension is connected, Manifest written when one has paired before, and Extension not installed when none has paired yet; Lockra cannot see whether the extension is installed, only whether it has paired. A browser installed after you turned the integration on shows Write: choose it to write that browser's connection file.

Turning Browser integration off removes the connection files and disconnects every extension.

Pairing the extension with Lockra

1. Click Lockra's icon in the browser's toolbar and choose Connect.
2. The extension and Lockra each show a six-digit code; Lockra's window comes to the front with "Chrome asks to connect" (or the browser you use). Check that the two codes are the same.
3. Approve in Lockra with the master password, or with Touch ID or Windows Hello where Lockra unlocks with it. If the codes differ, choose Deny.

A request expires after two minutes, and at most three wait at once. Each browser, and each of its profiles, pairs on its own. Paired extensions in Settings › Browser lists them, with when each was paired and last used; Unpair disconnects one at once, and it has to pair again to be used. The extension's own settings page can unpair as well.

While Lockra is locked, the popup shows Unlock in Lockra, which brings Lockra's unlock screen to the front. While Lockra is not running, it shows Start Lockra.

Filling a sign-in form

Lockra offers the logins that match the page most closely (Sites and matching), favorites first, then the ones used most recently.

From the popup

Click Lockra's icon in the toolbar, or press Ctrl Shift Y (⌘ Shift Y on macOS), to open the popup. It lists the site's logins; Fill fills one into the page, and ⋯ copies its user name, password or code. Search all logins… finds any login the extension may see: those that match the page can be filled, the others only copied.

Available From version 0.12.0, a login with a linked code has two buttons

beside Fill: Fill the code puts its current code into the page's code field, or, where Lockra cannot tell one, into the field you clicked into before opening the popup (never a password field); Copy code puts it on the clipboard. This is for the pages where the code does not come by itself: a sign-in whose first steps you typed, or a code field Lockra does not recognise. The login's ⋯ menu also has Delete… (Deleting a login).

With the shortcut

Click into the sign-in form and press Ctrl Shift L (⌘ Shift L on macOS): the first login for the site is filled into the form. Press it again within 10 seconds to fill the next account instead. When there is nothing to fill, or Lockra is locked or not paired, the popup opens and says why. The browser's own shortcut settings change both keys (in Chrome chrome://extensions/shortcuts, in Edge edge://extensions/shortcuts, in Firefox the add-ons manager's Manage Extension Shortcuts).

Lockra's menu on any field

Available Available from version 0.16.3.

On a page whose fields Lockra cannot tell, no menu opens by the field and Ctrl Shift L finds no form to fill. Click into the field and press Alt Shift L (⌥ Shift L on macOS): Lockra's menu opens there with the logins that match the site (by its root domain, or the full host where you chose so), and Enter fills the chosen one. A field Lockra cannot tell gets the user name, and the next page's password follows, as in a sign-in over several pages. Without a focused field, or a login for the site, the popup opens instead. Ctrl Shift L in such a field now puts the user name in as well. The browser's shortcut settings change this key too.

From the menu by the field

With site access, Lockra's menu opens at a sign-in field when you click into it: the site's logins, chosen with the arrow keys and Enter, or a click; Esc closes it. Lockra's mark at the end of the field opens it again. Where the browser may list the passwords it keeps under the field, Lockra's menu opens above the field instead (The browser's own password manager). While the browser's list is open, the arrow keys and Esc go to it: Esc closes it, and the arrow keys then move in Lockra's menu. Available From version 0.16.0, with no room above, the menu opens beside the field, and under it only when there is no room beside it either (Beside the field).

Available From version 0.13.1, when a sign-in page puts the cursor in its

field by itself as it opens (a router's, a NAS's or qBittorrent's, for example), the menu opens there too, without a click elsewhere and back.

Available From version 0.12.0, a menu of two logins or more has a search box

at its top: click into it and type part of a login's title, user name or email address, and the list keeps the logins that hold it; the arrow keys choose, Enter fills, Esc empties the box and then closes the menu. What you type there stays in Lockra's menu: the page cannot read it. A long list scrolls, seven logins high.

Whichever way you fill, only the visible fields of the form you are in are filled, and the custom fields of the login that name a page field. A form is submitted after filling only with Submit after filling on:

• A step that asks for the user name alone is not submitted: Next is yours.
• A login without a linked code is submitted once its password is in.
• A login with a linked code is submitted once its code is in: with the password and the code on one page, once both are; with the code on the next page, the password page waits for your Sign in, and the code's page is submitted once the code is filled.

Available From version 0.16.3, a form that also asks for a code is not

submitted for a login without a linked code: the code and Sign in are yours. Link the code to the login and Lockra fills it too (Adding and editing a login).

Lockra submits as Enter would, with a click on the form's submit button, passing over buttons such as Get code, Cancel or another service's sign-in; a button the page has not enabled yet is waited for up to a second, and a form whose button stays disabled is not submitted.

Deleting a login

Available From version 0.12.0, a login can be deleted from the menu by the

field and from the popup. In the menu, the chosen row shows a delete button at its end (the others as the pointer comes); in the popup, it is Delete… in the login's ⋯ menu. Either asks first, naming the login, with the focus on Cancel; only Delete deletes it in Lockra, and the menu then lists the others. A deleted login cannot be brought back, and it goes from the synced devices too. Lockra deletes only a login it offers for the page, never one in a frame of another site or on a site of the never-fill list, and counts deletions with the fills, so an extension cannot empty the vault in a burst; a login of the Verify first level asks for the master password, Touch ID or Windows Hello in Lockra first.

Sign-ins over several pages

A sign-in that asks for the user name first and the password on the next page is filled once, on the first page: after you choose Next, the next page of the same site that shows a password field within two minutes gets the same login's password by itself. It happens once, in the same tab and on the same site. A login set to Verify first, or a form in a frame of another site, is not filled this way: fill it again as usual. A fill as the page loads has no next page.

Fields named only by their label

Available Available from version 0.16.3.

Lockra also reads the label a page shows for a field (a <label>, or the text the field points at), not only the field's own names. A user name or code field that names nothing itself, as on the sign-in of AWS IAM Identity Center, then opens the menu, and its sign-in can be saved.

When a fill asks first

• A login set to Verify first waits for you in Lockra: its window comes to the front with the site and the login, and fills after the master password, Touch ID or Windows Hello. A request nobody answers is denied after 60 seconds.
• Confirm before filling (below) asks in the page before the menu or the shortcut fills: "Fill …?", then Fill.
• An HTTP page for a login saved with an https:// address says "This page is not encrypted (HTTP)": a password filled there may be seen by others on the same network. Fill anyway fills it.
• A form in a frame of another site is never filled by default. With Ask first, Lockra shows the frame's site and the page's, and fills only after Fill anyway.

The code on the next page

When a login has a linked code, the extension fills the code after the password: into the code field of the same page, or of a later page of the same site within five minutes, when a sign-in asks for it in a step of its own, a page that only changes its content included. With Submit after filling on, the code's form is then submitted (above). Lockra recognises fields marked for one-time codes, fields named like one, and a code split into one box per digit; it fills no image check, and no code field that says it is for a code sent by text message or mail or has a Get code button beside it. The code also goes to the clipboard, cleared after the time set in Settings › Security › Clear clipboard. Fill in codes and Copy codes turn either off (What the extension may do). The next page needs site access.

A code field on its own

Available From version 0.12.0, Lockra also recognises a code field named for

an authenticator, or one that takes digits alone, as Google's does after Try another way: the code goes in there too. And when no login was filled in that tab in the last five minutes (the first steps were typed, or the time is up), choosing the code field opens the menu with the site's logins that have a linked code: choose one, and its code goes in.

A code field that hides the code

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

Some single sign-on pages ask for the code in a step of its own, in a field that hides what you type, as a password field does. Lockra takes such a field for a code field when the page marks it for one-time codes, or when its name says so (OTP or dynamicPassword, for example, or 动态口令 on a Chinese page) and it is the only field to type in on its form; a password field beside a user name, or one the page marks as a password, stays a password field. It then works as the code fields above: the code goes in once the login's password was filled, and Fill the code in the popup fills it too. What such a form sends is a code, so Lockra offers no save or update for it.

Saving and updating passwords

With site access, the extension notices a form you submit:

• A user name and password Lockra does not have bring up Save to Lockra? at the top right of the page, with the title, the user name, the password and a group to check. Save adds the login for this site, Not now forgets it, and Never for this site adds the site to Never offer to save.
• A known user name with a new password brings up Update the password in Lockra?. Update changes the login's password, and the old one goes into its history.
• A sign-in in two steps, the user name first and the password on the next page, is put together: the extension keeps the user name in memory for five minutes.
• On a sign-up form, or one that sets a new password, the menu by the password field offers Use a generated password, made to the site's password rules when the page or Lockra knows them. Use fills every new-password field, the confirmation too, and adds the login to Lockra at once. The form's other fields offer the same password, for five minutes after its last menu; Another one makes a new one. Using it again adds no second login: a password made after the first use changes that login's. Copy password puts it on the clipboard through Lockra, which clears it after the time set in Settings › Security › Clear clipboard.

Nothing is offered on a site of the Never offer to save list, or for a login that is saved already.

When the page only shows the user name

Available Available from version 0.16.3.

Some password pages have no field for the user name and only show it as text, as AWS IAM Identity Center does when it remembers you. The extension then takes that text as the user name: Save to Lockra? shows it, where it can still be changed, and a login added with Use a generated password on such a page gets it too.

Checking the password before saving

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

The password in Save to Lockra? can be changed before you save it, as the title, the user name and the group can: what a page sends as a password is not always yours. Update the password in Lockra? shows the new password too, hidden until you choose Show password, and it can be changed there as well. Save and Update need a password.

A code sent as a password

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

Some sign-in steps take the code in a field Lockra cannot tell from a password field. When what a form sent looks like a one-time code (six to eight digits), the prompt says "This looks like a one-time code, not a password." and offers It is a code, which saves nothing. When the login Lockra filled for the site in that tab in the last five minutes, or the login to update, has no linked code, it also offers Link a code…: Lockra comes to the front and shows that login on its Passwords page with the code picker open, and you choose the code there (Adding and editing a login). From then on that step asks to save nothing (see below), and with its field focused, Fill the code in the popup puts the code in: a code the user asks for goes into a password field that stands alone in its form, as long as the page does not name it a password. When a dialog is open in Lockra, it stays as it is, and Lockra only shows a notice that the browser asked.

Lockra offers no save or update at all when what the form sent is the code of an account linked to one of the site's logins: its current code, or the one before or after it.

A login saved without a user name

Available Available from version 0.16.3.

Some sign-in pages show the user name only as text, without a user-name box (AWS IAM Identity Center's password page once it remembers you), and a login saved on such a page may have no user name. When a later sign-in brings the user name (typed on the page before, or shown on the page) and the site has a login with the same password but no user name, the top right of the page shows Add the user name to this login? instead of offering a second login. The name can be changed first; Add adds only the user name and leaves the password as it is. The extension cannot change the user name of a login that has one, or an email address.

Site access

Without access to the sites you visit, the extension runs in a page only when you use it: the popup and the shortcut work, nothing else. Turn on in web pages in the popup, or Grant access on the extension's settings page, asks the browser for that access. With it, the extension adds the menu by sign-in fields, the save and update prompts, the generated passwords of sign-up forms, the code on the next page and, if you turn it on, filling as pages load.

The browser's own extension settings, or Remove access on the extension's settings page, take it back. Settings › Browser in Lockra notes a paired extension that has no site access.

The browser's own password manager

The browser keeps passwords of its own, and its list of them, with a key, opens under the field when you click into it, where Lockra's menu would open. The extension's settings page (the gear in the popup) has, under The browser's own features:

• Let Lockra take over the browser's passwords turns off the browser's offer to save passwords, so that only Lockra offers to save and update them. The first time, the browser asks for the permission to change privacy-related settings; turning the switch off gives the browser its own setting back, and the permission with it. In Firefox it also stops Firefox filling and listing the passwords it keeps; they stay in its password manager.
• In Chrome and Edge, the passwords the browser already keeps stay as they are: it goes on filling them and listing them under the field, whatever its offer to save says, until you delete them there. Export them in the browser's password settings first (a CSV file), import them into Lockra (Importing and exporting), check them, then delete them in the browser; Open the browser's password manager goes there. In Chrome, deleting all its data at once deletes your passkeys too, and with sync on, the passwords in your Google Account.
• Also turn off address and payment autofill (Chrome and Edge) stops the browser suggesting addresses and cards in forms. Lockra fills neither, so leave it off if you want the browser to.
• Keep clear of the browser's own password list, on by default: Lockra's menu opens above the field and the browser's list under it. In Firefox, once Lockra has taken over its passwords, Firefox lists none and the menu opens under the field. Turn it off once the browser keeps no passwords, to have the menu under the field.Available From version 0.16.0, with no room above, the menu opens besidethe field first, and under it only when there is no room beside it either (Beside the field).
• Open Lockra's menu when a field is clicked, on by default: off, the menu opens only from Lockra's mark at the end of the field.

When a policy of the browser, or another password manager's extension, holds these settings, the page says the switch is not in effect. Firefox lets an extension turn off the saving of passwords alone.

Beside the field

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

With Keep clear of the browser's own password list on, Lockra's menu opens beside the field when there is no room for it above: on the left of the field, or, when the left has no room either, on the right, past the browser's list; its top is level with the field's as far as the window allows. Only with no room on either side does it open under the field, over the browser's list.

What the extension may do

Settings › Browser › Autofill decides what every paired extension may do on this computer:

Setting	Default	What it does
Fill in codes	On	Fill a login's linked code into the page's code field
Copy codes	On	Put that code on the clipboard as well
Submit after filling	Off	Submit the form once the password is filled, or the code for a login with a linked one; a step with the user name alone is not submitted
Confirm before filling	Off	Confirm in the page each time before filling
Sign-in forms in frames of other sites	Never fill	Never fill, or Ask first in Lockra
Fill as pages load	Off	Fill matching pages as they open, without a click (below)

A change that lets the extension do more asks for the master password, Touch ID or Windows Hello: turning on Fill in codes, Submit after filling or Fill as pages load, turning off Confirm before filling, or choosing Ask first. These settings are kept in the vault, on this device only. Each login can set Fill as the page loads, Submit after filling and Fill the code for itself (Protection levels).

Matching the port

Available From version 0.12.0, Settings › Browser › Autofill also has

Match the port, off by default. With it on, a login is offered only where the port matches too, so the ports of one address keep their own logins: a NAS at http://192.168.1.10:5000 and a router at http://192.168.1.10. An address saved without a port matches the scheme's default port only (https://example.com is not offered on https://example.com:8443). The Host, Starts with and Exact rules compare the port already, and a Regex matches as written. Turning it on or off asks for nothing: it only narrows what the extension gets.

Matching the full host

Available Available from version 0.16.0.

Settings › Browser › Autofill also has Match the full host, off by default. Off, a login whose address uses the Domain rule is offered on every host of its site: one saved for git.example.com shows on wiki.example.com and on example.com too. On, the Domain rule matches as Host does, on the host and port of the saved address only, and the domains Lockra knows to share their sign-ins no longer count as one. A login saved as example.com is then not offered on www.example.com: give it the address you sign in on, or let that site match by its domain (below). Logins whose addresses use Host, Starts with, Exact, Regex or Never match as they did. The setting is kept on this device only, and turning it on or off asks for nothing.

Single sites can match their own way, whatever the setting says:

• Settings › Browser › Site lists has a third card, Matching, for them. Add a site… asks for the site and how it matches, Full host unless you choose Domain; each row shows the site and its way. A site's subdomains match the same way unless one has a rule of its own: the rule of the longest name wins, so git.example.com on Domain goes before example.com on Full host. A site matches one way only: adding it again the other way replaces its rule. On Domain, the port counts as Match the port says; on Full host, it always does. These rules are kept in the vault and sync to your other devices with the site lists; an earlier version of Lockra keeps them but does not apply them.
• The extension's popup shows Match the full host under the site's name, with a line saying which logins it lists: those saved for the page's host, or those of every subdomain of the site. Its switch sets how the page's whole site matches (example.com for a page of git.example.com), its subdomains with it: Lockra adds the site to Matching when what you choose differs from the setting, and takes its rule away when they agree. Rules for the page's host and for its parent domains within the site go with it; rules for the site's other hosts stay. The switch is not shown on a site of the Never fill list.

Filling as pages load

Fill as pages load fills a login into a matching page as it opens, without a click. Turning it on first shows its risk: with the default matching by domain, a single malicious script on any subdomain of the site can read the filled password without your knowing, and with this on it needs no click from you. Lockra then fills only when all of these hold:

• the form is in the page itself, not in a frame;
• the page uses HTTPS, or the scheme the login was saved with;
• exactly one login matches most closely;
• the login is set to Fill directly and has not turned this off for itself;
• the site is not on the Never fill list;
• the fields are visible.

Even then, codes are never filled and forms never submitted. It needs site access, and only Continue… and the master password, Touch ID or Windows Hello turn it on.

Site lists

Site lists in Settings › Browser holds two lists: Never offer to save, where the extension offers no save or update prompt, and Never fill, where it fills nothing. Add a site… adds one; a site covers its subdomains. The lists are kept in the vault and sync to your other devices.

Available From version 0.16.0, under the two lists, a third card, Matching, holds the sites

that match their own way, by Full host or by Domain (Matching the full host).

Recent activity

Recent activity lists what the extensions did and what Lockra refused: pairings, fills, codes, copies, saves and updates, with the time, the browser and the site. It is kept in memory only, at most 100 entries, and cleared as Lockra locks; Clear empties it.

An extension that asks too often is paused: more than 10 passwords or codes in a minute, more than 120 requests in a minute, or the passwords of more than 20 sites in ten minutes. While paused it gets no password, and Settings › Browser shows "… is paused" with Resume: resume it once you are sure the requests were yours.

Running in the background

Settings › Browser › Keep running after the window closes keeps Lockra running in the tray when you close its window, so the extension can still reach it. The tray icon is there whenever Lockra runs (The tray icon): a click on it opens the window, and on macOS so does Lockra's icon in the Dock; its menu has Open Lockra, Quick search (Quick search from anywhere), Lock, Settings…, Check for updates… and Quit Lockra. A pairing or a fill that waits for you brings the window up by itself. With the setting off, closing the window quits Lockra, as before.

Available From version 0.13.0, with Start Lockra at login on as well

(Starting at login), Lockra is there for the extension from the moment you sign in, in the tray.

While Lockra runs in the background, the vault stays unlocked until it locks by itself after the idle time in Settings › Security, or until you lock it from the tray. Some Linux desktops show no tray icons, GNOME among them unless an AppIndicator extension is installed: there nothing shows that Lockra still runs, and starting Lockra again brings its window back.

Start Lockra in the extension starts Lockra in the tray while this setting is on, and with its window otherwise.

What the extension can and cannot see

• No vault. The extension keeps no logins. A login's password reaches it only when you fill or copy it, and for filling only from a login that matches the page. It never sees a login set to Not for the extension, not even in its search.
• What stays in the browser. Its own key, the pairing and whether its menu opens on a click into a field, in your browser profile; while you use it, the site's logins as it last listed them (titles and user names, no password), in the browser's memory until Lockra locks.
• No network. It talks only to Lockra on the same computer, through the browser's native messaging, encrypted end to end; it sends nothing anywhere else and collects nothing.
• The page cannot pretend. Lockra checks the addresses the browser reports for the page and for the frame the form is in, never what the page says about itself, and a page cannot click Lockra's menu for you: a click counts only when the menu has been visible, uncovered and still for at least 300 milliseconds.
• No say in the rules. The extension cannot unlock Lockra, and cannot let itself do more: only Settings › Browser in Lockra can. Available From version 0.16.0, the one exception is the popup's Match the full host switch: it picks the full host or the domain for the page's site without proof, since matching by the domain is Lockra's default and never gives the extension more logins than the default does, and no page can work the popup.

What it cannot protect against is in How Lockra protects your accounts.