How to build Google sign-in with Chrome extension

For our new friends:

Logto is an Auth0 alternative designed for modern apps and SaaS products. It offers both Cloud and Open-source services to help you quickly launch your identity and management (IAM) system. Enjoy authentication, authorization, and multi-tenant management all in one.

We recommend starting with a free development tenant on Logto Cloud. This allows you to explore all the features easily.

In this article, we will go through the steps to quickly build the Google sign-in experience (user authentication) with Chrome extension and Logto.

Prerequisites

A running Logto instance. Check out the introduction page to get started.
Basic knowledge of Chrome extension.
A usable Google account.

Create an application in Logto

Logto is based on OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication and OAuth 2.0 authorization. It supports federated identity management across multiple applications, commonly called Single Sign-On (SSO).

To create your Single page app application, simply follow these steps:

Open the Logto Console. In the "Get started" section, click the "View all" link to open the application frameworks list. Alternatively, you can navigate to Logto Console > Applications, and click the "Create application" button.
In the opening modal, click the "Single page app" section or filter all the available "Single page app" frameworks using the quick filter checkboxes on the left. Click the "Chrome extension" framework card to start creating your application.
Enter the application name, e.g., "Bookstore," and click "Create application".

🎉 Ta-da! You just created your first application in Logto. You'll see a congrats page which includes a detailed integration guide. Follow the guide to see what the experience will be in your application.

Integrate Chrome extension with Logto

astuce:

The following demonstration was tested on Chrome v123.0.6312.87 (arm64). Other versions should also work, as long as they support the chrome APIs used in the SDK.
The sample project is available on our GitHub repository.

Installation

npm
Yarn
pnpm

npm i @logto/chrome-extension

yarn add @logto/chrome-extension

pnpm add @logto/chrome-extension

The authentication flow

Assuming you put a "Sign in" button in your Chrome extension's popup, the authentication flow will look like this:

For other interactive pages in your extension, you just need to replace the Extension popup participant with the page's name. In this tutorial, we will focus on the popup page.

This authentication process follows the OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocol, and Logto enforces strict security measures to protect user sign-in.
If you have multiple apps, you can use the same identity provider (Logto). Once the user signs in to one app, Logto will automatically complete the sign-in process when the user accesses another app.

To learn more about the rationale and benefits of redirect-based sign-in, see Logto sign-in experience explained.

Update the `manifest.json`

Logto SDK requires the following permissions in the manifest.json:

manifest.json
{
  "permissions": ["identity", "storage"],
  "host_permissions": ["https://*.logto.app/*"]
}

permissions.identity: Required for the Chrome Identity API, which is used to sign in and sign out.
permissions.storage: Required for storing the user's session.
host_permissions: Required for the Logto SDK to communicate with the Logto APIs.

remarque:

If you are using a custom domain on Logto Cloud, you need to update the host_permissions to match your domain.

Set up a background script (service worker)

In your Chrome extension's background script, initialize the Logto SDK:

service-worker.js
import LogtoClient from '@logto/chrome-extension';

export const logtoClient = new LogtoClient({
  endpoint: '<your-logto-endpoint>'
  appId: '<your-logto-app-id>',
});

Replace <your-logto-endpoint> and <your-logto-app-id> with the actual values. You can find these values in the application page you just created in the Logto Console.

If you don't have a background script, you can follow the official guide to create one.

info:

Why do we need a background script?

Normal extension pages like the popup or options page can't run in the background, and they have the possibility to be closed during the authentication process. A background script ensures the authentication process can be properly handled.

Then, we need to listen to the message from other extension pages and handle the authentication process:

service-worker.js
chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((message, sender, sendResponse) => {
  // In the below code, since we return `true` for each action, we need to call `sendResponse`
  // to notify the sender. You can also handle errors here, or use other ways to notify the sender.

  if (message.action === 'signIn') {
    const redirectUri = chrome.identity.getRedirectURL('/callback');
    logtoClient.signIn(redirectUri).finally(sendResponse);
    return true;
  }

  if (message.action === 'signOut') {
    const redirectUri = chrome.identity.getRedirectURL();
    logtoClient.signOut(redirectUri).finally(sendResponse);
    return true;
  }

  return false;
});

You may notice there are two redirect URIs used in the code above. They are both created by chrome.identity.getRedirectURL, which is a built-in Chrome API to generate a redirect URL for auth flows. The two URIs will be:

https://<extension-id>.chromiumapp.org/callback for sign-in.
https://<extension-id>.chromiumapp.org/ for sign-out.

Note that these URIs are not accessible, and they are only used for Chrome to trigger specific actions for the authentication process.

Update Logto application settings

Now we need to update the Logto application settings to allow the redirect URIs we just created.

Go to the application page in the Logto Console.
In the "Redirect URIs" section, add the URI: https://<extension-id>.chromiumapp.org/callback.
In the "Post sign-out redirect URIs" section, add the URI: https://<extension-id>.chromiumapp.org/.
In the "CORS allowed origins" section, add the URI: chrome-extension://<extension-id>. The SDK in Chrome extension will use this origin to communicate with the Logto APIs.
Click on Save changes.

Remember to replace <extension-id> with your actual extension ID. You can find the extension ID in the chrome://extensions page.

We're almost there! Let's add the sign-in and sign-out buttons and other necessary logic to the popup page.

In the popup.html file:

popup.html
<button id="sign-in">Sign in</button> <button id="sign-out">Sign out</button>

In the popup.js file (assuming popup.js is included in the popup.html):

popup.js
document.getElementById('sign-in').addEventListener('click', async () => {
  await chrome.runtime.sendMessage({ action: 'signIn' });
  // Sign-in completed (or failed), you can update the UI here.
});

document.getElementById('sign-out').addEventListener('click', async () => {
  await chrome.runtime.sendMessage({ action: 'signOut' });
  // Sign-out completed (or failed), you can update the UI here.
});

Checkpoint: Test the authentication flow

Now you can test the authentication flow in your Chrome extension:

Open the extension popup.
Click on the "Sign in" button.
You will be redirected to the Logto sign-in page.
Sign in with your Logto account.
You will be redirected back to the Chrome.

Check authentication state

Since Chrome provide unified storage APIs, rather than the sign-in and sign-out flow, all other Logto SDK methods can be used in the popup page directly.

In your popup.js, you can reuse the LogtoClient instance created in the background script, or create a new one with the same configuration:

popup.js
import LogtoClient from '@logto/chrome-extension';

const logtoClient = new LogtoClient({
  endpoint: '<your-logto-endpoint>'
  appId: '<your-logto-app-id>',
});

// Or reuse the logtoClient instance created in the background script
import { logtoClient } from './service-worker.js';

Then you can create a function to load the authentication state and user's profile:

popup.js
const loadAuthenticationState = async () => {
  const isAuthenticated = await logtoClient.isAuthenticated();
  // Update the UI based on the authentication state

  if (isAuthenticated) {
    const user = await logtoClient.getIdTokenClaims(); // { sub: '...', email: '...', ... }
    // Update the UI with the user's profile
  }
};

You can also combine the loadAuthenticationState function with the sign-in and sign-out logic:

popup.js
document.getElementById('sign-in').addEventListener('click', async () => {
  await chrome.runtime.sendMessage({ action: 'signIn' });
  await loadAuthenticationState();
});

document.getElementById('sign-out').addEventListener('click', async () => {
  await chrome.runtime.sendMessage({ action: 'signOut' });
  await loadAuthenticationState();
});

Here's an example of the popup page with the authentication state:

Other considerations

Service worker bundling: If you use a bundler like Webpack or Rollup, you need to explicitly set the target to browser or similar to avoid unnecessary bundling of Node.js modules.
Module resolution: Logto Chrome extension SDK is an ESM-only module.

See our sample project for a complete example with TypeScript, Rollup, and other configurations.

Add Google connector

To enable quick sign-in and improve user conversion, connect with Chrome extension as an identity provider. The Logto social connector helps you establish this connection in minutes by allowing several parameter inputs.

To add a social connector, simply follow these steps:

Navigate to Console > Connectors > Social Connectors.
Click "Add social connector" and select "Google".
Follow the README guide and complete required fields and customize settings.

remarque:

If you are following the in-place Connector guide, you can skip the next section.

Set up Google OAuth app

Set up a project in the Google API Console

Visit the Google API Console and sign in with your Google account.
Click the Select a project button on the top menu bar, and click the New Project button to create a project.
In your newly created project, click the APIs & Services to enter the APIs & Services menu.

Configure and register your application

On the left APIs & Services menu, click the OAuth consent screen button.
Choose the User Type you want, and click the Create button. (Note: If you select External as your User Type, you will need to add test users later.)

Now you will be on the Edit app registration page.

Edit app registration

Follow the instructions to fill out the OAuth consent screen form.
Click SAVE AND CONTINUE to continue.

Config scopes

Click ADD OR REMOVE SCOPES and select ../auth/userinfo.email, ../auth/userinfo.profile and openid in the popup drawer, and click UPDATE to finish. It is recommended that you consider adding all the scopes you may use, otherwise some scopes you added in the configuration may not work.
Fill out the form as you need.
Click SAVE AND CONTINUE to continue.

Add test users (External user type only)

Click ADD USERS and add test users to allow these users to access your application while testing.
Click SAVE AND CONTINUE to continue.

Now you should have the Google OAuth 2.0 consent screen configured.

Obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials

On the left APIs & Services menu, click the Credentials button.
On the Credentials page, click the + CREATE CREDENTIALS button on the top menu bar, and select OAuth client ID.
On the Create OAuth client ID page, select Web application as the application type.
Fill out the basic information for your application.
Click + Add URI to add an authorized domain to the Authorized JavaScript origins section. This is the domain that your logto authorization page will be served from. In our case, this will be ${your_logto_origin}. e.g.https://logto.dev.
Click + Add URI in the **Authorized redirect URIs** section to set up the **Authorized redirect URIs**, which redirect the user to the application after logging in. In our case, this will be ${your_logto_endpoint}/callback/${connector_id}. e.g. https://logto.dev/callback/${connector_id}. The connector_id can be found on the top bar of the Logto Admin Console connector details page.
Click Create to finish and then you will get the Client ID and Client Secret.

Configure your connector

Fill out the clientId and clientSecret field with Client ID and Client Secret you've got from OAuth app detail pages mentioned in the previous section.

scope is a space-delimited list of scopes. If not provided, scope defaults to be openid profile email.

prompts is an array of strings that specifies the type of user interaction that is required. The string can be one of the following values:

none: The authorization server does not display any authentication or user consent screens; it will return an error if the user is not already authenticated and has not pre-configured consent for the requested scopes. You can use none to check for existing authentication and/or consent.
consent: The authorization server prompts the user for consent before returning information to the client.
select_account: The authorization server prompts the user to select a user account. This allows a user who has multiple accounts at the authorization server to select amongst the multiple accounts that they may have current sessions for.

Config types

Name	Type
clientId	string
clientSecret	string
scope	string
prompts	string[]

Enable Google One Tap

Google One Tap is a secure and easy way to let users sign in to your website or app with their Google account.

Once you have the Google connector set up, you'll see a card for Google One Tap in the connector details page. You can enable Google One Tap in your sign-up and sign-in pages by toggling the switch.

When you enable Google One Tap, you can configure the following options:

Auto-select credential if possible: Automatically sign in the user with the Google account if certain conditions are met.
Cancel the prompt if user click/tap outside: Close the Google One Tap prompt if the user clicks or taps outside the prompt. If disabled, the user must click the close button to dismiss the prompt.
Enable Upgraded One Tap UX on ITP browsers: Enable the upgraded Google One Tap user experience on Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) browsers. Please refer to this page for more information.

remarque:

To enable Google One Tap in your website (beyond the Logto sign-in experience), this feature is under development. Please stay tuned for updates.

Save your configuration

Double check you have filled out necessary values in the Logto connector configuration area. Click "Save and Done" (or "Save changes") and the Google connector should be available now.

Once you create a social connector successfully, you can enable it as a "Continue with Google" button in Sign-in Experience.

Navigate to Console > Sign-in experience > Sign-up and sign-in.
(Optional) Choose "Not applicable" for sign-up identifier if you need social login only.
Add configured Google connector to the "Social sign-in" section.

Testing and Validation

Return to your Chrome extension app. You should now be able to sign in with Google. Enjoy!

Create an application in Logto​

Integrate Chrome extension with Logto​

Installation​

The authentication flow​

Regarding redirect-based sign-in​

Update the manifest.json​

Set up a background script (service worker)​

Update Logto application settings​

Add sign-in and sign-out buttons to the popup​

Checkpoint: Test the authentication flow​

Check authentication state​

Other considerations​

Add Google connector​

Set up Google OAuth app​

Set up a project in the Google API Console​

Configure your consent screen​

Configure and register your application​

Edit app registration​

Config OAuth consent screen​

Config scopes​

Add test users (External user type only)​

Obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials​

Configure your connector​

Config types​

Enable Google One Tap​

Save your configuration​

Enable Google connector in Sign-in Experience​

Testing and Validation​

Further readings​

Create an application in Logto

Integrate Chrome extension with Logto

Installation

The authentication flow

Regarding redirect-based sign-in

Update the `manifest.json`

Set up a background script (service worker)

Update Logto application settings

Add sign-in and sign-out buttons to the popup

Checkpoint: Test the authentication flow

Check authentication state

Other considerations

Add Google connector

Set up Google OAuth app

Set up a project in the Google API Console

Configure your consent screen

Configure and register your application

Edit app registration

Config OAuth consent screen

Config scopes

Add test users (External user type only)

Obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials

Configure your connector

Config types

Enable Google One Tap

Save your configuration

Enable Google connector in Sign-in Experience

Testing and Validation

Further readings