Map Blowhorn profiles to Chrome profiles

Say which real Chrome profile each Blowhorn profile belongs to on this machine.

Map Blowhorn profiles to Chrome profiles

Tell Blowhorn which of your real Google Chrome profiles each Blowhorn profile belongs to on this machine. Every run that drives a browser reads the mapping first and refuses a profile without one, so mapping is the one-time setup every browser run depends on.

A mapping is identity, never permission: it does not make a profile eligible for any platform. Eligibility is credential existence, decided in the store (Eligibility).

Nothing in this guide runs a browser. What each command prints and its JSON shape are in the Chrome reference. How a run then reaches Chrome is Choose how Blowhorn reaches Chrome: by default runs drive Chrome through the Blowhorn extension, with no Attach approval and no launched browser.

From the desktop app

Each profile on Profiles has a chrome heading. It names the Chrome profile the mapping records and whether that mapping holds. Change or map opens the Chrome profiles list; a directory mapped to someone else is disabled. Confirm maps the same directory again when Chrome's name or account has changed. A deleted Chrome profile has no confirm: pick another.

The Setup screen's chrome profiles row reports the same state for every profile at once.

Before you start

• The store is reachable from this machine: blowhorn store says so. The mapping lives there, keyed by this machine's hostname, so it is the same on every terminal and in the desktop app on this machine, and does not follow you to another machine.
• The Blowhorn profile is in the store's profiles. blowhorn chrome suggest lists every profile the store knows; a name missing there cannot be mapped.
• Chrome's profile list is readable: blowhorn chrome profiles lists it. Chrome does not have to be running.

See what Chrome has

blowhorn chrome profiles

chrome profiles (3) in /Users/you/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome
    directory  name      account                    mapped to (on studio)
    Default    Person 1  -                          -
  * Profile 2  Ada       ada@example.com            -
    Profile 5  Grace     grace@example.com          -
  * last used

The directory column is the name a mapping records, exactly as printed. Chrome silently creates a new, empty profile for any directory name it does not know, so blowhorn chrome map refuses a directory that is not in this list rather than recording it.

Let Blowhorn propose a mapping

blowhorn chrome suggest

chrome mapping proposal for studio (3 profiles); nothing is applied
  profile  directory  name   account             note
  ada      Profile 2  Ada    ada@example.com     name match
  grace    Profile 5  Grace  grace@example.com   name match
  marcus       -          -      -                   none
to apply a row you agree with:
  blowhorn chrome map ada 'Profile 2'
  blowhorn chrome map grace 'Profile 5'

A row is proposed when exactly one Chrome profile's display name matches the Blowhorn profile's name (case and punctuation ignored). Two matches are named as ambiguous and nothing is proposed; no match is none; a profile that already has a mapping keeps it and says so. The command applies nothing. Copy the blowhorn chrome map line for each row you agree with.

Map a profile

blowhorn chrome map ada 'Profile 2'

mapped profile ada to chrome profile 'Profile 2' 'Ada' (ada@example.com) on studio

The command checks three things and refuses with one sentence and exit 1 when any fails: the Blowhorn profile is in the store's profiles (all is every profile, not one, so map each profile by name), Chrome has that directory, and the directory is not already mapped to another Blowhorn profile on this machine. Then it records the display name and signed-in account Chrome shows for the directory and prints what it recorded.

Quote a directory name that contains a space. Add --dry-run to run the checks and record nothing; add --json for the recorded row as JSON.

Mapping a profile that already has a mapping replaces it. Mapping it to the directory it already has refreshes the recorded name and account, which is how you confirm a profile after Chrome's name or account changed. A directory still held by a profile you have since deleted is released the moment you map another profile to it; the command says so.

Check the mappings

blowhorn profile status --chrome

| Profile | Linkedin | X | ... | Chrome              | Notes |
| ada     | valid    | - | ... | Profile 2           |       |
| grace   | -        | - | ... | Profile 5 (drift)   |       |
| marcus      | -        | - | ... | -                   |       |

The Chrome column shows the mapped directory and, when its recorded identity no longer holds, why:

blowhorn chrome profiles shows the same thing from Chrome's side, in its mapped to column. A profile whose mapping does not hold is refused by name: ERROR and a non-zero exit when you named the profile, one WARNING line and the walk continues when --profile all reached it. Nothing falls back to another profile or to a Blowhorn-owned folder.

Remove a mapping

blowhorn chrome unmap ada

Only the store's row goes. Nothing under Chrome's directory is touched, and the Chrome profile keeps its sessions.

The Chrome extension in that profile

A mapping does not install the Chrome extension. Chrome keeps an extension per Chrome profile, and the Blowhorn extension drives only the profile it is installed in, so install it in every Chrome profile you post from.

When the store cannot be reached

chrome profiles, chrome map, chrome unmap, chrome suggest and profile status --chrome each read the store, so each ends with the store's one named sentence and exit 3 when it is unreachable, even when Chrome's profile list cannot be read either, because the store is asked first. chrome status never opens the store.

Related

• Sign a profile in to each platform - after the mapping, the sessions and credentials each platform needs.
• Chrome reference - every chrome command and JSON shape.
• Eligibility - why a mapping alone lets a profile post nowhere.