I did write an chrome extension that calls this connect() function to connect to a local C++ program: function connect() { console.log("test1"); //port = chrome.extension.connectNative('com.a.chrome_interface'); port = chrome.runtime.connectNative('com.a.chrome_interface'); port.onMessage.addListener(onNativeMessage); port.onDisconnect.addListener(onDisconnected); console.log("test5"); } I can see