Enable extension loading when --load-extension is provided

[diraneyya]

Use Case

We needed to test a browser extension using an AI assistant and chrome-devtools-mcp. The extension had RTL positioning fixes that required testing with actual form fields.

Current Behavior

When using --chromeArg="--load-extension=/path/to/extension", the extension doesn't load because chrome-devtools-mcp launches Chrome with --disable-extensions by default, which overrides the --load-extension flag.

Proposed Solution

When --load-extension is detected in Chrome arguments, automatically set enableExtensions: true instead of the default false.

Real-World Impact

This change would enable:

• Testing browser extensions during development
• AI-assisted debugging of extension functionality
• Automated extension testing workflows

Current Workaround

We had to patch the package locally (see this commit) which works but isn't ideal for distribution.

Implementation

Could check for --load-extension in the Chrome args and automatically enable extensions when detected, rather than requiring manual patching.

[OrKoN]

I believe --load-extension was removed from Chrome around M142 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/290ed8046692651ce76088914750cb659b65fb17%5E%21/chrome/browser/extensions/extension_service.cc We do plan to have the support for extension debugging making this a duplicate of https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/96 I believe.

[oleander]

This worked for me: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp/issues/265#issuecomment-3621814641