KeePassXC Browser Extension vs. Flatpak (Not Working Yet)
- Web browsers running through Flatpak (and probably Snap) need additional permissions to interact with KeePassXC through its browser extension.
- Some browsers don’t support the native messaging feature used by KeePassXC-Browser, and the workarounds for this are made more complicated by Flatpak.
- KeePassXC only supports a few browsers out of the box, so you have to add a custom config for others…which again can be complicated by Flatpak.
There are a bunch of workarounds online, but I haven’t gotten any of them to work yet! I’m collecting what I’ve tried so far on LibreWolf, Chromium, Ungoogled Chromium and Zen.
- LibreWolf/FireFox KeePassXC Flatpak
- KeePassXC: Cannot save new credentials
- Installing KeePassXC & a Flatpak sandboxed browser
- Run Firefox and KeePassXC in a flatpak and get the KeePassXC-Browser add-on to work
- LibreWolf (linux) with KeePassXC Browser Integration
- Zen: Cannot connect to KeePassXC
- Flatpak: NativeMessaging portal for sandboxed browsers
I’ve been using the native RPM and DEB packages for Firefox, Vivaldi and KeePassXC for ages with no difficulty.
During the first half of 2025 I tried out a whole bunch of alternative web browsers, and I’ve consistently been able to get the extension working as long as both the browser and password manager are installed natively. System package manager, download a tarball, Fedora, Arch, Debian, whatever. But I just can’t get it to work through Flatpak.
A few weeks ago I decided to stick with Zen for a while as my main browser on my Linux desktop, and after some more attempts just downloaded the tarball. That adds its own headaches for keeping the browser up to date, but it updates a lot less frequently than I log into websites!
I’d still like to get it working through Flatpak if possible, and if I do I’ll update this article again!