org-roam/doc/graph_setup.md

The setup is similar to that of org-protocol. Here roam:// links are defined, and need to be associated with an application.

The gist of the setup is setting up a Bash script to trim off the roam:// prefix from the link, causing the desktop application to call emacsclient path/to/org-roam-file.org.

Linux

Create a desktop application. I place mine in ~/.local/share/applications/roam.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Org-Roam Client
Exec=/home/jethro/.local/bin/launch_emacs %u
Icon=emacs-icon
Type=Application
Terminal=false
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/roam

Note the Exec key is set to a bash script poorly named launch_emacs. You can set it to whatever you want.

Create the corresponding bash script, and make it executable. Here's how it looks like:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
emacsclient "${1#*:}"

Finally, associate roam:// links with the desktop application by running in your shell:

xdg-mime default roam.desktop x-scheme-handler/roam

To disable the "confirm" prompt in Chrome, you can also make Chrome show a checkbox to tick, so that the Org-Roam Client app will be used without confirmation. To do this, run in a shell:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/
sudo tee /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/external_protocol_dialog.json >/dev/null <<'EOF'
{
  "ExternalProtocolDialogShowAlwaysOpenCheckbox": true
}
EOF
sudo chmod 644 /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/external_protocol_dialog.json

and then restart Chrome (for example, by navigating to chrome://restart) to make the new policy take effect.

See here for more info on the /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed directory and here for information on the ExternalProtocolDialogShowAlwaysOpenCheckbox policy.

Mac OS

One solution to this, recommended in Issue #115, is to use Platypus. Here are the instructions for setting up with Platypus and Chrome:

1. Create an executable launch-emacs.sh script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
/usr/local/bin/emacsclient --no-wait "${1#*:}"

2. Install and launch Platypus (with Homebrew):

brew cask install playtpus

3. Playtpus settings:

• App Name: OrgRoam
• Script Type: env and /usr/bin/env
• Script Path: /path/to/your/launch-emacs.sh
• Tick Accept dropped items and click Settings
• Tick Accept dropped files
• Tick Register as URI scheme handler
• Add roam as a protocol
• Create the app

To disable the "confirm" prompt in Chrome, you can also make Chrome show a checkbox to tick, so that the OrgRoam app will be used without confirmation. To do this, run in a shell:

defaults write com.google.Chrome ExternalProtocolDialogShowAlwaysOpenCheckbox -bool true