How do I install the Mycroft extension in GNOME Shell?

Question

I heard that the Mycroft open-source AI assistant has an extension available for GNOME Shell. How do I install and use it?

Note: This is not a duplicate of this question, since that is about setting up Mycroft for the Unity interface.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 07 '17 at 23:47

Method 1: Get it from the GNOME Extensions website

The extension is called Mycroft AI Assistant, and is available from the GNOME Extensions website. See this answer from How to install GNOME Shell extensions for instructions on how to install extensions this way.

Method 2: Manual installation

In case Method 1 does not work for some reason, or you prefer to do the installation manually, then there is another installation method involving setting up the extension yourself from a zip archive. Follow either of these sets of steps to install, then proceed to the Configuring the extension section below.

Method 2.1: Manual installation using GNOME Tweak Tool

Download the zip archive located in the dist folder of the GitHub repository. (Visit this link to go straight to this folder in your browser.) At the time of this writing, the zip archive is named mycroft@rahul.io.zip.
Open GNOME Tweak Tool by either searching for it in the Activities overview or by typing gnome-tweak-tool in the terminal. Once it's open, go to the "Extensions" tab.
At the bottom of the extensions list, click the "None" button that's located next to "Get more extensions".
Select the zip archive you downloaded in Step 1, then enable it in the extension list.

Method 2.2: Manually placing the extension in your filesystem

Follow Step 1 from the above section.
Extract the downloaded archive into ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/mycroft@rahul.io/. This can be done by running the following command in the terminal:
```
unzip mycroft@rahul.io\ -d ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/mycroft@rahul.io/
```
Restart GNOME Shell. This is most easily done by pressing the Alt+F2 keyboard shortcut, and typing r in the dialog which appears.
Enable the extension. This can be done either by using the GNOME Tweak Tool in a manner similar to that described above, or by simply running the following command in the terminal:
```
gnome-shell-extension-tool --enable-extension=mycroft@rahul.io
```

Configuring the extension

Note: After following any method listed above, the extension will need additional configuration in order to work.

Either click the settings button in the extension's top bar, or use the Settings button available for the extension in GNOME Tweak Tool.

Mycroft-core needs to be installed first if not already installed. In the extension settings, set "Installation type" as "Not installed", then click the Install button and follow the instructions.

Regardless of whether Mycroft-core is already installed, you will need to tell the extension where it is located. Use the folder selection dialog to select its directory, and click the "Select Folder" button to confirm.

(Source: GitHub project wiki)