HaloUtils

A LITTLE SETUP. A BETTER WORKDAY.

Your next shortcut
starts here.

Install HaloUtils, add your Halo instance, and make yourself at home. Your existing Halo account is all you need for local features.

CHROME & MICROSOFT EDGE

Add HaloUtils to your browser.

Get the extension from the Chrome Web Store. In Edge, allow extensions from other stores if the browser asks.

Open Chrome Web Store

FIREFOX

Use the Firefox build.

The source includes a Firefox build for temporary installation. Temporary add-ons are removed when Firefox restarts.

Firefox setup instructions

01. Connect your instance

  1. Install and open the extension options.Install from the Chrome Web Store. Find HaloUtils in your browser’s extensions menu, then open its options page.
  2. Add the Halo hosts you use.Add your full Halo HTTPS host in the instance settings, including a custom domain if you use one. Save and grant access when the browser asks. Give production, test, and development their own names and colors.
  3. Open Halo and sign in.Open or reload a configured Halo tab. Use your normal Halo account; the extension works within its existing permissions.
  4. Press / to find your next move.Open the command palette outside a text field. The update-set panel is available with Alt + Shift + H.

HaloUtils is an independent extension for HaloITSM and HaloPSA. Capture and replay capabilities depend on your Halo configuration, recorded data, and endpoint support.

02. A few shortcuts to start with

CommandWhat it does
/configOpen Halo configuration.
/12345Jump straight to ticket 12345.
/flowOpen workflows.
/jsonInspect the current record in searchable Tree or Raw view.
/an & /guidToggle API field names or element GUIDs.
/t configOpen configuration in a new tab.
/imp agent <id or name>Start agent impersonation, subject to your Halo permissions.
/unimpStop impersonation.

Add custom commands and instance-switching commands in options. Instance commands preserve your current path, query, and hash; you choose their names.

03. Record your first update set

Enable Config Change Tracking in your source tenant under Configuration → Advanced Settings. Sign in as a Halo agent, then interact with a Halo page so HaloUtils can observe an API session token.

  1. Open the side panel and create an update set with a name and optional description.
  2. Start recording and make tracked configuration changes. HaloUtils reads your agent’s commits within the recording window from Halo’s native change log.
  3. Stop recording and review the captured operations. Export the update set if you need a local file.
  4. Open the target Halo tenant and interact with it so its session is available. Check that the intended tenant is active.
  5. Run a dry run, resolve blocking issues, and review the plan before choosing replay.
  6. When needed, review the rollback plan. Source rollback uses Halo’s recorded rollback data; replay targets use snapshots of their own state captured before replay.

Validate replay and rollback in a test tenant first. Some changes are capture-only or lack rollback data. A dry run checks the plan; it does not guarantee that every write will succeed. Halo changes outside native change tracking are not captured.

04. Share update sets, if you need to

Local features work without a sync account. For team sharing, your organization can operate the sync server included in the extension source repository. Ask the server administrator for its URL, your username, and a personal access token.

In options, configure and enable Update Set Sync, grant access to that server, and save. Use HTTPS for a remote server. Saving credentials checks the server login; enabled sync can run manually and automatically after local changes.

Sync shares full update-set bundles with the server’s authenticated users. Choose an appropriate server and review the data-sharing details before enabling it.

05. Temporary installation in Firefox

Obtain the Firefox build from your administrator, or build it from the source repository using Node.js 18 or newer:

npm run build:firefox
  1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox in Firefox.
  2. Choose Load Temporary Add-on….
  3. Select dist/firefox/latest/unpacked/manifest.json from the built source.
  4. Follow the instance setup steps above and open HaloUtils from the browser’s sidebar controls.

Temporary installation ends when Firefox restarts. Persistent distribution requires a Mozilla-signed package. This site does not link to a Firefox store listing.

06. Load Chromium from source

For development or a managed setup, obtain the HaloUtils source or an unpacked Chromium build from your administrator. Open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions, enable Developer mode, select Load unpacked, and choose the source’s extension/ directory or the build’s dist/chromium/latest/unpacked/ directory.

The repository’s Chromium packaging command, npm run build:chromium, requires its configured signing key. A key is not needed simply to load the existing source folder unpacked. Access to the source repository may require an account.

Need details about storage or permissions? Read the data privacy notice or email privacy@ruehmann.net for privacy questions.