Extensions : Proper location for Native Messaging Manifest json file

We develop an Extension for Brave which communicates with our macOS native app via Native Messaging. Our app has been installing its Native Messaging manifest .json file at this location:

~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/NativeMessagingHosts/

I don’t remember how we figured that out, but this has worked on all of our test Macs for since our apps starting supporting Brave in 2019 March, and it apparently works for all of our users except one user, Our extension is getting the Specified native messaging host not found error when our extension attempts to connect to native messaging. We have spent several hours troubleshooting this over the last two weeks. We have checked and rechecked the file locations, permissions, and all of the crazy security metadata which Apple piles on to files nowadays. We find nothing wrong and cannot figure out why Brave is not finding the manifest.

This user is on the latest version, Brave 1.13.86. We have previously dealt with Brave vs. Brave Beta using different file locations, but this user is not on the Beta. One other possible wrinkle is that the value of “path” given in our .json manifest file is the path to a symbolic link in our app’s Application Support directory, which in turn points to our native messaging executable which is in our application’s package. This seemed to be the best way to do it, and again it works for us and for all other users.

I just read a bug report and a commit on GitHub which imply that, at some point, the location for Native Messaging manifests may have been changed to:

/Library/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts

and I presume that is in the user’s home directory, preceded by a tilde (~).

I have the following questions of the Brave developers:

  1. What is/are the current officially supported location(s) for Native Messaging manifest files?

  2. Are there any user configurations/settings/preferences which could enable or disable any of these locations?

Thank you!

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