I'ts probably some setup that Chrome does before giving control to headless, I'll see if it can be configured.

if you run headless_shell you shouldn't see any icon, but you do need to compile it though.

Eric found this application bundle plist edit for hiding the icon: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7444141?start=0&tstart=0

That said, we'd probably do this another way. :)

I've noticed something else that I think might be related. When a headless Chrome instance is running, it becomes very difficult to open a normal instance of Chrome. Launching Chrome from the Applications folder, Spotlight, and Launchpad all fail because macOS thinks that you already have it open. I have to use the command line to get it to open; some users might not be able to figure that out.

Hiding the Dock icon might resolve this by making macOS consider the headless Chrome instance as a background process, but I'm not sure.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/c1a5a6c64e418c1e66fa938c553dfd7a0227ef0d

commit c1a5a6c64e418c1e66fa938c553dfd7a0227ef0d
Author: David Vallet <dvallet@chromium.org>
Date: Fri Aug 25 06:29:58 2017

Force hide dock in headless mode

Bug:  750505 
Change-Id: I3c870ac9ea5c463c49946443504629e2df3679c5
Reviewed-on: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/634724
Reviewed-by: David Vallet <dvallet@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Eric Seckler <eseckler@chromium.org>
Commit-Queue: David Vallet <dvallet@chromium.org>
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#497337}
[modify] https://crrev.com/c1a5a6c64e418c1e66fa938c553dfd7a0227ef0d/headless/lib/browser/headless_browser_main_parts_mac.mm

Confirmed fixed in Chromium canary

Tested the issue on Mac 10.12.6 using Chrome version M62 - 62.0.3198.0 as per the issue mentioned in original comment. Observed that issue is working as intended (When Chrome is launched in the headless mode chrome icon is not displayed in dock). Hence adding TE-Verified label. Attached the screencast for reference.

Thank you!

Deleted: 750505.mov 7.0 MB

750505.mov 7.0 MB Download

Is this fix published? I have same issue, seeing a chrome Dock icon while running karma unit with ChromeHeadless. Google Chrome is up to date Version 61.0.3163.100 (Official Build) (64-bit).

    [exec] Running "karma:unit" (karma) task
     [exec] INFO [karma]: Karma v0.12.37 server started at http://localhost:8090/
     [exec] INFO [launcher]: Starting browser ChromeHeadless
     [exec] INFO [HeadlessChrome 0.0.0 (Mac OS X 10.12.6)]: Connected on socket lKfkcf8MyYLPn2IB5Lwb with id 37489852


Thank you

It's available in version 62.0.3198.0

Can confirm, the dock icon is gone on 62.0.3202.62

This is still happening in 66.

"I've noticed something else that I think might be related. When a headless Chrome instance is running, it becomes very difficult to open a normal instance of Chrome. Launching Chrome from the Applications folder, Spotlight, and Launchpad all fail because macOS thinks that you already have it open. I have to use the command line to get it to open; some users might not be able to figure that out."