GNOME 48 / Nautilus: how to reliably track a specific window and change its current location from a script? (Debian 13 / Ubuntu 24 / Ubuntu 26)

I am running Debian 13 with GNOME Shell 48.7 on Wayland and Nautilus.

I am trying to automate an existing Nautilus window from a Bash script.

The goal is not to open a new window, but to:

1. identify a specific existing Nautilus window
2. track that same window reliably
3. change the location shown in that window to another URI/path

For example, suppose I currently have several Nautilus windows open:

file:///home/user
file:///home/user/Downloads
sftp://192.168.1.100/root

I can query Nautilus through org.freedesktop.FileManager1.OpenWindowsWithLocations:

gdbus call --session \
  --dest org.freedesktop.FileManager1 \
  --object-path /org/freedesktop/FileManager1 \
  --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
  org.freedesktop.FileManager1 \
  OpenWindowsWithLocations

and get a mapping conceptually like:

/org/gnome/Nautilus/window/2 -> file:///home/user
/org/gnome/Nautilus/window/3 -> sftp://192.168.1.100/root
/org/gnome/Nautilus/window/4 -> file:///home/user/Downloads

This lets me identify which Nautilus D-Bus window object currently displays a given URI.

For example, if I know that:

/org/gnome/Nautilus/window/3

currently displays:

sftp://192.168.1.100/root

I would like to tell that exact same Nautilus window to navigate to:

sftp://192.168.1.100/

without opening a new Nautilus window.

I inspected the window object:

busctl --user introspect \
  org.gnome.Nautilus \
  /org/gnome/Nautilus/window/3 \
  org.gtk.Actions

and found actions such as:

go-home
new-tab
close-current-view
close-other-tabs
go-to-tab

For example, this works and makes that specific window go to Home:

busctl --user call \
  org.gnome.Nautilus \
  /org/gnome/Nautilus/window/3 \
  org.gtk.Actions \
  Activate \
  'sava{sv}' \
  'go-home' \
  0 \
  0

However, I could not find an equivalent action such as:

go-to-location
open-location
set-location

that accepts a URI.

Using:

nautilus 'sftp://192.168.1.100/'

or:

nautilus --new-window 'sftp://192.168.1.100/'

does not solve the problem, because I specifically want to reuse an already identified Nautilus window.

Another issue is tracking the window reliably.

The object paths look like:

/org/gnome/Nautilus/window/N

but I assume these IDs should not be treated as persistent identifiers. If Nautilus exits or restarts, the object paths can change.

So I am looking for the correct way to do both parts:

• reliably identify or track a specific existing Nautilus window
• programmatically change the current location of that exact window

Ideally I would like something conceptually like:

window = find Nautilus window currently showing:
         sftp://192.168.1.100/root

navigate that same window to:
         sftp://192.168.1.100/

Is there a supported D-Bus, GTK, Nautilus, or other GNOME API for doing this?

In particular:

• Is OpenWindowsWithLocations the right mechanism for identifying an existing Nautilus window?
• Is there a supported method or action to navigate a specific Nautilus window to an arbitrary URI?
• Is there another Nautilus D-Bus interface besides org.gtk.Actions that exposes location changes?
• Are /org/gnome/Nautilus/window/N object paths safe to use during the lifetime of the Nautilus process?
• If not, is there a better way to correlate and track a specific Nautilus window?

I would prefer a solution that does not depend on keyboard simulation, focus, or opening a new Nautilus window.

Environment:

Debian 13
GNOME Shell 48.7
Wayland
Nautilus

PS: note I'm assuming to change an active window location not creating a new one with a specific uri.