electron-builder

A complete solution to package and build a ready for distribution Electron app for macOS, Windows and Linux with “auto update” support out of the box. 📦

Always looking for community contributions! 👀 Setting up a dev environment is easy to do 🪩

Sponsors

Documentation

See the full documentation on electron.build.

• NPM packages management:
  • Native application dependencies compilation (including Yarn support).
  • Development dependencies are never included. You don't need to ignore them explicitly.
  • Two package.json structure is supported, but you are not forced to use it even if you have native production dependencies.
• Code Signing on a CI server or development machine.
• Auto Update ready application packaging.
• Numerous target formats:
  • All platforms: 7z, zip, tar.xz, tar.7z, tar.lz, tar.gz, tar.bz2, dir (unpacked directory).
  • macOS: dmg, pkg, mas.
  • Linux: AppImage, snap, debian package (deb), rpm, freebsd, pacman, p5p, apk.
  • Windows: nsis (Installer), nsis-web (Web installer), portable (portable app without installation), AppX (Windows Store), MSI, Squirrel.Windows.
• Publishing artifacts to GitHub Releases, Amazon S3 and DigitalOcean Spaces.
• Advanced building:
  • Pack in a distributable format (already packaged app).
  • Separate build steps.
  • Build and publish in parallel, using hard links on CI server to reduce IO and disk space usage.
• Docker images to build Electron app for Linux or Windows on any platform.
• Downloads all required tool files on demand automatically (e.g., to code sign a Windows application, to make AppX), no setup required.

Question	Answer
“I want to configure electron-builder”	See options
“I found a bug or I have a question”	Open an issue
“I want to support development”	Donate

Requirements

Node.js >=22.12.0 is required for v27.

⚠️ Upgrading from v26? v27 is a major release with breaking changes (native ESM, Node >=22.12, and removed deprecated APIs). Start with What's New in v27 for the highlights and the silent default changes, then read the full breaking changes before upgrading.

Then run the automated migration command — it rewrites your config in place:

electron-builder migrate-schema

Step-by-step walkthrough: v26 → v27 migration guide · electron.build/docs/migration/v26-to-v27

Installation

yarn add electron-builder --dev
// or npm, pnpm, bun

Note for Yarn 3

Yarn 3 uses PnP by default, but electron-builder still needs node-modules (ref: yarnpkg/berry#4804). Add configuration in the .yarnrc.yaml as follows:

nodeLinker: "node-modules"

This instructs Yarn to use node-modules instead of PnP.

Quick Setup Guide

electron-quick-start is the official minimal starter for a new Electron application.

1. Clone the starter and add electron-builder:

   git clone https://github.com/electron/electron-quick-start
   cd electron-quick-start
   npm install
   npm install electron-builder --save-dev
   

2. Specify the standard fields in the application package.json — name, description, version and author.

3. Specify the build configuration in the package.json as follows:

   "build": {
     "appId": "your.id",
     "mac": {
       "category": "your.app.category.type"
     }
   }
   

   See all options. Option files to indicate which files should be packed in the final application, including the entry file, maybe required. You can also use separate configuration files, such as js, ts, yml, and json/json5. See read-config-file for supported extensions. JS Example for programmatic API

4. Add icons.

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗