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How to configure Electron Forge |
Electron Forge configuration is centralized in a single configuration object. You can specify this config in your package.json on the config.forge property. This property can have be in one of two forms:
- An object containing your entire Forge configuration.
- A relative path pointing at a JavaScript file that exports your config.
If you do not have config.forge set in your package.json file, Forge will attempt to find a forge.config.js file in your project root.
{% tabs %} {% tab title="forge.config.js" %} {% code title="forge.config.js" %}
module.exports = {
packagerConfig: {},
makers: [
{
name: '@electron-forge/maker-zip'
}
]
}{% endcode %} {% endtab %}
{% tab title="package.json" %} {% code title="package.json" %}
{
"name": "my-app",
"version": "0.0.1",
"config": {
"forge": {
"packagerConfig": {},
"makers": [
{
"name": "@electron-forge/maker-zip"
}
]
}
}
}{% endcode %} {% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% hint style="info" %} We recommend using using JavaScript for your config file since it enables conditional logic within your configuration. {% endhint %}
{% tabs %} {% tab title="forge.config.js" %}
module.exports = {
packagerConfig: { ... },
rebuildConfig: { ... },
makers: [ ... ],
publishers: [ ... ],
plugins: [ ... ],
hooks: { ... },
buildIdentifier: 'my-build'
}{% endtab %}
{% tab title="package.json" %}
// Only the relevant section of package.json is shown, for brevity.
{
"config": {
"forge": {
"packagerConfig": { ... },
"rebuildConfig": { ... },
"makers": [ ... ],
"publishers": [ ... ],
"plugins": [ ... ],
"hooks": { ... },
"buildIdentifier": "my-build"
}
}
}{% endtab %} {% endtabs %}
{% hint style="success" %} All properties are optional {% endhint %}
The top level property packagerConfig on the configuration object maps directly to the options sent to electron-packager during the package step of Electron Forge's build process.
The options you can put in this object are documented in the Electron Packager API docs.
{% hint style="warning" %}
You can not override the dir, arch, platform, out or electronVersion options as they are set by Electron Forge internally.
{% endhint %}
The top level property rebuildConfig on the configuration object maps directly to the options sent to electron-rebuild during both the package and start step of Electron Forge's build process.
The options you can put in this object are documented in the Electron Rebuild API docs.
{% hint style="warning" %}
You can not override the buildPath, arch, or electronVersion options as they are set by Electron Forge internally
{% endhint %}
The top level property makers on the configuration object is an array of maker configurations. Check out the Makers documentation for all possible makers and their config options.
The top level property publishers on the configuration object is an array of publisher configurations. Check out the Publishers documentation for all possible publishers and their config options.
The top level property plugins on the configuration object is an array of plugin configurations. Check out the Plugins documentation for all possible plugins and their config options.
Hooks allow you to run your own logic at different points in the Electron Forge build process. Each hook must be an asynchronous function that returns a Promise. The first argument of any hook function is the Electron Forge configuration associated with the Electron app. Subsequent arguments depend on the hook type.
{% code title="forge.config.js" %}
// Only showing the relevant config for hooks, for brevity
module.exports = {
hooks: {
generateAssets: async (forgeConfig, platform, arch) => {
console.log('We should generate some assets here');
}
}
}{% endcode %}
Arguments: (platform: string, arch: string)
``This hook is called before start launches the application and before `package` is run, you should use this hook to generate any static files or resources your app requires but aren't in source code. For instance you could use this hook to generate a license file containing the license of all your dependencies.
Arguments: (appProcess: ChildProcess)
This hook is called after start launches the application, you should use this hook to attach listeners to the spawned child process. The spawned process is passed through as the second hook argument.
Arguments: (platform: string, arch: string)
This hook is called before the package step runs.
Arguments: (buildPath: string, electronVersion: string, platform: string, arch: string)
This hook is called inside the afterCopy hook of Electron Packager. The hook is passed all the arguments that Electron Packager provides its afterCopy hooks.
Arguments: (buildPath: string, electronVersion: string, platform: string, arch: string)
This hook is called inside the afterPrune hook of Electron Packager. The hook is passed all the arguments that Electron Packager provides its afterPrune hooks.
Arguments: (buildPath: string, electronVersion: string, platform: string, arch: string)
This hook is called inside the afterExtract hook of Electron Packager. The hook is passed all of the arguments that Electron Packager provides its afterExtract hooks.
Arguments: (packageResult: { platform: string; arch: string; outputPaths: string[] })
This hook is called after the package step has successfully completed. The hook is passed the following parameters inside of an Object:
platform: the target platform for the apparch: the target architecture for the appoutputPaths: an array of paths where packaged apps are located (usually only one)
For example:
{% code title="forge.config.js" %}
module.exports = {
hooks: {
postPackage: async (forgeConfig, options) => {
console.info('Packages built at:', options.outputPaths);
}
}
};{% endcode %}
This hook is called before the make step runs. This hook has no arguments
Arguments: (makeResults: MakeResult[])
This hook is called after the make step has successfully completed. It is passed a single argument which is an array of MakeResult objects, if your hooks wishes to modify those make results it must return a new array of MakeResult objects that Electron Forge can use from then on.
Arguments: (packageJson: Record<string, unknown>)
This hook is called every time forge attempts to read your package.json file, you will be passed in the package.json object we have loaded and if you want to modify that object in any way you must do so and return the new value for Forge to use. This is useful to set things like the version field at runtime.
{% hint style="info" %}
Note: this will not change the name or version used by Electron Packager to customize your app metadata, as that is read prior to this hook being called (during Electron Packager's afterCopy hooks).
{% endhint %}
This property can be used to identify different build configurations. Normally, this property is set to the channel the build will release to, or some other unique identifier. For example, common values are prod and beta. This identifier can be used in conjunction with the fromBuildIdentifier function to generate release channel or environment specific configuration. For example:
{% code title="config.forge.js" %}
const { utils: { fromBuildIdentifier } } = require('@electron-forge/core');
module.exports = {
buildIdentifier: process.env.IS_BETA ? 'beta' : 'prod',
packagerConfig: {
appBundleId: fromBuildIdentifier({ beta: 'com.beta.app', prod: 'com.app' })
}
}{% endcode %}
In this example the appBundleId option passed to Electron Packager will be selected based on the buildIdentifer based on whether you are building for prod or beta. This allows you to make shared configs incredibly easily as only the values that change need to be wrapped with this function.