Nuxt Electron

Integrate Nuxt and Electron

Features

📦 Out of the box
🔥 Hot restart _{^{(Main process)}}
🚀 Hot reload _{^{(Preload script)}}

Quick Setup

Add the following dependency to your project

# Using pnpm
pnpm add -D nuxt-electron vite-plugin-electron vite-plugin-electron-renderer electron electron-builder

# Using yarn
yarn add --dev nuxt-electron vite-plugin-electron vite-plugin-electron-renderer electron electron-builder

# Using npm
npm install --save-dev nuxt-electron vite-plugin-electron vite-plugin-electron-renderer electron electron-builder

Add nuxt-electron to the modules section of nuxt.config.ts

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['nuxt-electron'],
  electron: {
    build: [
      {
        // Main-Process entry file of the Electron App.
        entry: 'electron/main.ts',
      },
    ],
  },
})

Create the electron/main.ts file and type the following code

import { app, BrowserWindow } from 'electron'

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  new BrowserWindow().loadURL(process.env.VITE_DEV_SERVER_URL)
})

Add the main entry to package.json

{
+ "main": "dist-electron/main.js"
}

That's it! You can now use Electron in your Nuxt app ✨

Electron Options

This is based on the vite-plugin-electron, see the Documents for more detailed options

export interface ElectronOptions {
  /**
   * `build` can specify multiple entry builds, which can be Main process, Preload scripts, Worker process, etc.
   * 
   * @example
   * 
   * ```js
   * export default defineNuxtConfig({
   *   modules: ['nuxt-electron'],
   *   electron: {
   *     build: [
   *       {
   *         // Main-Process entry file of the Electron App.
   *         entry: 'electron/main.ts',
   *       },
   *     ],
   *   },
   * })
   * ```
   */
  build: import('vite-plugin-electron').ElectronOptions[],
  /**
   * @see https://github.com/electron-vite/vite-plugin-electron-renderer
   */
  renderer?: Parameters<typeof import('vite-plugin-electron-renderer').default>[0]
  /**
   * nuxt-electron will modify some options by default
   * 
   * @defaultValue
   * 
   * ```js
   * export default defineNuxtConfig({
   *   ssr: false,
   *   app: {
   *     baseURL: './',
   *     buildAssetsDir: '/',
   *   },
   *   runtimeConfig: {
   *     app: {
   *       baseURL: './',
   *       buildAssetsDir: '/',
   *     },
   *   },
   *   nitro: {
   *     runtimeConfig: {
   *       app: {
   *         baseURL: './,
   *       }
  *      }
   *   },
   * })
   * ```
   */
  disableDefaultOptions?: boolean
}

Let's use the official nuxt-starter-v3 template as an example

+ ├─┬ electron
+ │ └── main.ts
  ├─┬ public
  │ └── favicon.ico
  ├── .gitignore
  ├── .npmrc
  ├── index.html
  ├── app.vue
  ├── nuxt.config.ts
  ├── package.json
  ├── README.md
  └── tsconfig.json

Examples

Notes

By default, we force the App to run in SPA mode since we don't need SSR for desktop apps

If you want to fully customize the default behavior, you can disable it by disableDefaultOptions

TODO

write test