electrobun-workflow

Electrobun Development Workflow

The Pipeline

┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌───────────┐
│   INIT   │ →  │   DEV    │ →  │    BUILD     │ →  │  RELEASE  │
│          │    │          │    │              │    │           │
│ template │    │ dev+watch│    │ canary/stable│    │  upload   │
│ scaffold │    │ hot reload│   │ sign+notarize│    │ auto-update│
└──────────┘    └──────────┘    └──────────────┘    └───────────┘
  Skill:          Skill:          Skill:               Skill:
  electrobun-init electrobun-dev  electrobun-build     electrobun-release
  Command:        (always-on)     Command:             Command:
  /electrobun-init                /electrobun-build    /electrobun-release

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Stage 1: INIT

When: Starting a new project from scratch.

Command:

electrobun init <project-name> --template=<template>
cd <project-name> && bun install

Success: bun start launches the template app.

→ Ready for Stage 2 when: Template runs, you've updated app.name and app.identifier.

Deep knowledge: See electrobun-init skill.

---

Stage 2: DEV

When: Building features — the majority of development time.

Commands:

bun run dev          # → electrobun dev --watch

Success: App reloads automatically on save. Console output appears in terminal.

Key tools while in dev:

• CEF devtools at http://localhost:9222 (if using CEF renderer)
• view.openDevTools() for native WKWebView (macOS)
• Inline source maps → stack traces point to .ts lines

→ Ready for Stage 3 when: Feature is complete, tested manually, and you're ready for a distributable build.

Deep knowledge: See electrobun-dev skill.

---

Stage 3: BUILD

When: Creating a distributable build for testing (canary) or release (stable).

Commands:

# First time: set signing env vars
export ELECTROBUN_DEVELOPER_ID="Developer ID Application: ..."
export ELECTROBUN_APPLEID="[email protected]"
export ELECTROBUN_APPLEIDPASS="xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"
export ELECTROBUN_TEAMID="XXXXXXXXXX"

# Canary (internal testing)
electrobun build --env=canary

# Stable (production)
electrobun build --env=stable

Success: artifacts/ contains .tar.zst, .patch, update.json, .dmg.

Skip signing for pipeline testing:

ELECTROBUN_SKIP_CODESIGN=1 electrobun build --env=canary

→ Ready for Stage 4 when: Artifacts are present and the built app runs correctly.

Deep knowledge: See electrobun-build skill.

---

Stage 4: RELEASE

When: Distributing the build to users and enabling auto-update.

Steps:

1. Upload artifacts/ to release.baseUrl
2. Verify: curl <baseUrl>/macos-arm64-update.json
3. Running apps detect and apply the update automatically

Success: Users on the previous version get the update within their configured check interval.

Deep knowledge: See electrobun-release skill.

---

Cross-Stage Config Reference

See electrobun-config skill for the complete electrobun.config.ts field reference.

---

Common Cross-Stage Gotchas

1. app.version not bumped → Auto-updater won't detect a new release even after upload
2. build.views missing an entry → Renderer HTML loads but JS silently fails (Stage 2-3)
3. bundleWGPU/bundleCEF not set for all platforms → Runtime crash on non-dev machine (Stage 3)
4. release.baseUrl not set → No update.json generated, no patch created (Stage 3→4)
5. Artifacts uploaded but update.json URL wrong → Auto-updater polls <baseUrl>/<os>-<arch>-update.json — no version in the filename

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Quick Reference

I want to...	Command	Skill
Start a new project	/electrobun-init	electrobun-init
Set up a new window with RPC	/electrobun-window	electrobun-rpc
Add WebGPU rendering	/electrobun-wgpu	electrobun-webgpu
Add an app menu	/electrobun-menu	electrobun
Check pipeline status	/electrobun-workflow	electrobun-workflow
Run a guided build	/electrobun-build	electrobun-build
Release to users	/electrobun-release	electrobun-release
Understand the full config	(auto)	electrobun-config
Debug a failure	(auto)	electrobun (debugger agent)