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

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

→ Ready for Stage 2 when: Template runs, you've updated

app.name

app.identifier

Deep knowledge: See

electrobun-init

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

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="you@example.com"
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/

.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

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

Cross-Stage Config Reference

See

electrobun-config

electrobun.config.ts

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

Quick Reference

/electrobun-init

/electrobun-window

/electrobun-wgpu

/electrobun-menu

/electrobun-workflow

/electrobun-build

/electrobun-release