In early 2025, Electron’s npm ecosystem repos (under the @electron/ and @electron-forge/ namespaces) will move to Node.js 22 as the minimum supported version.

What does this mean?​

In the past, packages in Electron’s npm ecosystem (Forge, Packager, etc) have supported Node versions for as long as possible, even after a version has reached its End-Of-Life (EOL) date. This is done to make sure we don’t fragment the ecosystem—we understand that many projects depend on older versions of Node, and we don’t want to risk stranding those projects unless there was a pressing reason to upgrade.

Over time, using Node.js 14 as our minimum version has become increasingly difficult for a few reasons:

• Lack of official Node.js 14 macOS ARM64 builds requires us to maintain CI infrastructure workarounds to provide full test coverage.
• engines requirements for upstream package dependencies have moved forward, making it increasingly difficult to resolve supply chain security issues with dependency bumps.

Additionally, newer versions of Node.js have included many improvements that we would like to leverage, such as runtime-native common utilities (e.g. fs.glob and util.parseArgs) and entire new batteries-included modules (e.g. node:test, node:sqlite).

Why upgrade now?​

In July 2024, Electron’s Ecosystem Working Group decided to upgrade all packages to the earliest Node version where require()of synchronous ESM graphs will be supported (see nodejs/node#51977 and nodejs/node#53500) at a future point after that version reaches its LTS date.

We’ve decided to set that update time to January/February 2025. After this upgrade occurs, Node 22 will be the minimum supported version in existing ecosystem packages.

What action do I need to take?​

We’ll strive to maintain compatibility as much as possible. However, to ensure the best support, we encourage you to upgrade your apps to Node 22 or higher.

Note that the Node version running in your project is unrelated to the Node version embedded into your current version of Electron.

What's next​

Please feel free to write to us at info@electronjs.org if you have any questions or concerns. You can also find community support in our official Electron Discord.

The Electron project will pause for the month of December 2024, then return to full speed in January 2025.

via GIPHY

What will be the same in December​

1. Zero-day and other major security-related releases will be published as necessary. Security incidents should be reported via SECURITY.md.
2. Code of Conduct reports and moderation will continue.

What will be different in December​

1. 2024's last stable branch releases for the year, which include Electron 31, 32, and 33, will occur the week of December 1st. There will be no additional planned releases in December.
2. No Nightly and Alpha releases for the last two weeks of December.
3. With few exceptions, no pull request reviews or merges.
4. No issue tracker updates on any repositories.
5. No Discord debugging help from maintainers.
6. No social media content updates.

See you all in 2025!

BrowserView has been deprecated since Electron 30 and is replaced by WebContentView. Thankfully, migrating is fairly painless.

Electron is moving from BrowserView to WebContentsView to align with Chromium’s UI framework, the Views API. WebContentsView offers a reusable view directly tied to Chromium’s rendering pipeline, simplifying future upgrades and opening up the possibility for developers to integrate non-web UI elements to their Electron apps. By adopting WebContentsView, applications are not only prepared for upcoming updates but also benefit from reduced code complexity and fewer potential bugs in the long run.

Developers familiar with BrowserWindows and BrowserViews should note that BrowserWindow and WebContentsView are subclasses inheriting from the BaseWindow and View base classes, respectively. To fully understand the available instance variables and methods, be sure to consult the documentation for these base classes.

Migration steps​

1. Upgrade Electron to 30.0.0 or higher​

2. Familiarize yourself with where your application uses BrowserViews​

One way to do this is to search your codebase for new BrowserView(. This should give you a sense for how your application is using BrowserViews and how many call sites need to be migrated.

3. Migrate each usage of BrowserView​

1. Migrate the instantiation. This should be fairly straightforward because WebContentsView and BrowserView’s constructors have essentially the same shape. Both accept WebPreferences via the webPreferences param.

   - this.tabBar = new BrowserView({
   + this.tabBar = new WebContentsView({
   

   info

   By default, WebContentsView instantiates with a white background, while BrowserView instantiates with a transparent background. To get a transparent background in WebContentsView, set its background color to an RGBA hex value with an alpha (opaqueness) channel set to 00:

   + this.webContentsView.setBackgroundColor("#00000000");
   

2. Migrate where the BrowserView gets added to its parent window.

   - this.browserWindow.addBrowserView(this.tabBar)
   + this.browserWindow.contentView.addChildView(this.tabBar);
   

3. Migrate BrowserView instance method calls on the parent window.

   Old Method	New Method	Notes
   win.setBrowserView	win.contentView.removeChildView + win.contentView.addChildView
   win.getBrowserView	win.contentView.children
   win.removeBrowserView	win.contentView.removeChildView
   win.setTopBrowserView	win.contentView.addChildView	Calling addChildView on an existing view reorders it to the top.
   win.getBrowserViews	win.contentView.children

4. Migrate the setAutoResize instance method to a resize listener.

   - this.browserView.setAutoResize({
   -   vertical: true,
   - })
   
   + this.browserWindow.on('resize', () => {
   +   if (!this.browserWindow || !this.webContentsView) {
   +     return;
   +   }
   +   const bounds = this.browserWindow.getBounds();
   +   this.webContentsView.setBounds({
   +     x: 0,
   +     y: 0,
   +     width: bounds.width,
   +     height: bounds.height,
   +    });
   +  });
   

   tip

   All existing usage of browserView.webContents and instance methods browserView.setBounds, browserView.getBounds , and browserView.setBackgroundColor do not need to be migrated and should work with a WebContentsView instance out of the box!

4. Test and commit your changes​

Running into issues? Check the WebContentsView tag on Electron's issue tracker to see if the issue you're encountering has been reported. If you don't see your issue there, feel free to add a new bug report. Including testcase gists will help us better triage your issue!

Congrats, you’ve migrated onto WebContentsViews! 🎉

Electron 33.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 130.0.6723.44, V8 13.0, and Node 20.18.0.

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 33.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us on Twitter or Mastodon, or join our community Discord! Bugs and feature requests can be reported in Electron's issue tracker.

Notable Changes​

• Added a handler, app.setClientCertRequestPasswordHandler(handler), to help unlock cryptographic devices when a PIN is needed. #41205
• Extended navigationHistory API with 2 new functions for better history management. #42014
• Improved native theme transparency checking. #42862

Historical changes to Electron APIs will now be detailed in the docs.

Hi 👋, I'm Peter, the 2024 Google Summer of Code (GSoC) contributor to Electron.

Over the course of the GSoC program, I implemented an API history feature for the Electron documentation and its functions, classes, etc. in a similar fashion to the Node.js documentation: by allowing the use of a simple but powerful YAML schema in the API documentation Markdown files and displaying it nicely on the Electron documentation website.

Electron 32.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 128.0.6613.36, V8 12.8, and Node 20.16.0.

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 32.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us on Twitter or Mastodon, or join our community Discord! Bugs and feature requests can be reported in Electron's issue tracker.

Notable Changes​

• Added new API version history in our documentation, a feature created by @piotrpdev as part of Google Summer of Code. You can learn more about it in this blog post. #42982
• Removed nonstandard File.path extension from the Web File API. #42053
• Aligned failure pathway in Web File System API with upstream when attempting to open a file or directory in a blocked path. #42993
• Added the following existing navigation-related APIs to webcontents.navigationHistory: canGoBack, goBack, canGoForward, goForward, canGoToOffset, goToOffset, clear. The previous navigation APIs are now deprecated. #41752

Electron 31.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 126.0.6478.36, V8 12.6, and Node 20.14.0.

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 31.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us on Twitter or Mastodon, or join our community Discord! Bugs and feature requests can be reported in Electron's issue tracker.

Notable Changes​

• Extended WebContentsView to accept pre-existing webContents object. #42319
• Added support for NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS. #41689
• Updated window.flashFrame(bool) to flash continuously on macOS. #41391
• Removed WebSQL support #41868
• nativeImage.toDataURL will preserve PNG colorspace #41610
• Extended webContents.setWindowOpenHandler to support manual creation of BrowserWindow. #41432

Electron 30.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 124.0.6367.49, V8 12.4, and Node.js 20.11.1.

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 30.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us on Twitter or Mastodon, or join our community Discord! Bugs and feature requests can be reported in Electron's issue tracker.

Notable Changes​

• ASAR Integrity fuse now supported on Windows (#40504)
  • Existing apps with ASAR Integrity enabled may not work on Windows if not configured correctly. Apps using Electron packaging tools should upgrade to @electron/packager@18.3.1 or @electron/forge@7.4.0.
  • Take a look at our ASAR Integrity tutorial for more information.
• Added WebContentsView and BaseWindow main process modules, deprecating & replacing BrowserView (#35658). Learn more about how to migrate from BrowserView to WebContentsView in this blog post.
  • BrowserView is now a shim over WebContentsView and the old implementation has been removed.
  • See our Web Embeds documentation for a comparison of the new WebContentsView API to other similar APIs.
• Implemented support for the File System API (#41827)

We are excited to announce that Electron has been accepted as a mentoring organization for the 20th edition of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024! Google Summer of Code is a global program focused on bringing new contributors into open source software development.

For more program details, check out Google’s Summer of Code homepage.

About us​

Electron is a JavaScript framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies. The core Electron framework is a compiled binary executable built with Chromium and Node.js, and is mostly written in C++.

Outside of Electron core, we also work on a variety of projects to help sustain the Electron organization, such as:

• End-user distribution tooling (e.g. Electron Forge and update.electronjs.org).
• Learning materials for Electron developers (e.g. electronjs.org and Electron Fiddle).
• Internal tools to streamline developer productivity (e.g. Electron Build Tools and Sheriff).

As a Summer of Code contributor, you would be collaborating with some of Electron’s core contributors on one of many projects under the github.com/electron umbrella.

Before applying​

If you aren’t very familiar with Electron, we would recommend you start by reading the documentation and trying out examples in Electron Fiddle.

To learn more about Electron app distribution, you can also play around with Electron Forge by creating a sample application:

npm init electron-app@latest my-app

After familiarizing yourself with the code a bit, come join the conversation on the Electron Discord server.

Drafting your proposal​

Interested in collaborating with Electron? First, check out the seven project idea drafts that we have prepared. All of the listed ideas are currently open for proposals.

Have a different idea you’d like us to consider? We’re also open to accepting new ideas that are not on the proposed project list, but make sure your approach is thoroughly outlined and detailed. When in doubt, we recommend sticking with our listed ideas.

Your application should include:

• Your proposal: a written document that describes in detail what you plan to achieve over the course of the summer.
• Your background as a developer. If you have a resume, please include a copy. Otherwise, tell us about your past technical experience.
  • Lack of experience in certain areas won’t disqualify you, but it will help our mentors work out a plan to best support you and make sure your summer project is successful.

A detailed guide of what to submit as part of your Electron application is here. Submit proposals directly to the Google Summer of Code portal. Note that proposals emailed to the Electron team rather than submitted through the application portal will not be considered as a final submission.

If you want more guidance on your proposal or are unsure of what to include, we also recommend that you follow the official Google Summer of Code proposal writing advice here.

Applications open on March 18th, 2024 and close on April 2nd, 2024.

Questions?​

If you have questions we didn’t address in the blog post or inquiries for your proposal draft, please send us an email at summer-of-code@electronjs.org or check GSoC FAQ!

Resources​

• Electron Google Summer of Code 2024 Ideas List
• Electron Google Summer of Code 2024 Contributor Guidance
• Google Summer of Code Student/Contributor Guide

Electron 29.0.0 has been released! It includes upgrades to Chromium 122.0.6261.39, V8 12.2, and Node.js 20.9.0.

The Electron team is excited to announce the release of Electron 29.0.0! You can install it with npm via npm install electron@latest or download it from our releases website. Continue reading for details about this release.

If you have any feedback, please share it with us on Twitter or Mastodon, or join our community Discord! Bugs and feature requests can be reported in Electron's issue tracker.

Notable Changes​

• Added a new top-level webUtils module, a renderer process module that provides a utility layer to interact with Web API objects. The first available API in the module is webUtils.getPathForFile. Electron's previous File.path augmentation was a deviation from web standards; this new API is more in line with current web standards behavior.

Stack Changes​

• Chromium 122.0.6261.39
  • New in Chrome 122 and in DevTools 122
  • New in Chrome 121 and in DevTools 121
• Node 20.9.0
  • Node 20.9.0 notes
  • Node 20.0.0 notes
• V8 12.2

Electron 29 upgrades Chromium from 120.0.6099.56 to 122.0.6261.39, Node from 18.18.2 to 20.9.0, and V8 from 12.0 to 12.2.

New Features​

• Added new webUtils module, a utility layer to interact with Web API objects, to replace File.path augmentation. #38776
• Added net module to utility process. #40890
• Added a new Electron Fuse, grantFileProtocolExtraPrivileges, that opts the file:// protocol into more secure and restrictive behaviour that matches Chromium. #40372
• Added an option in protocol.registerSchemesAsPrivileged to allow V8 code cache in custom schemes. #40544
• Migrated app.{set|get}LoginItemSettings(settings) to use Apple's new recommended underlying framework on macOS 13.0+. #37244

Breaking Changes​

Behavior Changed: ipcRenderer can no longer be sent over the contextBridge​

Attempting to send the entire ipcRenderer module as an object over the contextBridge will now result in an empty object on the receiving side of the bridge. This change was made to remove / mitigate a security footgun. You should not directly expose ipcRenderer or its methods over the bridge. Instead, provide a safe wrapper like below:

contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld('app', {
  onEvent: (cb) => ipcRenderer.on('foo', (e, ...args) => cb(args)),
});

Removed: renderer-process-crashed event on app​

The renderer-process-crashed event on app has been removed. Use the new render-process-gone event instead.

// Removed
app.on('renderer-process-crashed', (event, webContents, killed) => {
  /* ... */
});

// Replace with
app.on('render-process-gone', (event, webContents, details) => {
  /* ... */
});

Removed: crashed event on WebContents and <webview>​

The crashed events on WebContents and <webview> have been removed. Use the new render-process-gone event instead.

// Removed
win.webContents.on('crashed', (event, killed) => {
  /* ... */
});
webview.addEventListener('crashed', (event) => {
  /* ... */
});

// Replace with
win.webContents.on('render-process-gone', (event, details) => {
  /* ... */
});
webview.addEventListener('render-process-gone', (event) => {
  /* ... */
});

Removed: gpu-process-crashed event on app​

The gpu-process-crashed event on app has been removed. Use the new child-process-gone event instead.

// Removed
app.on('gpu-process-crashed', (event, killed) => {
  /* ... */
});

// Replace with
app.on('child-process-gone', (event, details) => {
  /* ... */
});

End of Support for 26.x.y​

Electron 26.x.y has reached end-of-support as per the project's support policy. Developers and applications are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version of Electron.

What's Next​

Did you know that Electron recently added a community Request for Comments (RFC) process? If you want to add a feature to the framework, RFCs can be a useful tool to start a dialogue with maintainers on its design. You can also see upcoming changes being discussed in the Pull Requests. To learn more, check out our Introducing electron/rfcs blog post, or check out the README of the electron/rfcs repository directly.

In the short term, you can expect the team to continue to focus on keeping up with the development of the major components that make up Electron, including Chromium, Node, and V8.

You can find Electron's public timeline here.

More information about future changes can be found on the Planned Breaking Changes page.