v8.0.0-alpha.6

The ESM Release

This release marks the culmination of our journey to bump all of our first-party Electron packages to Node 22 LTS + ESM.

Electron Forge is now a set of ESM packages and requires at least Node.js 22.12.0 (the first version to support require(esm) in CommonJS).

All dependent @electron/ npm packages have been bumped to their latest major version.

• @electron/asar
  • Removed all default exports.
• @electron/fuses
  • No additional breaking changes beyond Node.js and ESM requirements.
• @electron/get
  • Removed deprecated nightly_mirror option. Use nightlyMirror instead.
  • Removed deprecated force option. Use cacheMode: ElectronDownloadCacheMode.WriteOnly instead.
• @electron/notarize
  • Removed deprecated altool notarization strategy. The tool parameter is no longer used.
• @electron/osx-sign
  • Removed deprecated signAsync, walkAsync, and flatAsync functions. The base sign, walk, and flat functions are now Promise-based exclusively.
• @electron/packager
  • ASAR is now enabled by default with unpack: '**/{.**,**/}/**/*.node' (you likely can removed the auto-unpack-natives Forge plugin).
  • derefSymlinks now defaults to true.
  • Hook arguments are now consolidated into a single object parameter and hooks are promisified.
• @electron/rebuild
  • Removed default export.
  • Removed unused nodeGypPath field from the Rebuilder object.
• @electron/universal
  • No additional breaking changes beyond Node.js and ESM requirements.
• @electron/windows-sign
  • No additional breaking changes beyond Node.js and ESM requirements.

Additionally, many other dependencies are bumped to their latest major version! Most notably, @electron-forge/plugin-vite now uses Vite 7.

Moving init and import out of @electron-forge/core

The init and import ("bootstrap") commands aren't useful once you have a Forge app working. Fundamentally, it doesn't make sense for them to exist within @electron-forge/core, especially since it also meant that all Forge apps ended up bundling webpack and vite in their node_modules (inherited from init depending on @electron-forge/template-*).

This release moves the core of the init and import logic into the create-electron-app package. 👍

What's next?

This is subject to change, but the next release will probably ship with:

• Vite 8
• Modern linting for templates
• Modern compiler options for TypeScript templates
• ESM bundling support for the Vite plugin

A full roadmap is available in #4082. (If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to leave them in the issue!)

Yours truly,
@erickzhao

Changelog

• fix(template): modernize eslint deps by @erickzhao in #4132
• feat!: Node 22 + ESM by @erickzhao in #4059
• chore: add local claude code settings to .gitignore by @erickzhao in #4158
• build: isolate yarn cache when running verdaccio by @erickzhao in #4161
• feat(create-electron-app)!: move init and import out of core by @erickzhao in #4148
• perf(plugin-vite): run production builds in isolated subprocesses by @MarshallOfSound in #4163
• fix(plugin-vite): improve child logging by @erickzhao in #4165
• build: replace eslint with oxlint by @erickzhao in #4169
• chore: bump version to 8.0.0-alpha.5 by @erickzhao in #4173
• fix: prune final require calls by @erickzhao in #4176
• chore: bump version to 8.0.0-alpha.6 by @erickzhao in #4177

Full Changelog: v8.0.0-alpha.4...v8.0.0-alpha.6