DevBrowser

The browser built for developers — Monaco editor, live preview, file explorer, terminal, Chrome extensions, and Pro license support, all in one Electron desktop app.

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Download

Get the latest installer from the Releases page or the website.

Note: While in beta, the installer is not yet signed with an official certificate. Windows SmartScreen may show a warning — click More info → Run anyway to proceed. This will be resolved when the official certificate is issued.

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Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• Git
• Windows 10/11 64-bit (for building the Windows installer)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/robbiestokes21/dev-browser.git
cd dev-browser
npm install

Run in development

npm start

Build the installer

npm run make

Output is written to out/make/squirrel.windows/x64/.

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Code Signing

The project is pre-wired for code signing via environment variables — no changes to forge.config.js are needed. Set the variables before running npm run make.

Option A — Test certificate (self-signed, for development only)

Creates a local certificate for testing the signing pipeline. Does not remove SmartScreen warnings for end users.

1. Create the certificate (run in PowerShell as Administrator):

$cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate `
  -Type CodeSigningCert `
  -Subject "CN=DevBrowser Test, O=YourName" `
  -CertStoreLocation "Cert:\CurrentUser\My" `
  -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddYears(3)

$pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "YourPassword" -Force -AsPlainText
Export-PfxCertificate -Cert $cert -FilePath "C:\devbrowser-test.pfx" -Password $pwd

2. Build with the test cert:

$env:WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_FILE = "C:\devbrowser-test.pfx"
$env:WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD = "YourPassword"
npm run make

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Releasing

Bump the version in package.json, then run:

npm run release

This builds the installer and creates a GitHub release with the .exe attached automatically.

To create the GitHub release only (using an existing build):

npm run release:gh

After releasing, upload the Squirrel update files to your server so existing installs auto-update:

out/make/squirrel.windows/x64/RELEASES
out/make/squirrel.windows/x64/DevBrowser-X.X.X-full.nupkg

→ https://dstokesncstudio.com/dev-browser/

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Project Structure

dev-browser/
├── src/
│   ├── main.js          # Electron main process, IPC handlers
│   ├── preload.js       # Context bridge — exposes APIs to renderer
│   ├── license.js       # Pro license validation (Polar.sh)
│   ├── renderer/
│   │   ├── index.html   # Main UI
│   │   ├── renderer.js  # App logic
│   │   └── styles.css   # VS Code dark theme
│   └── editor-window/   # Detachable editor window
├── scripts/
│   └── release.js       # Build + GitHub release script
├── Website/             # Landing page source
├── assets/icons/        # App icons (.ico, .icns, .png)
└── forge.config.js      # Electron Forge build configuration

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

© 2026 Robbie Stokes / dstokesncstudio