Package Commands

Info

This document covers the packaging and lifecycle commands for building distributable installers and managing native modules. For development commands (dev, build, preview), see Development Commands.

All commands are run from the web/ directory:

cd web
npm run <script>

npm run package

Builds the application and packages it into a Windows NSIS installer.

npm run package

Under the hood:

1. electron-vite build        → out/
2. electron-builder           → dist/eIsland-{version}-Setup.exe

Output: dist/eIsland-{version}-Setup.exe

Warning

This command requires Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 with the "Desktop development with C++" workload and .NET 10 SDK for compiling native modules. See Frontend Setup — Install Dependencies.

When to use:

• Local testing — verify the installer builds correctly on your machine
• Before a release — ensure the installer is functional

postinstall

Runs automatically after npm install. You should never run this manually.

# This runs automatically — do not invoke manually
npm run postinstall

Under the hood: electron-builder install-app-deps

What it does:

• Rebuilds native modules (e.g., windows-smtc-monitor, windows-fullscreen-detector) for Electron's Node.js version
• Ensures native addons are ABI-compatible with the Electron runtime

Warning

If you see native module errors after npm install, the postinstall hook may have failed. Run npx electron-builder install-app-deps manually to rebuild. See Frontend Setup — Native Module Errors.

Troubleshooting

npm run package Fails

Missing build tools:

Warning

npm run package requires Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 with the "Desktop development with C++" workload and .NET 10 SDK. See Frontend Setup — Install Dependencies.

# Verify build tools are installed
# 1. Open Visual Studio Installer
# 2. Check "Desktop development with C++" workload is installed
# 3. Install .NET 10 SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/10.0

# Then retry
npm run package

Native Module Errors After npm install

# Rebuild native modules for Electron
npx electron-builder install-app-deps