@number10/create-electron-ipc

Scaffold a new Electron app using @number10/electron-ipc with a production-ready Vite + React setup.

Quick Start

macOS/Linux:

npm create @number10/electron-ipc

Windows:

npx @number10/create-electron-ipc

Important: Always use forward-slash / (not backslash \) in the package name, even on Windows. Use npx instead of npm create on Windows.

With options:

npx @number10/create-electron-ipc --name my-app --validation zod --inspector y

Using pnpm (all platforms):

pnpm dlx @number10/create-electron-ipc

What You Get

• Electron 35 + Vite 5 + React 19 starter
• Type-safe IPC contracts (invoke, event, broadcast)
• TypeScript strict mode with comprehensive configuration
• ESLint 9 (flat config) + Prettier pre-configured
• VS Code workspace settings and debug configuration
• Optional IPC Inspector for debugging
• Optional runtime validation (Zod or Valibot)
• Production-ready build configuration with electron-builder

CLI Options

--dir <path>              Target directory (default: current directory)
--name <name>             Package name (default: directory name)
--product-name <name>     Product name (default: formatted package name)
--app-id <id>             Application ID (default: com.example.<name>)
--author <name>           Author name
--pm <manager>            Package manager: pnpm, npm (default: pnpm)
--inspector <y/n>         Include IPC Inspector (default: n)
--validation <type>       Validation: none, zod, valibot (default: none)
                          - zod: Uses modern zodValidator from @number10/electron-ipc/validation
                          - valibot: Uses modern valibotValidator from @number10/electron-ipc/validation
--no-install              Skip dependency installation
--help, -h                Show help message

Project Structure

The generated project includes:

my-app/
├── src/
│   ├── main/              # Main process code
│   │   ├── index.ts       # Entry point + window setup
│   │   ├── ipc-api.ts     # IPC contract definitions
│   │   └── ipc-config.yaml # Generator configuration
│   └── preload/           # Preload script (context bridge)
│       └── index.ts
├── public/                # Renderer process (React)
│   ├── App.tsx            # Main React component
│   ├── index.html         # HTML entry
│   ├── renderer.tsx       # React setup
│   └── components/        # React components
├── dist/                  # Generated IPC code
└── out/                   # Built application

Available Scripts

• npm run dev - Start development server with hot reload
• npm run build - Build app for production
• npm run generate - Generate IPC contracts from config
• npm run typecheck - Run TypeScript type checking
• npm run lint - Lint code with ESLint
• npm run format - Format code with Prettier
• npm run package - Package app for distribution

Requirements

• Node.js ≥20.0.0
• npm or pnpm

Local Development

From the monorepo root:

node packages/create-electron-ipc/bin/create-electron-ipc.js --dir ./tmp-app

Or test the packed version:

pnpm pack
npx -y --package ./number10-create-electron-ipc-0.1.0.tgz create-electron-ipc

Testing

The package includes automated tests to ensure the CLI works correctly:

# Quick tests (file generation only, ~1 second)
npm test

# Integration tests (includes npm install + build, ~3 minutes)
npm run test:integration

Tests verify:

• ✅ Project scaffolding with all validation options (none, zod, valibot)
• ✅ Modern validation adapters (zodValidator, valibotValidator)
• ✅ Correct import paths (@number10/electron-ipc/validation)
• ✅ Inspector integration
• ✅ Full build pipeline (integration tests only)

Learn More

• electron-ipc Documentation
• Electron Documentation
• Vite Documentation

License

MIT © Michael Rieck