NOTE: This is a fork from https://github.com/dhharker/electron-tray by David Harker [email protected].

Quickly add a tray icon to an electron app

Very basic at the moment, this module is either going nowhere or I might extend it to deal with app lifecycle management, window toggling etc.

It was built on:

• NodeJS: v22.14.0
• npm: v11.2.0
• electron: v36.3.1

It mught not work on older versions. If this is the case, please use the original npm package electron-tray by David.

Usage:

TypeScript:

import TrayControl from 'electron-tray2';

JavaScript (ES6 modules):

import TrayControl from 'electron-tray2';

JavaScript (CommonJS):

const TrayControl = require('electron-tray2').default;

const trayControl = new TrayControl(app, iconPath[, menu]);

...where menu is passed to electron.MenuItem via electron.Menu.buildFromTemplate() i.e. it's just a normal electron menu.

Example:

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require('electron');
const TrayControl = require('electron-tray2').default;
const path = require('path');

let trayControl;

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow();

  const iconPath = path.join(__dirname, 'icon.png');
  trayControl = new TrayControl(app, iconPath);

  app.on('activate', function () {
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow();
  });
});

ES6 Module Example:

import { app, BrowserWindow } from 'electron';
import TrayControl from 'electron-tray2';
import path from 'path';

let trayControl;

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow();

  const iconPath = path.join(__dirname, 'icon.png');
  trayControl = new TrayControl(app, iconPath);

  app.on('activate', function () {
    if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow();
  });
});

Changes

• [ ] If clean way to do it, add ability to persist app while all windows are closed, minimise/close to tray etc.
• [ ] If Windows machine available, investigate integration of electron-promote-windows-tray-items (Issues #1 and #2 may be blockers and will this thing even work with newer electron versions?).
• [x] Basic functionality works. You can haz icon, and menu.
• [x] Updated to 28.05.2025 packages