sitedock

Turn any website into a cross-platform desktop app (Mac / Windows / Linux) — with one command.

sitedock wraps your URL in a minimal Electron app, installs everything it needs, and can package it into an installer (.dmg, .exe, .AppImage) using electron-builder.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• npm

Installation

npm install -g sitedock

Or run it without installing:

npx sitedock "https://web.whatsapp.com"

Usage

Basic example

sitedock "https://web.whatsapp.com"

That's it — this creates a ready-to-run app (name derived from the URL), installs its dependencies, and tells you how to launch it:

cd whatsapp && npm start

Advanced example with custom settings

sitedock --name "MyApp" --icon ./icon.png --width 1280 --height 800 "https://myapp.com"

Build a distributable installer

sitedock "https://myapp.com" --package
# → .dmg / .exe / .AppImage written to myapp/dist/

CLI options

| Option | Description | Default | |---|---|---| | <url> | Website URL to wrap (must be http: or https:) | required | | -n, --name <name> | App name (window title, product name) | derived from URL | | -o, --out <dir> | Output directory | current directory | | -p, --platform <target> | Build target: mac, win, linux, or current | current | | --icon <path> | App icon — 512x512+ PNG recommended | Electron default | | --width <px> | Window width (positive integer) | 1200 | | --height <px> | Window height (positive integer) | 800 | | --package | Build a distributable installer | off | | --no-install | Skip npm install (scaffold only) | install on | | --force | Overwrite the output directory if it already exists | off | | -V, --version | Print version | | | -h, --help | Print help | |

What gets generated

<out>/<app-slug>/
├── main.js         # Electron main process (loads your URL)
├── package.json    # electron + electron-builder config
├── build/icon.png  # your icon (only with --icon)
├── node_modules/   # installed automatically (skip with --no-install)
└── dist/           # installers (only with --package)

The app name is slugified for the directory name and app id — e.g. --name "My Cool App" produces my-cool-app and com.sitedock.my-cool-app.

Programmatic API

const { build } = require('sitedock');

const { appDir, name, artifact } = await build({
  url: 'https://example.com',
  name: 'Example',       // optional, derived from URL if omitted
  outDir: '/path/to/output',
  platform: 'current',   // 'mac' | 'win' | 'linux' | 'current'
  width: 1200,
  height: 800,
  icon: '/path/to/icon.png', // optional
  install: true,         // run npm install after scaffolding
  packageApp: false,     // build installer with electron-builder
  force: false,          // overwrite non-empty output dir
});

Throws on invalid input (non-http(s) URL, empty slug, non-positive dimensions, missing icon file, non-empty output directory without force).

Security defaults in the generated app

• contextIsolation: true and sandbox: true — the loaded site has no access to Node.js
• Only http:/https: URLs can be wrapped
• New windows (target="_blank", window.open) open in the system browser
• In-window navigation is pinned to the site's origin; external links open in the system browser

Platform notes

• Cross-platform packaging has limits: building Windows installers on Mac/Linux (and vice versa) may require extra tooling. See the electron-builder multi-platform docs.
• On Windows, npm/npx are invoked through the shell automatically.

License

MIT