Electron — open source GitHub project

Electron is a framework for building desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS on top of Chromium and Node.js.

What Electron is

Electron is a framework for building desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It combines Chromium and Node.js so web teams can build apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux with access to files, windows, menus, and system features.

Many people know Electron through Visual Studio Code, Slack, Discord, and other desktop apps. Its appeal is straightforward: teams can use web technology and shared UI instead of three native applications.

What is inside and how it is used

Minimal main process

This example shows the project shape and the usual way it is used.

Language: JavaScript

const { app, BrowserWindow } = require("electron");

function createWindow() {
  const win = new BrowserWindow({ width: 900, height: 700 });
  win.loadURL("https://example.com");
}

app.whenReady().then(createWindow);

The repository contains C++, JavaScript, Chromium/Node.js build integration, window and process APIs, docs, tests, and binary releases for different systems. Apps usually install Electron through npm as a development dependency.

Strengths and limits

Electron’s strength is desktop delivery speed for web teams. Its known limits are app size, memory use, process-bridge security, and keeping up with Chromium/Node versions.