prepackaged.md

Prepackaged apps

electron_prepackaged_app imports an existing app tree artifact, Linux app ZIP or macOS .app ZIP into ElectronAppInfo. Archives and DEB stream Linux ZIP inputs; NSIS requires a Windows directory payload. Linux ZIPs may be flat or contain one wrapping directory. Inputs remain immutable.

load("@rules_electron//electron:prepackaged.bzl", "electron_prepackaged_app")

electron_prepackaged_app(
    name = "release_app",
    src = ":assembled_app",
    package_json = ":release_package_json",
    executable_name = "sample-desktop",
    product_name = "Sample Desktop",
    app_id = "org.example.sample-desktop",
    build_number = "7",
)

The target OS and CPU come from Bazel platform constraints. A validation action checks ELF64, PE32+ or Mach-O executable type/CPU; macOS universal executables must contain a matching slice. It reads the actual plain or ASAR-packaged package.json, including linked and unpacked manifests, and compares name, version and main. Missing main means index.js. macOS bundle executable, identifier, display name, app version and native build version must match the declared metadata. Input inventories reject escaping, cyclic and dangling links.

The original artifact is returned unchanged. Validation uses Bazel's transitive _validation output group; keep validation actions enabled for release builds. No target executable runs. No install, dependency pruning or metadata rewriting occurs. Existing signature bytes remain intact; this rule does not establish signature trust, notarization or the identity of every nested executable. Developer ID and Authenticode release signing remain separate unfinished work.

The generic example routes both app versions through this import before release packaging. BB unit tests, seven cross-build variants and all four native hosts passed at bfeedd6. Native smoke covers renderer/IPC/addons, macOS signature checks and installed DEB/NSIS update lifecycles; Windows exercises both MSVC and GNULLVM variants on matching x64/ARM64 hosts.