Electron Releases

Self-hosted auto-update server for Electron apps

Serve Squirrel-compatible updates from your own infrastructure.
Modular adapters for any framework. Pluggable providers for any release source.

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What is this?

Electron Releases is a toolkit for building auto-update servers for Electron applications. Instead of relying on third-party services, you can self-host your update infrastructure on your existing stack.

Key features:

• 🔌 Pluggable architecture — Mix and match adapters and providers
• 🚀 Framework-native — First-class adapters for Next.js, with more coming
• 🔒 Private repo support — Serve updates from private GitHub repositories
• 📦 Multi-channel releases — Support alpha, beta, and stable channels
• 🖥️ Cross-platform — macOS, Windows, and Linux support
• ⚡ Squirrel-compatible — Works with Electron's built-in autoUpdater

Quick Start

Get up and running in under 5 minutes.

1. Install packages

npm install @electron-releases/adapter-nextjs @electron-releases/provider-github

2. Create an API route

// app/api/releases/[[...path]]/route.ts
import { configureNextjsAdapter } from "@electron-releases/adapter-nextjs";
import { configureGithubProvider } from "@electron-releases/provider-github";

const githubProvider = configureGithubProvider({
  token: process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN!,
  owner: "your-org",
  repo: "your-app",
});

export const GET = configureNextjsAdapter({
  releases: githubProvider.releases,
  assets: githubProvider.assets,
});

3. Configure your Electron app

import { autoUpdater } from "electron";

autoUpdater.setFeedURL({
  url: `https://your-domain.com/api/releases/update/darwin/${app.getVersion()}`,
});

autoUpdater.checkForUpdates();

That's it! Your Electron app now has self-hosted auto-updates.

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How It Works

The system is built on two concepts: Adapters and Providers.

┌─────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────────┐     ┌───────────────────────────┐
│  Electron App   │────▶│         Adapter           │────▶│        Provider           │
│   (Squirrel)    │     │  Next.js, Remix, Hono...  │     │  GitHub, GitLab, S3, R2   │
└─────────────────┘     └───────────────────────────┘     └───────────────────────────┘
                                     │
                                     ▼
                        ┌───────────────────────────┐
                        │           Core            │
                        │    Routing & Utilities    │
                        └───────────────────────────┘

Adapters

Adapters integrate with your web framework to handle incoming requests. They translate framework-specific request/response patterns into the standard format used by the core router.

Package	Description	Version
@electron-releases/adapter-nextjs	Next.js App Router adapter

Want an adapter for your framework? Open an issue or see Contributing.

Providers

Providers fetch release metadata and assets from your release source. They handle authentication, asset discovery, and URL signing for private releases.

Package	Description	Version
@electron-releases/provider-github	GitHub Releases provider

Need a different provider? Open an issue to request support for GitLab, S3, or other sources.

Core

Core provides the routing logic, type definitions, and utilities shared by all adapters and providers.

Package	Description	Version
@electron-releases/core	Core types, routing, and utilities

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API Endpoints

All adapters expose the same set of endpoints:

Endpoint	Description
GET /	List releases. Use ?channel=beta to filter, ?all=true for all channels.
GET /download	Auto-detect platform from User-Agent and redirect.
GET /download/:platform	Download for a specific platform.
GET /update/:platform/:version	Check for updates (Squirrel format).
GET /update/win32/:version/RELEASES	Squirrel.Windows RELEASES file.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Identifiers
macOS (Intel)	darwin, mac, macos, osx
macOS (Apple Silicon)	darwin_arm64, mac_arm64
Windows	exe, win32, windows, win
Windows ARM	exe_arm64, win32_arm64
Linux DEB	deb, debian
Linux RPM	rpm, fedora
Linux AppImage	AppImage, appimage

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Release Channels

Support multiple release channels for staged rollouts:

configureNextjsAdapter({
  channels: ["alpha", "beta", "stable"], // Last = default
  releases: githubProvider.releases,
  assets: githubProvider.assets,
});

Channel detection from versions:

• 1.0.0 → stable
• 1.0.0-beta.1 → beta
• 1.0.0-alpha.3 → alpha

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Examples

Framework	Description	Link
Next.js	Full Next.js App Router example	examples/nextjs

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Packages

Package	Description	README
@electron-releases/core	Core interfaces, types, and routing	README
@electron-releases/adapter-nextjs	Next.js App Router adapter	README
@electron-releases/provider-github	GitHub Releases provider	README

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Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how you can help:

Report Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

Request New Adapters or Providers

Need support for a different framework or release source? Open an issue describing your use case:

• Adapters: Express, Hono, Fastify, Cloudflare Workers, etc.
• Providers: GitLab, S3, Azure Blob Storage, self-hosted, etc.

Build Your Own

The core package provides everything you need to build custom adapters and providers:

• Building an Adapter — Create adapters for new frameworks
• Building a Provider — Create providers for new release sources

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/lott-ai/electron-releases.git
cd electron-releases-adapter

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Build all packages
bun run build

# Run type checking
bun run typecheck

# Lint
bun run lint

Project Structure

├── packages/
│   ├── core/              # Core types, routing, utilities
│   ├── adapter-nextjs/    # Next.js adapter
│   └── provider-github/   # GitHub provider
├── examples/
│   └── nextjs/            # Example Next.js app
└── apps/
    ├── docs/              # Documentation site
    └── web/               # Marketing site

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Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• For GitHub provider: GitHub Personal Access Token

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License

MIT

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_{Built with ❤️ for the Electron community}