Forge 8 #4082

This issue outlines the work for the next major version of Electron 8.

Goals

• Bump our engines requirement to Node.js 22 and update dependencies accordingly.
• Publish all @electron-forge/ modules as ESM-only.
• Ensure both ESM and CJS configs are loaded properly, and that both ESM and CJS Electron apps run properly.
• Improve native Node.js add-on support.
• Improve documentation for public consumption.
• Graduate all extensions to stable.
• Deprecate/remove unused features.

Release process

The next branch is tracking work for the next major version.

Electron Forge now uses npm trusted publishing for an easier and more secure release process.

Until this issue is closed for the Electron Forge 8.0.0 release, we will be proceeding with three distinct pre-release stages, which will have their corresponding distribution tags on npm:

• alpha: Forge 8 is not ready for general consumption, and is actively being tweaked. At this point, maintainers will be dogfooding Forge 8 in their own apps to test it out. Use at your own risk!
• beta: Forge 8 should be stable enough for early adopters, but some breaking changes should be expected between versions.
• rc: In preparation for an 8.0.0 release, the Release Candidate stage is considered potentially stable unless bugs occur. Maintainers will decide on when Forge is ready for a stable release.

TODO

I've created an 8.0.0 milestone of bugs and feature requests to address before the product is ready for stable.

• Set up npm trusted publisher: ci: set up npm trusted publishing #4070
• Migrate to Node.js 22 and ESM feat!: Node 22 + ESM #4059
• Remove Electron Forge 5 import code: feat(import)!: remove Forge 5 import code #4083
• Remove rechoir and interpret config loading: feat(core)!: remove rechoir + lodash templates from config loader #4066
• Remove global templates: feat(core)!: remove global module templates #4065
• Refactor E2E API tests to pull from local modules test: use verdaccio for e2e init testing #4100
• Move package manager selection away from NODE_INSTALLER and into init API via corepack feat(init)!: add --package-manager flag #4107
• Update template linting to oxc.rs libraries: feat(template): replace eslint/prettier with oxc.rs stack #4186
• Move init and import commands away from core into create-electron-app feat(create-electron-app)!: move init and import out of core #4148
• Rename publish command to release to avoid conflicts with npm publish feat: rename publish command to release #4305
• Move away from file:// protocol in templates feat(bundlers): opt-in app:// protocol for serving packaged renderers #4352
• Move Forge documentation into /docs folder docs: import documentation from electron-forge-docs #4345
• Unify JS/TS templates and bump engines to Node.js 22.13 feat(template): unify JS/TS templates #4229
• Write maker output to per-maker <maker>/<arch> directories feat(maker-dmg)!: write DMGs to platform/arch subdirectories #4275 feat(maker-pkg)!: write PKGs to arch subdirectories #4383
• Graduate the Vite plugin from experimental feat(plugin-vite): graduate from experimental #4382
• Bump @electron/* and electron-installer-* dependencies to their latest majors build(deps): bump @electron/* and electron-installer-* packages #4379
• Default win32 maker should be MSIX
• Refactor initLink to work better with Yarn 4
• Improve native module support with Vite and Webpack
• Minimize other dependencies
• Define a stable third-party extension API
• Add GitHub Actions templates
• Document @electron-forge/tracer usage and best practices
• Move TypeDoc to packages.electronjs.org