Electron Forge Integration

electron-builder ships four Electron Forge maker packages that let you produce electron-builder targets from a Forge project without migrating your entire build pipeline.

Consider using electron-builder directly

Publishing, Auto Update, and Code Signing are only available when using electron-builder as your primary build tool. If you need any of those features, migrate fully to electron-builder rather than using these makers.

How it works

Each maker is an Electron Forge maker class (compatible with Forge 6 and later's MakerBase) built on ElectronBuilderForgeMaker from app-builder-lib. When Electron Forge calls make, the maker runs electron-builder for that target on the app Forge packaged (prepackaged), writes the artifacts to Forge's make directory, and returns their paths. The maker's config is the options object for that target (for example nsis or appImage); everything else comes from your electron-builder configuration (package.json build field or electron-builder.yml) as usual. The executable name is taken from Forge (packagerConfig.executableName, else the app name) so it matches the packaged binary.

A maker can be added as an instance, as in the examples below, or by package name:

forge.config.js

module.exports = {
  makers: [{ name: "electron-forge-maker-nsis", config: { oneClick: false } }],
}

Available makers

Package	Target	Platform
electron-forge-maker-nsis	NSIS installer (.exe)	Windows
electron-forge-maker-nsis-web	Web installer (.exe, downloads payload at install time)	Windows
electron-forge-maker-appimage	AppImage (.AppImage)	Linux
electron-forge-maker-snap	Snap package (.snap)	Linux

---

NSIS installer

npm install --save-dev electron-forge-maker-nsis

forge.config.js

const { MakerNsis } = require("electron-forge-maker-nsis")

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    new MakerNsis({
      // All NsisOptions are accepted here — see /docs/nsis for the full reference
      oneClick: false,
      perMachine: true,
    }),
  ],
}

Full configuration reference: NSIS

---

NSIS web installer

npm install --save-dev electron-forge-maker-nsis-web

forge.config.js

const { MakerNsisWeb } = require("electron-forge-maker-nsis-web")

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    new MakerNsisWeb({
      // NsisWebOptions — extends NsisOptions
    }),
  ],
}

The web installer produces a small stub executable that detects the user's architecture and downloads the appropriate payload from your publish provider at install time. Full configuration reference: NSIS

---

AppImage

npm install --save-dev electron-forge-maker-appimage

forge.config.js

const { MakerAppImage } = require("electron-forge-maker-appimage")

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    new MakerAppImage({
      // AppImageOptions — see /docs/appimage for the full reference
      license: "LICENSE",
    }),
  ],
}

Full configuration reference: AppImage

---

Snap

npm install --save-dev electron-forge-maker-snap

forge.config.js

const { MakerSnap } = require("electron-forge-maker-snap")

module.exports = {
  makers: [
    new MakerSnap({
      // SnapcraftOptions — see /docs/snap for the full reference
      base: "core24",
      core24: { confinement: "strict", grade: "stable" },
    }),
  ],
}

Full configuration reference: Snap

---

Limitations

These makers delegate to electron-builder's packaging only. The following electron-builder features are not available through Forge makers:

• Publishing — use electron-builder --publish directly
• Auto Update — requires electron-builder's full publish pipeline; see Auto Update
• Code Signing — requires electron-builder's signing configuration; see Code Signing

For projects that need any of these, the recommended path is to use electron-builder as the primary build tool instead of Electron Forge.