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 a thin wrapper around buildForge() from app-builder-lib. When Electron Forge calls make, the maker delegates to electron-builder's full packaging pipeline for that target, then returns the paths to the produced artifacts. All electron-builder configuration options for the target are available via the maker's config key.

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({
      // SnapOptions — see /docs/snap for the full reference
      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.