@electron/devtron

Devtron

[!NOTE] This project is under development and subject to change.

Building and Development

• Clone the repository to your local machine
• Run npm install to install dependencies
• Run npm link to link the package globally
• Run npm run build to build the project

Configuring an Electron App to use Devtron

• In your Electron app run npm link @electron/devtron to link the Devtron package
• In your Electron app's main.js (or other relevant file) add the following code to load Devtron:

// main.js
const { devtron } = require('@electron/devtron');
// or import { devtron } from '@electron/devtron'

devtron.install(); // call this function at the top of your file

• Devtron can be conditionally installed in development mode to avoid impacting production builds. Here's an example:

const { app } = require('electron');

const isDev = !app.isPackaged;

async function installDevtron() {
  const { devtron } = await import('@electron/devtron');
  await devtron.install();
}

if (isDev) {
  installDevtron().catch((error) => {
    console.error('Failed to install Devtron:', error);
  });
}

Devtron API

await devtron.install()

Installs Devtron into the Electron app. Refer to Configuring an Electron App to use Devtron for installation instructions.

await devtron.getEvents()

Returns a promise that resolves to the array of IPC events recorded by the Devtron service worker since installation.

• If the Clear all events button in the Devtron UI is clicked, this array will be cleared.

• If the array size exceeds 20,000 events, it will be truncated to the most recent 20,000 events.

• If called before installation or before the Devtron service worker is ready, an empty array will be returned.

Here's a usage example that keeps logging IPC events every 2 seconds:

// main.js
import { devtron } from '@electron/devtron';

// Ensure Devtron is installed before calling getEvents()
devtron.install();

setInterval(async () => {
  const ipcEvents = await devtron.getEvents();
  console.log('IPC Events:', ipcEvents);
}, 2000);

Requirements and Limitations

• Electron version must be 36.0.0 or higher.
• For Devtron to work with newly created sessions, you must call devtron.install() before they are created.
• Some IPC events sent immediately after the Electron app starts may not be captured by Devtron, even if devtron.install() is called early, because Devtron may take a short time to initialize after starting the app.
• ipcRenderer.once will be tracked as two separate events: ipcRenderer.on and ipcRenderer.removeListener.

If Devtron is installed correctly, it should appear as a tab in the Developer Tools of your Electron app.