What is @electron/notarize?
@electron/notarize is an npm package designed to help developers notarize their Electron applications for macOS. Notarization is a process by which Apple scans your app for malicious content and checks for code-signing issues. This package simplifies the process of submitting your app to Apple's notarization service and retrieving the results.
What are @electron/notarize's main functionalities?
Notarize an Electron App
This feature allows you to notarize your Electron application by providing the app bundle ID, the path to your app, and your Apple ID credentials. The function `notarize` handles the submission to Apple's notarization service.
const { notarize } = require('@electron/notarize');
async function notarizeApp() {
await notarize({
appBundleId: 'com.example.app',
appPath: '/path/to/your/app.app',
appleId: 'your-apple-id@example.com',
appleIdPassword: 'your-apple-id-password'
});
}
notarizeApp().catch(console.error);
Check Notarization Status
This feature allows you to check the status of a notarization request by providing the request UUID and your Apple ID credentials. The function `checkNotarizationStatus` retrieves the current status of the notarization process.
const { checkNotarizationStatus } = require('@electron/notarize');
async function checkStatus(requestUUID) {
const status = await checkNotarizationStatus({
requestUUID,
appleId: 'your-apple-id@example.com',
appleIdPassword: 'your-apple-id-password'
});
console.log(status);
}
checkStatus('your-request-uuid').catch(console.error);
Staple Notarization Ticket
This feature allows you to staple the notarization ticket to your Electron application. The function `stapleApp` ensures that the notarization ticket is attached to your app, which is required for distribution.
const { stapleApp } = require('@electron/notarize');
async function staple() {
await stapleApp({
appPath: '/path/to/your/app.app'
});
}
staple().catch(console.error);
Other packages similar to @electron/notarize
electron-osx-sign
electron-osx-sign is a package that provides code-signing capabilities for macOS Electron applications. While it focuses on code-signing, it also offers notarization features. However, @electron/notarize is more specialized and streamlined for the notarization process.
electron-builder
electron-builder is a comprehensive package for building and packaging Electron applications. It includes features for code-signing and notarization, among many other functionalities. While it is more feature-rich, @electron/notarize is more focused and easier to use specifically for notarization tasks.
Electron Notarize
Notarize your Electron apps seamlessly for macOS
![NPM package](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/@electron/notarize)
Installation
npm install @electron/notarize --save-dev
yarn add @electron/notarize --dev
What is app "notarization"?
From Apple's docs in XCode:
A notarized app is a macOS app that was uploaded to Apple for processing before it was distributed. When you export a notarized app from Xcode, it code signs the app with a Developer ID certificate and staples a ticket from Apple to the app. The ticket confirms that you previously uploaded the app to Apple.
On macOS 10.14 and later, the user can launch notarized apps when Gatekeeper is enabled. When the user first launches a notarized app, Gatekeeper looks for the app’s ticket online. If the user is offline, Gatekeeper looks for the ticket that was stapled to the app.
Apple has made this a hard requirement as of 10.15 (Catalina).
Prerequisites
For notarization, you need the following things:
- Xcode 13 or later installed on your Mac.
- An Apple Developer account.
- An app-specific password for your ADC account’s Apple ID.
- Your app may need to be signed with
hardened-runtime
, including the following entitlement:
com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit
If you are using Electron 11 or below, you must add the com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory
entitlement too.
When using version 12+, this entitlement should not be applied as it increases your app's attack surface.
API
Method: notarize(opts): Promise<void>
options
Object
tool
String - The notarization tool to use, default is notarytool
. Previously, the value legacy
used altool
, which stopped working on November 1st 2023.appPath
String - The absolute path to your .app
file- There are three authentication methods available:
- user name with password:
appleId
String - The username of your Apple Developer accountappleIdPassword
String - The app-specific password (not your Apple ID password).teamId
String - The team ID you want to notarize under.
- ... or apiKey with apiIssuer:
appleApiKey
String - Absolute path to the .p8
file containing the key. Required for JWT authentication. See Note on JWT authentication below.appleApiKeyId
String - App Store Connect API key ID, for example, T9GPZ92M7K
. Required for JWT authentication. See Note on JWT authentication below.appleApiIssuer
String - Your App Store Connect API key issuer, for example, c055ca8c-e5a8-4836-b61d-aa5794eeb3f4
. Required if appleApiKey
is specified.
- ... or keychain with keychainProfile:
keychain
String (optional) - The name of the keychain or path to the keychain you stored notarization credentials in. If omitted, iCloud keychain is used by default.keychainProfile
String - The name of the profile you provided when storing notarization credentials.
Safety when using appleIdPassword
- Never hard code your password into your packaging scripts, use an environment
variable at a minimum.
- It is possible to provide a keychain reference instead of your actual password (assuming that you have already logged into
the Application Loader from Xcode). For example:
const password = `@keychain:"Application Loader: ${appleId}"`;
Another option is that you can add a new keychain item using either the Keychain Access app or from the command line using the security
utility:
security add-generic-password -a "AC_USERNAME" -w <app_specific_password> -s "AC_PASSWORD"
where AC_USERNAME
should be replaced with your Apple ID, and then in your code you can use:
const password = `@keychain:AC_PASSWORD`;
Notes on JWT authentication
You can obtain an API key from App Store Connect. Create a Team Key (not an Individual Key) with App Manager access. Note down the Issuer ID and download the .p8
file. This file is your API key and comes with the name of AuthKey_<appleApiKeyId>.p8
. Provide the path to this file as the appleApiKey
argument.
Notes on your teamId
To get your teamId
value, go to your Apple Developer Account, then click on "Membership details", and there you will find your Team ID.
Debug
debug
is used to display logs and messages. You can use export DEBUG=electron-notarize*
to log additional debug information from this module.
Example Usage
import { notarize } from '@electron/notarize';
async function packageTask () {
await notarize({
appPath,
appleId,
appleIdPassword,
teamId,
});
}