Add auto-update via electron-updater and GitHub Releases

Author: jestersimpps

.github/workflows/build.yml

@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ jobs:
             args: --win --x64
 
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
 
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -38,8 +40,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build app
         run: npx electron-vite build
 
-      - name: Package executable
-        run: npx electron-builder ${{ matrix.args }} --publish never
+      - name: Package and publish
+        run: npx electron-builder ${{ matrix.args }} --publish always
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
           CSC_LINK: ${{ matrix.platform == 'mac' && secrets.CSC_LINK || '' }}
@@ -53,30 +55,25 @@ jobs:
           name: vbcdr-${{ matrix.platform }}
           path: |
             dist/*.dmg
+            dist/*.zip
+            dist/*.blockmap
             dist/*.AppImage
             dist/*.deb
             dist/*.exe
+            dist/latest-*.yml
           if-no-files-found: error
 
-  release:
+  publish-release:
     if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v')
     needs: build
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     permissions:
       contents: write
 
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          path: artifacts
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
-      - name: Create GitHub Release
-        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
-        with:
-          draft: false
-          generate_release_notes: true
-          files: |
-            artifacts/vbcdr-mac/*.dmg
-            artifacts/vbcdr-linux/*.AppImage
-            artifacts/vbcdr-linux/*.deb
-            artifacts/vbcdr-win/*.exe
+      - name: Publish release
+        run: gh release edit "${{ github.ref_name }}" --draft=false
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

package-lock.json

@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@
   "build": {
     "appId": "com.vbcdr.app",
     "productName": "vbcdr",
+    "publish": {
+      "provider": "github",
+      "owner": "jestersimpps",
+      "repo": "vbcdr-electron"
+    },
     "directories": {
       "output": "dist"
     },
@@ -35,7 +40,8 @@
       "entitlements": "resources/entitlements.mac.plist",
       "entitlementsInherit": "resources/entitlements.mac.plist",
       "target": [
-        "dmg"
+        "dmg",
+        "zip"
       ],
       "notarize": true
     },
@@ -88,6 +94,7 @@
     "@xterm/xterm": "^5.5.0",
     "chokidar": "^4.0.3",
     "electron-store": "^8.2.0",
+    "electron-updater": "^6.7.3",
     "ignore": "^7.0.3",
     "node-pty": "^1.0.0",
     "react": "^18.3.1",

package.json

@@ -10,8 +10,18 @@ import { registerClaudeConfigHandlers } from '@main/ipc/claude-config'
 import { killAll, killOrphanedPtys } from '@main/services/pty-manager'
 import { stopWatching } from '@main/services/file-watcher'
 import { detachAllTabs } from '@main/services/browser-view'
+import { registerUpdaterHandlers } from '@main/ipc/updater'
+import { initAutoUpdater, checkForUpdates, checkForUpdatesInteractive } from '@main/services/auto-updater'
 
 app.setName('vbcdr')
+app.setAboutPanelOptions({
+  applicationName: 'vbcdr',
+  applicationVersion: app.getVersion(),
+  version: '',
+  copyright: '© 2025 Jo Vinkenroye',
+  credits: 'A desktop vibe coding environment for Claude Code developers.\nTerminal, browser, editor, and git — all in one window.',
+  iconPath: path.join(__dirname, '../../resources/icon.png')
+})
 
 const CHROME_USER_AGENT =
   'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/132.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'
@@ -74,6 +84,7 @@ registerBrowserHandlers()
 registerGitHandlers()
 registerPasswordHandlers()
 registerClaudeConfigHandlers()
+registerUpdaterHandlers()
 
 function buildMenu(): Electron.MenuItemConstructorOptions[] {
   const isMac = process.platform === 'darwin'
@@ -88,6 +99,10 @@ function buildMenu(): Electron.MenuItemConstructorOptions[] {
         accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+,',
         click: () => mainWindow?.webContents.send('menu:action', 'settings')
       },
+      {
+        label: 'Check for Updates...',
+        click: () => checkForUpdatesInteractive()
+      },
       { type: 'separator' },
       { role: 'hide', label: 'Hide vbcdr' },
       { role: 'hideOthers' },
@@ -225,6 +240,11 @@ app.whenReady().then(() => {
   createWindow()
   Menu.setApplicationMenu(Menu.buildFromTemplate(buildMenu()))
 
+  initAutoUpdater()
+  if (!process.env.ELECTRON_RENDERER_URL) {
+    setTimeout(() => checkForUpdates(), 5000)
+  }
+
   app.on('web-contents-created', (_event, contents) => {
     if (contents.getType() === 'webview') {
       const ses = contents.session

src/main/index.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import { ipcMain } from 'electron'
+import { checkForUpdates, quitAndInstall, getUpdateStatus } from '@main/services/auto-updater'
+
+export function registerUpdaterHandlers(): void {
+  ipcMain.handle('updater:check', () => {
+    checkForUpdates()
+  })
+
+  ipcMain.handle('updater:install', () => {
+    quitAndInstall()
+  })
+
+  ipcMain.handle('updater:status', () => {
+    return getUpdateStatus()
+  })
+}

src/main/ipc/updater.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+import { autoUpdater, UpdateInfo, ProgressInfo } from 'electron-updater'
+import { BrowserWindow, dialog } from 'electron'
+
+export type UpdateState = 'idle' | 'checking' | 'available' | 'not-available' | 'downloading' | 'downloaded' | 'error'
+
+export interface UpdateStatus {
+  state: UpdateState
+  version?: string
+  percent?: number
+  error?: string
+}
+
+let currentStatus: UpdateStatus = { state: 'idle' }
+
+function broadcast(status: UpdateStatus): void {
+  currentStatus = status
+  for (const win of BrowserWindow.getAllWindows()) {
+    win.webContents.send('updater:status', status)
+  }
+}
+
+export function initAutoUpdater(): void {
+  autoUpdater.autoDownload = true
+  autoUpdater.autoInstallOnAppQuit = true
+
+  autoUpdater.on('checking-for-update', () => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'checking' })
+  })
+
+  autoUpdater.on('update-available', (info: UpdateInfo) => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'available', version: info.version })
+  })
+
+  autoUpdater.on('update-not-available', () => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'not-available' })
+  })
+
+  autoUpdater.on('download-progress', (progress: ProgressInfo) => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'downloading', percent: Math.round(progress.percent) })
+  })
+
+  autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', (info: UpdateInfo) => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'downloaded', version: info.version })
+  })
+
+  autoUpdater.on('error', (err: Error) => {
+    broadcast({ state: 'error', error: err.message })
+  })
+}
+
+export function checkForUpdates(): void {
+  autoUpdater.checkForUpdates()
+}
+
+export async function checkForUpdatesInteractive(): Promise<void> {
+  const result = await autoUpdater.checkForUpdates().catch((err: Error) => {
+    dialog.showMessageBox({
+      type: 'error',
+      title: 'Update Error',
+      message: 'Could not check for updates',
+      detail: err.message
+    })
+    return null
+  })
+
+  if (!result) return
+
+  if (result.updateInfo.version === autoUpdater.currentVersion.version) {
+    dialog.showMessageBox({
+      type: 'info',
+      title: 'No Updates',
+      message: 'You\'re on the latest version',
+      detail: `vbcdr v${autoUpdater.currentVersion.version}`
+    })
+  }
+}
+
+export function quitAndInstall(): void {
+  autoUpdater.quitAndInstall()
+}
+
+export function getUpdateStatus(): UpdateStatus {
+  return currentStatus
+}

src/main/services/auto-updater.ts

@@ -118,6 +118,17 @@ const api = {
     return () => ipcRenderer.removeListener('menu:action', handler)
   },
 
+  updater: {
+    check: () => ipcRenderer.invoke('updater:check'),
+    install: () => ipcRenderer.invoke('updater:install'),
+    getStatus: () => ipcRenderer.invoke('updater:status'),
+    onStatus: (callback: (status: unknown) => void) => {
+      const handler = (_event: Electron.IpcRendererEvent, status: unknown) => callback(status)
+      ipcRenderer.on('updater:status', handler)
+      return () => ipcRenderer.removeListener('updater:status', handler)
+    }
+  },
+
   passwords: {
     save: (projectId: string, domain: string, username: string, password: string) =>
       ipcRenderer.invoke('passwords:save', projectId, domain, username, password),