app

The application object in the main process. Import it from @owear/core.

import { app } from '@owear/core'

app is a plain object exposing methods and an EventEmitter interface. Window creation must wait for app.whenReady().

Lifecycle

app.whenReady(): Promise<void>
// Connects to the kernel control socket. Resolves once the channel is ready.
// Idempotent: repeated calls return the same promise (`readyPromise`).

app.quit(exitCode = 0): Promise<void>
app.info(): Promise<{ pid: number; version: string; socket: string }>

Identity and paths

app.getName(): string
app.setName(name: string): void
app.getVersion(): string          // package.json version, else the kernel version
app.isPackaged(): boolean
app.getAppPath(): string          // app bundle root

app.getPath(name: string): string
app.setPath(name: string, value: string): void

getPath names: home, appData, userData, sessionData, cache, temp, logs, downloads, documents, desktop, pictures, music, videos, exe, appPath. Unknown names return an empty string.

const dbFile = path.join(app.getPath('userData'), 'notes.db')

Icon

app.setIcon(path: string): void
// Default window icon (PNG/JPEG). Applies to windows created afterwards and to
// `new BrowserWindow()` without its own `icon`.

Node runtime

app.ensureNodeRuntime(range = 'latest'): Promise<{ path: string; version: string; source: string }>
// range: 'latest' | 'lts' | 'v22' | …
// source: 'env' | 'system' | 'cache' | 'downloaded'

Command line

app.commandLine.appendSwitch(key: string, value?: string): void
app.commandLine.appendArgument(arg: string): void
app.commandLine.hasSwitch(key: string): boolean
app.commandLine.getSwitchValue(key: string): string

Applied per WebView when a window is created (Windows: AdditionalBrowserArguments; Linux: best effort).

Node bridge

app.handle(fn: string, handler: (...args: any[]) => unknown): () => void
app.handleContext(fn: string, handler: (ctx: { windowId: number }, ...args: any[]) => unknown): () => void
app.send(name: string, payload?: unknown, windowId?: number): Promise<void>

See node-ipc.md and IPC guide.

Workers

app.forkWorker(entry: string, options?: ForkWorkerOptions): WorkerHandle
app.workersDir(): string | undefined

See workers.md.

Message channels

app.createChannel(): { port1: MessagePortMain; port2: MessagePortMain }
app.sendPort(windowId: number, name: string, port: MessagePortMain): Promise<void>

See ports.md.

Custom protocols

app.protocol(name: string, options?: {
  privileged?: { secure?; cors?; stream?; standard?; fetch? }
  serve?: string
  handler?: ProtocolHandler
}): Promise<void>

See protocol.md.

Events

app.on(event, listener)
app.once(event, listener)
app.off(event, listener)

Common events:

Other exports

app.__channel            // the raw ControlChannel (advanced)
export { readyPromise }  // the promise resolved by whenReady()