CLI
Electron forge's command line interface (CLI) is separate from the core module. To use it you will have to install the @electron-forge/cli module from NPM into your project.
yarn add --dev @electron-forge/cli
npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/cli
At a high level the CLI module is just a proxy to the raw API commands. Almost all the configuration is still done in your Forge configuration, the CLI just provides a handy way to trigger all the core functionality of Electron Forge.
These commands are sorted in alphabetical order. The most commonly used are start, package, make, and publish.
Maps to electronForge.import. It will attempt to take an existing Electron app and make it Forge compatible. Normally this just creates a base Electron Forge configuration and adds the required dependencies.
There are no flags for the Import command
Maps to electronForge.init, will initialize a new Forge powered application in the given directory (defaults to ., the current directory).
Please note if you want to use a non-built-in template, it must be installed globally before running the init command.
Flag | Value | Required | Description |
| Template Name | No | Name of the template to use to make this new app |
| N/A | No | Set if you want to copy templated CI files for Travis CI and Appveyor |
Example:
yarn electron-forge init --template=webpack
npx electron-forge init --template=webpack
Maps to electronForge.install, will attempt to install the Electron app that is published at the given GitHub repository. This command is just a helper for installing other applications quickly. For example:
npx electron-forge install atom/atom
Maps to electronForge.lint, will run the lint command that your package.json exposes. If the exit code is 0, no output is shown, otherwise the error output will be displayed.
There are no flags for the Lint command
Maps to electronForge.make, will make distributables for your application based on your Forge config and the parameters you pass in.
Flag | Value | Required | Description |
| Architecture, e.g. | No | Target architecture to make for |
| Platform, e.g. | No | Target platform to make for, please note you normally can only target platform X from platform X. This defaults to the platform you're running on (the "host" platform). |
| Comma separated list of maker names | No | Override your make targets for this run. The maker name is the full node module name, e.g. |
| N/A | No | Set if you want to skip the packaging step, useful if you are running sequential makes and want to save time |
Example:
# By default, the make command corresponds to a make npm script:yarn make --arch=ia32# If there is no make script:yarn electron-forge make --arch=ia32
# By default, the make command corresponds to a make npm script:npm run make -- --arch=ia32# If there is no make script:npx electron-forge make --arch=ia32
Maps to electronForge.package, will package your application into a platform specific format and put the result in a folder. Please note that this does not make a distributable format. To make proper distributables, please use the make command.
Flag | Value | Required | Description |
| Architecture, e.g. | No | Target architecture to package for. Defaults to the host arch. |
| Platform, e.g. | No | Target platform to package for. Defaults to the host platform. |
Example:
# By default, the package command corresponds to a package npm script:yarn package --arch=ia32# If there is no make script:yarn electron-forge package --arch=ia32
# By default, the package command corresponds to a package npm script:npm run package -- --arch=ia32# If there is no make script:npx electron-forge package --arch=ia32
Maps to electronForge.publish, will attempt to make the forge application and then publish it to the publish targets defined in your forge config.
If you want to publish previously created make artifacts you will have to use the dry-run options explained below.
Flag | Value | Required | Description |
| Comma separated list of publisher names | No | Override your publish targets for this run |
| N/A | No | Triggers a publish dry run which saves state and doesn't upload anything |
| N/A | No | Attempts to publish artifacts from any dry runs saved on disk |
Example:
# By default, the package command corresponds to a package npm script:yarn run publish --from-dry-run# If there is no make script:yarn electron-forge publish --from-dry-run
# By default, the package command corresponds to a package npm script:npm run publish -- --from-dry-run# If there is no make script:npx electron-forge package --arch=ia32
Maps to electronForge.start, will launch the Forge powered application in the given directory (defaults to .).
If you type rs (and hit enter) in the same terminal where you ran the start command, the running app will be terminated and restarted.
Flag | Value | Required | Description |
| Path to your app from CWD | No | Override the path to the Electron app to launch (defaults to |
| N/A | No | Enable advanced logging. This will log internal Electron things |
| N/A | No | Run the Electron app as a Node.JS script |
| N/A | No | Triggers inspect mode on Electron to allow debugging the main process |
| extra arguments | No | Any additional arguments to pass to Electron or the app itself. For example: |
Example:
yarn start --enable-logging
npm start -- --enable-logging
