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Source Code Directory Structure

The source code of Electron is separated into a few parts, mostly following Chromium on the separation conventions.

You may need to become familiar with Chromium's multi-process architecture to understand the source code better.

Structure of Source Code

Electron
├── build/ - Build configuration files needed to build with GN.
├── buildflags/ - Determines the set of features that can be conditionally built.
├── chromium_src/ - Source code copied from Chromium that isn't part of the content layer.
├── default_app/ - A default app run when Electron is started without
| providing a consumer app.
├── docs/ - Electron's documentation.
| ├── api/ - Documentation for Electron's externally-facing modules and APIs.
| ├── development/ - Documentation to aid in developing for and with Electron.
| ├── fiddles/ - A set of code snippets one can run in Electron Fiddle.
| ├── images/ - Images used in documentation.
| └── tutorial/ - Tutorial documents for various aspects of Electron.
├── lib/ - JavaScript/TypeScript source code.
| ├── browser/ - Main process initialization code.
| | ├── api/ - API implementation for main process modules.
| | └── remote/ - Code related to the remote module as it is
| | used in the main process.
| ├── common/ - Relating to logic needed by both main and renderer processes.
| | └── api/ - API implementation for modules that can be used in
| | both the main and renderer processes
| ├── isolated_renderer/ - Handles creation of isolated renderer processes when
| | contextIsolation is enabled.
| ├── renderer/ - Renderer process initialization code.
| | ├── api/ - API implementation for renderer process modules.
| | ├── extension/ - Code related to use of Chrome Extensions
| | | in Electron's renderer process.
| | ├── remote/ - Logic that handles use of the remote module in
| | | the main process.
| | └── web-view/ - Logic that handles the use of webviews in the
| | renderer process.
| ├── sandboxed_renderer/ - Logic that handles creation of sandboxed renderer
| | | processes.
| | └── api/ - API implementation for sandboxed renderer processes.
| └── worker/ - Logic that handles proper functionality of Node.js
| environments in Web Workers.
├── patches/ - Patches applied on top of Electron's core dependencies
| | in order to handle differences between our use cases and
| | default functionality.
| ├── boringssl/ - Patches applied to Google's fork of OpenSSL, BoringSSL.
| ├── chromium/ - Patches applied to Chromium.
| ├── node/ - Patches applied on top of Node.js.
| └── v8/ - Patches applied on top of Google's V8 engine.
├── shell/ - C++ source code.
| ├── app/ - System entry code.
| ├── browser/ - The frontend including the main window, UI, and all of the
| | | main process things. This talks to the renderer to manage web
| | | pages.
| | ├── ui/ - Implementation of UI stuff for different platforms.
| | | ├── cocoa/ - Cocoa specific source code.
| | | ├── win/ - Windows GUI specific source code.
| | | └── x/ - X11 specific source code.
| | ├── api/ - The implementation of the main process APIs.
| | ├── net/ - Network related code.
| | ├── mac/ - Mac specific Objective-C source code.
| | └── resources/ - Icons, platform-dependent files, etc.
| ├── renderer/ - Code that runs in renderer process.
| | └── api/ - The implementation of renderer process APIs.
| └── common/ - Code that used by both the main and renderer processes,
| | including some utility functions and code to integrate node's
| | message loop into Chromium's message loop.
| └── api/ - The implementation of common APIs, and foundations of
| Electron's built-in modules.
├── spec/ - Components of Electron's test suite run in the main process.
└── BUILD.gn - Building rules of Electron.

Structure of Other Directories

  • .circleci - Config file for CI with CircleCI.
  • .github - GitHub-specific config files including issues templates and CODEOWNERS.
  • dist - Temporary directory created by script/create-dist.py script when creating a distribution.
  • node_modules - Third party node modules used for building.
  • npm - Logic for installation of Electron via npm.
  • out - Temporary output directory of ninja.
  • script - Scripts used for development purpose like building, packaging, testing, etc.
script/ - The set of all scripts Electron runs for a variety of purposes.
├── codesign/ - Fakes codesigning for Electron apps; used for testing.
├── lib/ - Miscellaneous python utility scripts.
└── release/ - Scripts run during Electron's release process.
├── notes/ - Generates release notes for new Electron versions.
└── uploaders/ - Uploads various release-related files during release.
  • typings - TypeScript typings for Electron's internal code.