desktop

Notesnook Desktop

The desktop app is built using Electron & Typescript.

Downloads | Developer guide | How to build?

Getting started

Build instructions

Before you start, it is recommended that you read the contributing guidelines.

Setting up the development environment

Requirements:

1. Node.js
2. git
3. NPM (not yarn or pnpm)

Before you can do anything, you'll need to install Node.js v16 or later on your system.

Once you have completed the setup, the first step is to clone the monorepo:

git clone https://github.com/streetwriters/notesnook.git

# change directory
cd notesnook

Once you are inside the ./notesnook directory, run the preparation step:

# this might take a while to complete
npm install

Now you can finally start the desktop app for development:

npm run start:desktop

To run the app in release mode:

npm run staging -- --rebuild

This will compile and run the app in production mode but it won't generate any packages. To create the final packages, you'll have to run the following commands:

npm run release -- --rebuild

# For macOS
npx electron-builder --config=electron-builder.config.js --mac dmg --arm64 --x64 --publish never

# For Linux (AppImage)
npx electron-builder --config=electron-builder.config.js --linux AppImage:x64 AppImage:arm64 --publish never

# For Windows
npx electron-builder --config=electron-builder.config.js --win --publish never

Feel free to play around with the electron-builder command to get the packages you need. npx electron-builder --help is a great resource to learn different commands & platforms supported by electron-builder.

Developer guide

The tech stack

We try to keep the stack as lean as possible:

1. Electron
2. tRPC: for cross-communication between the web & desktop parts
3. zod: for runtime typechecking
4. yargs: for CLI argument parsing