GitHub

The GitHub Publisher uploads your artifacts to GitHub Releases, which allows your users to download the files straight from your repository. If your repository is open-source, you can use update.electronjs.org to get a free hosted update service (see Auto updating from GitHub below).

Installation

npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/publisher-github

Usage

To use @electron-forge/publisher-github, add it to the publishers array in your Forge configuration:

forge.config.js

module.exports = {
  // ...
  publishers: [
    {
      name: '@electron-forge/publisher-github',
      config: {
        repository: {
          owner: 'me',
          name: 'awesome-thing'
        },
        prerelease: true
      }
    }
  ]
};

Configuration options are documented in PublisherGitHubConfig.

Authentication

We recommend using the process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to authenticate the GitHub Publisher. This token requires write permissions to your repository's contents to create new releases.

If you are publishing your app with GitHub Actions, the GITHUB_TOKEN secret is pre-populated in every workflow. You will need to grant the necessary permissions via the permissions field at the top level of your workflow configuration.

permissions:
  contents: write

See the Controlling permissions for GITHUB_TOKEN documentation for more information.

Uploading to GitHub Enterprise instances

You can use this target to publish to GitHub Enterprise using the host configuration options of octokitOptions. Check out the configuration options linked above.

Auto updating from GitHub

Updating from a GitHub release for a public repository is as simple as adding the update-electron-app module to your app's main process.

main.js

const { updateElectronApp } = require('update-electron-app');
updateElectronApp(); // additional configuration options available

If your GitHub release is in a private repository, you should check our Auto Update guide for alternative solutions.