Update Electron

Updates the pinned Electron version across the RStudio codebase and verifies the result.

Arguments

The user provides the target Electron version (e.g. 39.8.4).

Steps

1. Verify starting branch

Before doing anything else, confirm the current branch is main. Starting off anything other than main would base the work on the wrong commit.

git branch --show-current

If the output is not main, stop immediately and warn the user that they must switch to main (and pull the latest) before re-running this skill. Do not proceed with any further steps.

2. Update NEWS.md

Find the ### Dependencies section and set the Electron version line. The section lists only dependencies changed this release cycle, so if no such line is present, add one, keeping the list alphabetical:

- Electron <NEW_VERSION>

3. Update src/node/desktop/package.json and lockfile

Run from src/node/desktop:

cd src/node/desktop && npm install --save-dev --save-exact electron@<NEW_VERSION>

The --save-exact flag is required — Electron must be pinned to an exact version (e.g. "electron": "39.8.5", not "^39.8.5"). This prevents uncontrolled upgrades across major/minor versions.

This updates both package.json and package-lock.json in one step. Confirm the command exits successfully (exit code 0). If it fails, report the error and stop.

After the install, verify that:

1. package.json has the exact version with no ^ or ~ prefix.
2. package-lock.json contains the new Electron version.

The lockfile must be included in the commit — if it drifts from the manifest, npm ci in CI will fail.

4. Update the allowScripts allowlist entry

src/node/desktop/package.json has an allowScripts object whose keys are exact package@version strings. The Electron entry pins the old version and is not touched by npm install, so it must be updated by hand:

"allowScripts": {
  "electron@<NEW_VERSION>": true,
  ...
}

Change the electron@<OLD_VERSION> key to electron@<NEW_VERSION> so the key tracks the Electron dependency version.

This key gates nothing today. Electron no longer publishes an install script — its published package.json has no scripts field, and its package-lock.json entry carries no hasInstallScript — so npm's install-script gating has nothing to block for it. (Verified on 42.10.1 and 42.11.0; re-check with npm view electron@<NEW_VERSION> scripts, which prints nothing when the field is absent.) Keep the key in sync anyway: it costs nothing and matters if Electron reintroduces an install script. The binary is fetched separately — see step 5.

5. Verify the Electron binary

Because Electron has no install script, npm install does not download the binary; it is fetched lazily the first time something runs Electron. A successful npm install therefore says nothing about which binary is on disk. Check it directly, from src/node/desktop:

cat node_modules/electron/dist/version

If that file is missing or reports the old version, fetch the binary explicitly:

npx --no-install install-electron

Confirm node_modules/electron/dist/version reports <NEW_VERSION> before continuing. Skipping this check risks running the next step's tests against a stale Electron.

6. Run tests

Run from src/node/desktop:

cd src/node/desktop && npm test

Confirm the command exits successfully. If tests fail, report the failures and stop.

7. Done

Report that the Electron version has been updated, that the binary on disk reports the new version, and that both npm i and npm test passed.