Spectron - legacy reference and migration to Playwright _electron

Spectron was a Node.js library that drove Electron applications through ChromeDriver + the legacy WebDriverIO API - for several years the only sanctioned end-to-end driver for Electron apps. Per the Spectron repository: "Spectron is officially deprecated as of February 1, 2022." The final release was v19.0.0 (published 2022-02-02), pinned to Electron ^19.0.0; the repository is archived read-only. No new project should start on Spectron - see SKILL.md for the Playwright _electron workflow.

Why Spectron was deprecated

1. ChromeDriver was the wrong substrate. Electron's main process (Node.js, native modules, IPC, packaged-app lifecycle, file dialogs) sits outside the ChromeDriver model, so Spectron bridged it with bespoke RPC that grew progressively harder to keep aligned with Electron's multi-process model.
2. The WebDriverIO sync API was retired. Spectron's API shape depended on the WDIO sync API, dropped in WDIO 6+; migrating was a breaking change, so Spectron's surface froze.
3. Native testing tools matured. Per Electron's automated-testing guide, Electron now recommends Playwright, WebDriverIO (modern async), and Selenium - each with native Electron support paths.

Before: a Spectron test

// Legacy Spectron - DO NOT use for new code
const Application = require('spectron').Application;
const app = new Application({
  path: '/path/to/electron/MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp',
});

before(async () => {
  await app.start();
});

after(async () => {
  if (app && app.isRunning()) {
    await app.stop();
  }
});

it('opens a window', async () => {
  const count = await app.client.getWindowCount();
  assert.strictEqual(count, 1);
});

After: the Playwright _electron equivalent

// Modern replacement (per electrontest)
const { _electron: electron } = require('playwright');

let electronApp;
beforeAll(async () => {
  electronApp = await electron.launch({ args: ['.'] });
});
afterAll(async () => {
  await electronApp.close();
});

test('opens a window', async () => {
  const windowCount = electronApp.windows().length;
  expect(windowCount).toBe(1);
});

Migration shopping list

Plan migration test-file-by-test-file, not big-bang: tag each file as migrated, run both suites in CI until the Spectron set is empty, then delete spectron from package.json. There is no first-party codemod, and Spectron's main-process RPC (app.electron.<…>) has no 1:1 electronApp.evaluate() mapping for every case - some tests need a small refactor. Projects already on WDIO for browser tests may prefer wdio-electron-service (electrontest) as the migration target instead.

Residual support contract (projects not migrating this sprint)

• Pin spectron: 19.0.0 and electron: ^19.0.0 - newer Electron breaks Spectron's ChromeDriver bridge (spectronrepo).
• Pin Node.js to a version compatible with the bundled ChromeDriver - typically Node 16 for the Spectron 19 era.
• Do not file issues upstream - the repository is archived; patches must live as local forks.
• Schedule the migration. No security or Electron-version updates are coming; when stakeholders ask "but it still works," cite the Electron-version lock, missing security updates, and absent support - all consequences of the archived deprecation (spectronrepo).