`npmRebuild: false` will skip dependency installation altogether

[jochenschmich-aeberle]

From what I understand, setting npmRebuild to false should (and so it has in the past) skip the rebuild of dependencies, but not their installation.

We've been using this to avoid the rebuild of dependencies. They've still been installed.

This should be the cause:

electron-builder/packages/app-builder-lib/src/packager.ts

Line 591 in 841a290

if (config.npmRebuild === false) {

It would be nice if you could look into this. Thanks in advance!

[mmaietta]

and so it has in the past

What version was this operating for in the past? Looking to determine if a git bisect/diff could help here in identifying anything amiss

[jochenschmich-aeberle]

@mmaietta We used 25.1.8 before.

I didn't analyze it in depth, but I think, that before, the node_modules have been copied from the root of the repository.
This doesn't work anymore. It looks that is because we're already using the latest version of yarn. It does not support the workspaceRoot config entry, which leads to the workspace root and the package.json located there not being recognized.

With npmRebuild this would lead to a situation for the node_modules folder in the app/resources folder would not exist after a build.

I haven't found a workaround for this.

  • writing effective config  file=.build-tmp\my-project\output\builder-effective-config.yaml
  • no event listeners found  event=beforePack
  • packageManager field detected in package.json  resolvedPackageManager=yarn-berry packageManager=yarn@4.12.0 cwd=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input
  • spawning        command=yarn config get workspaceRoot cwd=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input
  • exited          command=yarn code=1 pid=15232 out=Usage Error: Couldn't find a configuration settings named "workspaceRoot"
                      $ yarn config get [--why] [--json] [--no-redacted] <name>

  • workspace root not detected, using project root  root=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input
  • packageManager field detected in package.json  resolvedPackageManager=yarn-berry packageManager=yarn@4.12.0 cwd=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input
  • installing dependencies  pm=yarn-berry platform=linux arch=x64 projectDir=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input appDir=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input workspaceRoot=D:\Git\my-monorepo\dev-update-deps-2025-11-25\.build-tmp\my-project\input

[mmaietta]

Oh, can you test 26.3.3? Curious if this was fixed already in #9376

If still isn't working, can you please provide a minimum repro repo?

Related Q, what does yarn config get projectRoot return for you?

[jochenschmich-aeberle]

yarn config get projectRoot

@mmaietta Thanks for the response!!

We're actually using 26.3.3 now.

I've created two repositories - one with the old (25.1.8) and one with the latest version of electron-builder.

• https://github.com/jochenschmich-aeberle/electron-builder-before-9395
• https://github.com/jochenschmich-aeberle/electron-builder-after-9395

Please see the README.MD in each of the repositories.

The difference in the output is, that the node_modules folder will be created with version 25.1.8 (in contrast to the latest version).

Our setup is basically just as it's shown in these repositories. We didn't use Workspaces until now and we're not keen on using them just for building the Electron app.
25.1.8 seemed to have an alternative way of determining where to get its node_modules from.

We'd also be happy with a configuration option that would allow us to set a path on where to resolve the node modules.

BTW: yarn config get projectRoot will return:

Usage Error: Couldn't find a configuration settings named "projectRoot"

$ yarn config get [--why] [--json] [--no-redacted] <name>

[mmaietta]

Can you please try 26.3.4? Looks to be resolved
yarn && yarn buildElectronApp

[jochenschmich-aeberle]

Hi @mmaietta - thanks for the update!

Sorry, not for me - when I:

1. Checkout https://github.com/jochenschmich-aeberle/electron-builder-after-9395
2. Upgrade to 26.3.4
3. Run yarn run buildElectronApp

...everything just stays the same. No node_modules in resources/app.

What would help us most (at least from what I've seen so far), would be an option that would allow us to modify the list of search directories for node_modules:

electron-builder/packages/app-builder-lib/src/util/appFileCopier.ts

Line 185 in 05e0bc7

const searchDirectories = Array.from(new Set([projectDir, appDir, await packager.getWorkspaceRoot()])).filter((it): it is string => it != null)

I could be wrong of course.

Right now, electron-builder is relying on the user having a yarn Workspaces configured.
This is not the case for every setup, I'd suppose - at least not for ours.

[mmaietta]

Right now, electron-builder is relying on the user having a yarn Workspaces configured.

That should be incorrect? Multiple package managers are being supported (npm, yarn classic, yarn 2+, pnpm, bun).

What search directory are you attempting to specify differently? projectDir (normally cwd() unless specified in config projectDir property) either contains appDir (per electron-builder app config prop) or is the appDir itself

The workspace error being logged was a red herring. Resolved in #9415

[jochenschmich-aeberle]

@mmaietta Thanks for your response - no, I don't think, that it's incorrect. It's good, that so many package managers are support and I believe that it's a tough task keeping everything current.

It's just, that our setup has worked in https://github.com/jochenschmich-aeberle/electron-builder-before-9395 and won't work in https://github.com/jochenschmich-aeberle/electron-builder-after-9395 - even though we didn't ever use the yarn workspaces feature and the node packages have still been resolved from the root directory.

We don't use the recommended project layout because we're shipping several different Electron distributables - not just one.
The Electron apps aren't our only distributable - our products are also shipped as Docker images.

Our layout looks more like this:

root
| dist
|__ bundled-js-code <- will be included in Docker images and Electron Apps
|__ app1_output <- where electron-builder puts the output files for app1
|__ app2_output <- where electron-builder puts the output files for app2
|_ src
|_ electron-build
|__ app1 <- project dir
|__ app2 <- project dir

I'm sure, that it's not perfect and maybe not laid out as intended, but it worked until 26.x.

Of course we're willing to change things, but right now I'm out of ideas how to make it work.