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electron-detector is a Windows CLI that detects Electron applications on the current machine.

It reports two groups:

• running Electron apps, detected from Windows process metadata and Electron layout signals;
• installed Electron apps, detected from a cached NTFS scan.

Installed-app refresh uses Windows NTFS metadata directly.

This project is early-stage Windows-only software. The detector favors concrete Electron layout signals over app-name whitelists, but it can still miss unusual packaging layouts.

Build from source:

cargo build --release

Run the release binary:

.\target\release\electron-detector.exe

Show running apps and cached installed apps:

electron-detector

Show full paths in text output:

electron-detector --paths

Output JSON:

electron-detector --json

Refresh the installed-app cache:

electron-detector --refresh

Print help or version:

electron-detector --help
electron-detector --version

--refresh may require administrator permission because NTFS MFT and USN Journal access can be restricted. If the command prints an administrator-permission error, run it from an elevated terminal:

Start-Process .\target\release\electron-detector.exe -ArgumentList "--refresh" -Verb RunAs

Default text output hides paths:

Running Electron apps: 2
- Code
- Codex

Installed Electron apps: 7
- Figma
- Code
- Obsidian

Use --paths when debugging:

- Code (C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code)

JSON output always includes paths:

{
    "running": [],
    "installed": [],
    "warnings": []
}

The detector looks for Electron packaging layouts, not app names.

Strong installed-app signals:

• resources\app.asar
• resources\app\package.json
• resources\electron.exe

Running-app signals include:

• an executable next to resources\app.asar;
• command lines with --app-path=...\resources\app;
• command lines or paths with a real app.asar component;
• Electron runtime process identity.

See docs/DETECTION.md for details and known limits.

Installed-app results are cached at:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\electron-detector\cache.json

Run electron-detector --refresh after installing or removing apps.

Run checks:

cargo fmt --all --check
cargo test -- --nocapture
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings

MIT. See LICENSE.