Build Electron Apps Like NestJS: Modular Architecture, Multi-Window Management, and Typed IPC Communication

29 x — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 05:38:41 +0000

Build Electron Apps Like NestJS: Modular Architecture, Multi-Window Management, and Typed IPC Communication

When we develop Electron applications, the main process often becomes a tangled mess: window creation logic is scattered everywhere, ipcMain handlers are registered imperatively all over the place, and communication logic is tightly coupled. Maintenance becomes increasingly difficult as the application grows.

As a full-stack developer with experience in NestJS, I wanted to apply Nest’s modular thinking to the Electron main process.

That’s why I created this project:

👉 🔗 GitHub Repository: X29w/electronest

✨ What Is This Project?

This is a highly scalable and elegant Electron + Vite + NestJS full-featured template that supports:

💠 Main process architecture inspired by NestJS
🪟 Modular multi-window management system
🔌 Type-safe, decorator-based IPC communication
📦 Independent NestJS server integrated into Electron
🔄 Built-in auto-registration of modules, services, and IPC handlers
💡 Perfect for large Electron applications

🔍 Core Innovations

1. 🧱 NestJS-Inspired Architecture for Electron Main Process

Inspired by @Module(), @Injectable(), and @Controller() in NestJS, this project brings a similar architecture to the Electron main process.

IPC logic is encapsulated in modules
Dependency injection is used for services
Clean separation of concerns

✅ No more imperative ipcMain.on(...) scattered everywhere!

2. 🪟 Declarative Multi-Window Management with Decorators

Instead of managing windows manually in random files, you can now use decorators like:

@RegisterWindow('home')
export class HomeWindow { ... }

And auto-register them via:

@AutoRegisterWindows([HomeWindow, SettingsWindow])
export class WindowModule {}

All windows are created declaratively, lifecycle-aware, and can expose methods for main/renderer communication.

3. 🔁 Decorator-Based IPC Communication (with TypeScript support)

You can define IPC handlers like this:

@IPCHandle('get-user-info')
handleUserInfo(payload: UserPayload) {
  return this.userService.getUserInfo(payload.id);
}

And on the renderer side, TypeScript will provide autocomplete & type-checks:

window.electronAPI.invoke('get-user-info', { id: '123' });

✅ Supports full request/response structure, type inference, and automatic registration.

4. 🚀 Embedded NestJS Server

A full NestJS backend is embedded in Electron and runs alongside your main process. You can:

Expose REST APIs
Reuse backend logic in the main process
Use it to drive IPC logic or window lifecycle behavior

This is especially useful for heavy logic processing or multi-window state management.

📦 Tech Stack

Electron – Desktop runtime
Vite – Lightning-fast frontend builder
React – UI rendering (can replace with Vue/Svelte/etc.)
NestJS – Backend architecture (used inside and alongside Electron)
TypeScript – Full type safety

🛠️ Get Started

git clone https://github.com/X29w/electronest
cd electronest
pnpm install
pnpm dev

You’ll have a fully running Electron app with a NestJS server, multi-window setup, and IPC system in just one command.

📌 Conclusion

This template is perfect for developers who:

Want to build scalable Electron apps
Prefer structured architecture
Value type safety and modular design
Are familiar with NestJS or want to bring backend patterns to desktop development

If you found this project interesting, feel free to ⭐️ it on GitHub:
👉 https://github.com/X29w/electronest

Happy coding!

DEV Community: 29 x

Build Electron Apps Like NestJS: Modular Architecture, Multi-Window Management, and Typed IPC Communication

Build Electron Apps Like NestJS: Modular Architecture, Multi-Window Management, and Typed IPC Communication

✨ What Is This Project?

🔍 Core Innovations

1. 🧱 NestJS-Inspired Architecture for Electron Main Process

2. 🪟 Declarative Multi-Window Management with Decorators

3. 🔁 Decorator-Based IPC Communication (with TypeScript support)

4. 🚀 Embedded NestJS Server

📦 Tech Stack

🛠️ Get Started

📌 Conclusion