Fix packaged app crashing on launch (Cannot find module)

[JosephMaynard]

Fixes the released app crashing on launch

Your dad's v0.20.0 (and in fact every recent release) crashes the instant it opens, with:

A JavaScript error occurred in the main process. Error: Cannot find module 'zod'

Root cause

The electron-forge Vite template marks every production dependency as external, so the compiled main.js does require('zod') (and every other dep) at runtime. But the packaged app.asar ships no node_modules at all, only the .vite build output and package.json. So the first external require fails and takes the app down before any window appears. It is platform-independent, so Windows, macOS, and Linux are all affected.

Fix

• Bundle the dependencies into the main and preload output instead of externalising them. These processes use no native modules, so bundling is safe and makes the packaged app self-contained. Only Electron, Node builtins, and ws's optional native addons (bufferutil, utf-8-validate, required inside a try/catch) stay external.
• electron-squirrel-startup was a second straggler: it was loaded through a raw require(), which stays external even when bundling, so it became the next crash. Imported it instead so it bundles, with a small local type declaration since it ships no types.
• Confirmed ajv (via electron-store) is a non-issue: the app passes electron-store no schema, so ajv never compiles anything and its dynamic requires are dead code.

Verification

Built an actual package and launched it: both windows render, the dashboard loads (42 controls), and there are no module errors. This is the packaged-build test that dev-mode runs (npm start, which resolves node_modules directly) could never catch, which is how this slipped through the earlier releases.

Bumps to v0.20.1.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved Windows installer startup handling, helping the application exit cleanly during installation and update events.
  • Improved application packaging compatibility for native modules.

• Chores

  • Updated the application version to 0.20.1.

[vercel]

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
playoverlay	Ready	Preview	Aug 7, 2026 3:22pm

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The package version changes to 0.20.1. The main process uses a static, typed electron-squirrel-startup import. Vite externalizes Electron, Node builtins, and selected native modules while bundling other dependencies.

Changes

Application Packaging

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Squirrel startup integration src/main.ts, src/types/electron-squirrel-startup.d.ts	The main process uses the declared boolean startup flag and exits for Squirrel events.
Vite dependency externalization vite.base.config.ts	Vite externalizes Electron, Node builtins, bufferutil, and utf-8-validate. Other dependencies are bundled.
Package release version package.json	The package version changes from 0.20.0 to 0.20.1.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: fixing packaged app launch crashes caused by missing modules.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches 💡 1

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🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/packaged-missing-modules

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Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@package.json`:
- Line 5: Update both root version metadata entries in package-lock.json from
0.18.0 to 0.20.1, matching the package.json version while leaving dependency
contents unchanged.

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7d3a947 and b85caef.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

• package.json
• src/main.ts
• src/types/electron-squirrel-startup.d.ts
• vite.base.config.ts