# Electron Fiddle: a scratchpad for Electron experiments that grows into a real project

> Electron Fiddle is a desktop app for writing small Electron experiments, running them against a chosen Electron version, and exporting them as a project when they outgrow the scratchpad. It is a starting point, not an IDE, and the README is explicit about that.

**electron/fiddle** — :electron: 🚀 The easiest way to get started with Electron

- Repository: https://github.com/electron/fiddle
- Website: https://electronjs.org/fiddle
- Stars: 7,774 · Forks: 765
- Language: TypeScript
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-09-22 · Updated: 2026-09-22 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/electron-fiddle

## What Electron Fiddle is for, and who it is actually aimed at

The problem Fiddle addresses is the setup cost of trying one Electron API. Normally you scaffold a project, install Electron, wire a main process and a renderer, and only then find out whether the API does what you assumed. Fiddle opens with a quick-start template, you change a few lines, pick an Electron version, and run it. The README's framing is that it lets you "create and play with small Electron experiments" and that you can "Try Electron without installing any dependencies", because Fiddle ships everything needed to explore the platform.

The audience is narrower than the tagline suggests. This suits someone evaluating an API, writing a minimal reproduction for a bug report, or teaching Electron to a room of people who should not spend the first hour on node-gyp. It also suits maintainers who want a shareable artifact: a Fiddle saved as a GitHub Gist can be run by anyone who enters it in the address bar. It does not suit someone building a product, because the README itself says Fiddle is not an IDE. Treat it as a workbench you leave once the experiment is worth keeping.

## How the editor, version switching and type definitions fit together

The editing surface is Microsoft's Monaco Editor, the same editor that powers Visual Studio Code. That choice matters less for the editing experience than for what it enables: Fiddle installs the type definitions for the currently selected version of Electron automatically, so the API surface in the autocomplete matches the runtime you picked. Switch the Electron version and the types move with it. For anyone who has chased a method that exists in the docs but not in the version they pinned, this is the part that earns its keep.

The second mechanism is the example library. The README states that Fiddle includes examples for every API available in Electron, and names BrowserView and desktopCapturer as examples of what you can look up quickly. Those examples are runnable, not snippets, so the loop is: pick an example, adjust it, run it, then save it. Saving has two destinations, a GitHub Gist or a local folder, and the Gist path is what turns an experiment into something another person can open by entering it in the address bar.

The third mechanism is packaging. Fiddle can turn an experiment into binaries for Windows, macOS or Linux, and the README attributes this to electron-forge. That is the same toolchain the wider Electron ecosystem uses, which is why the export story is credible: what you export is a normal project, not a Fiddle-specific format.

## Installing Electron Fiddle and running a first experiment

Fiddle is distributed as a desktop application. The README points to the download page at https://www.electronjs.org/fiddle, and that page is where you get the build for your platform. There is no package manager install documented in the README for end users, so do not expect a brew or npm one-liner for the app itself.

If you want to build Fiddle from source, the repository is a Yarn project. The package.json declares Node 22.12.0 or newer, and the start script cleans the webpack output before handing off to electron-forge:

```bash
yarn install
yarn start
```

The postinstall hook runs husky and then the electron-releases script, which fetches the release list that populates the version picker. If that step fails, the version dropdown is the first thing that will look wrong.

Once the app is open you get the quick-start template. The workflow the README describes is: change a few things, choose the Electron version to run with, then save. To try an existing API instead of the template, open the examples list and pick one, for instance the desktopCapturer example, then press run. What you should see is the example's own window, not the template's.

When the experiment is worth keeping, export it. The README describes exporting as a project with or without electron-forge, after which you continue in your own editor:

```bash
yarn install
yarn make
```

Those are the repository's own scripts (make maps to electron-forge make), so the exported project follows the same conventions as the Fiddle repository itself.

## Where Fiddle stops being the right tool

The README draws the boundary itself: Fiddle is not an IDE. There is no claim of an integrated debugger, no test runner in the UI, and no dependency management for third-party packages inside a Fiddle. The moment your experiment needs a real npm dependency tree, or a watch-and-reload loop across many files, you are working against the grain of a single-fiddle editor.

A second limitation is structural. Fiddle's value comes from being small and disposable. The export step exists precisely because the app does not try to grow with the project. If you skip the export and keep building inside Fiddle, you are using a tool whose documented lifecycle ends where yours begins.

The third constraint is the build requirement. Fiddle's own package.json sets engines.node to ">= 22.12.0", so building from source on an older Node release will fail before anything Electron-related runs. For end users the prebuilt download avoids this entirely, but contributors and anyone packaging their own build need a current Node.

Finally, the README does not document rollback, migration or version pinning behaviour for saved fiddles, and it does not describe what happens when an experiment targets an Electron version that is no longer offered in the picker. Those are real questions for anyone keeping a fiddle around for months, and the documentation is silent on them.

## Electron Forge is the alternative, and the difference is the starting point

The honest comparison is with electron-forge used directly, because Fiddle is built on top of it. Forge gives you a project scaffold, a build pipeline, packaging and publishing, and you drive all of it from a terminal. Fiddle gives you a window, an editor, a version picker and a run button, and it hands you Forge when the experiment is done.

The difference in approach is where the friction sits. With Forge alone you pay the setup cost up front and get a project that is already shaped like production. With Fiddle you pay almost nothing up front and get a single-file experiment you may throw away. Neither is strictly better; they optimise for different moments. If you already know what you are building, scaffolding with Forge is the shorter path. If you are trying to find out whether something works at all, Fiddle removes the scaffolding from the question entirely.

The export path is what makes this a fair comparison rather than a rivalry. The README describes exporting with or without electron-forge, so Forge is not the thing Fiddle replaces, it is the thing Fiddle graduates into.

## Maintenance, licensing and what the repository tells you

The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-20, two days before this writing, so the project is being worked on. Releases are less frequent than pushes: v0.39.0 landed on 2026-04-08, v0.38.0 on 2026-02-05, and v0.37.3 on 2025-11-04. The package.json in the repository carries version 0.40.1, which is ahead of the newest listed release, so the source tree and the release notes are not always in step. If you need a shipped build, the release list is the authority, not package.json.

Upgrade cost is mostly Electron's, not Fiddle's. Fiddle installs type definitions per selected Electron version, so moving to a newer Electron in a fiddle is a dropdown change rather than a dependency bump. The cost moves to the export: once you leave with electron-forge, you own the Electron version in that project and its upgrade path.

The licence is MIT, stated in the README and in LICENSE.md. That is permissive and typical for Electron-adjacent tooling. The README adds one non-code condition worth noting: when using the Electron or other GitHub logos, follow the GitHub logo guidelines. That is a trademark question rather than a licence question, and it applies to what you ship with the logo, not to the code you write in a fiddle. Nothing here is legal advice; read LICENSE.md and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md before redistributing a build.

## Conclusion

Adopt Electron Fiddle if you need to check how an Electron API behaves on a specific version before you commit it to an existing app, or if you want to hand someone a runnable reproduction. Skip it if you need a full IDE, a debugger workflow or a package manager inside the editor; the README says plainly that Fiddle is not an IDE and expects you to export and continue elsewhere. Before relying on it, verify that the Electron version you care about is selectable and that the type definitions for it download, then confirm the export path you want, with or without electron-forge, produces a project your own toolchain can open.

## FAQ

### What is Electron Fiddle?

It is a desktop application for creating and running small Electron experiments. It opens with a quick-start template, lets you choose which Electron version to run against, and can save a fiddle as a GitHub Gist or to a local folder.

### How do I install Electron Fiddle?

The README points to the download page at https://www.electronjs.org/fiddle for the desktop build. Building from source is a Yarn project that requires Node 22.12.0 or newer, installed with yarn install and started with yarn start.

### Does Electron Fiddle include type definitions for the Electron version I pick?

Yes. The README states that Fiddle automatically installs the type definitions for the currently selected version of Electron, so the API completion matches the runtime you chose.

### Can Electron Fiddle package my experiment into an app?

Yes, through electron-forge. The README says Fiddle can turn an experiment into binaries for Windows, macOS or Linux, and that you can export a fiddle as a project with or without electron-forge.

### Is Electron Fiddle an IDE?

No. The README states plainly that Fiddle is not an IDE, describing it instead as a starting point that you export from once the fiddle has grown up.

## Sources

- [electron/fiddle on GitHub](https://github.com/electron/fiddle)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/electron/fiddle/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://electronjs.org/fiddle)
- [README](https://github.com/electron/fiddle/blob/main/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/electron/fiddle/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/electron-fiddle