fix: electron main files always open when starting app in editor due to cli args parsing

Author: abose

src-electron/main-app-ipc.js

@@ -9,9 +9,33 @@
 const { app, ipcMain } = require('electron');
 const { spawn } = require('child_process');
 const readline = require('readline');
+const path = require('path');
 const { productName } = require('./package.json');
 
 let processInstanceId = 0;
+
+// Path to main.js - used to filter it out from CLI args in dev mode
+const mainScriptPath = path.resolve(__dirname, 'main.js');
+
+/**
+ * Filter CLI args to remove internal Electron arguments.
+ * In dev mode, process.argv includes: [electron, main.js, ...userArgs]
+ * In production, it includes: [app, ...userArgs]
+ * This function filters out the main.js entry point in dev mode.
+ */
+function filterCliArgs(args) {
+    if (!args || args.length === 0) {
+        return args;
+    }
+
+    const normalizedMainScript = mainScriptPath.toLowerCase();
+
+    return args.filter(arg => {
+        // Resolve to handle both absolute and relative paths
+        const resolvedArg = path.resolve(arg).toLowerCase();
+        return resolvedArg !== normalizedMainScript;
+    });
+}
 // Map of instanceId -> { process, terminated }
 const spawnedProcesses = new Map();
 
@@ -115,8 +139,9 @@ function registerAppIpcHandlers() {
     });
 
     // CLI args (mirrors Tauri's cli.getMatches for --quit-when-done / -q)
+    // Filter out internal Electron args (main.js in dev mode)
     ipcMain.handle('get-cli-args', () => {
-        return process.argv;
+        return filterCliArgs(process.argv);
     });
 
     // App path (repo root when running from source)
@@ -132,5 +157,6 @@ function registerAppIpcHandlers() {
 
 module.exports = {
     registerAppIpcHandlers,
-    terminateAllProcesses
+    terminateAllProcesses,
+    filterCliArgs
 };

src-electron/main.js

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ const { app, BrowserWindow, protocol, Menu, ipcMain } = require('electron');
 const path = require('path');
 const fs = require('fs');
 
-const { registerAppIpcHandlers, terminateAllProcesses } = require('./main-app-ipc');
+const { registerAppIpcHandlers, terminateAllProcesses, filterCliArgs } = require('./main-app-ipc');
 const { registerFsIpcHandlers, getAppDataDir } = require('./main-fs-ipc');
 const { registerCredIpcHandlers } = require('./main-cred-ipc');
 const { registerWindowIpcHandlers, registerWindow } = require('./main-window-ipc');
@@ -105,10 +105,12 @@ app.on('quit-requested', (exitCode) => {
 app.on('second-instance', (event, commandLine, workingDirectory) => {
     // Forward to all windows via IPC
     // Window focusing is handled by the renderer's singleInstanceHandler
+    // Filter out internal electron args (executable and main.js script)
+    const filteredArgs = filterCliArgs(commandLine);
     BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().forEach(win => {
         if (!win.isDestroyed()) {
             win.webContents.send('single-instance', {
-                args: commandLine,
+                args: filteredArgs,
                 cwd: workingDirectory
             });
         }