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Setup

Requirements​

  • Node.js 24.15.0 (locked in .nvmrc; use nvm use)
  • npm
  • Native development targets: macOS arm64, Windows x64
  • Do not build or run from an SMB/NAS-mounted path — Electron fails to start on mounted volumes (icudtl.dat not found) and packaged apps cannot run from them either

macOS​

  • Xcode Command Line Tools (for native module builds)
  • Media component builds (only when rebuilding): scripts/media-build/darwin-arm64.sh (vcpkg, takes hours)

Windows​

  • Git, PowerShell
  • Visual Studio Build Tools: "Desktop development with C++" workload + Windows SDK (required to compile native module better-sqlite3)
  • Inno Setup 6 (required when building the Windows installer package SerpentSetup.exe):
    • Recommended (no admin rights required): Fetch Tools.InnoSetup via NuGet, extract ISCC.exe into %LOCALAPPDATA%\SerpentTools\inno\tools\;
    • Official installer: Install official Inno Setup 6 and set environment variable SERPENT_INNO_TOOLS to the directory containing ISCC.exe (or add it to system PATH);
    • Not needed if only running dev mode (npm start) or creating portable builds (npm run package).
  • Media component builds (only when rebuilding underlying binaries): scripts/media-build/win32-x64.ps1 (vcpkg)

First build​

npm ci --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org
npm run rebuild:native
npm start

rebuild:native compiles better-sqlite3 for Electron's ABI and verifies FTS5. On Windows, do not run a bare @electron/rebuild or node-gyp — machine-wide vcpkg MSBuild integration can link against a non-FTS5 sqlite3.dll; the project script disables it.

Media components​

npm ci does not install FFmpeg/ffprobe/OpenImageIO. Without them, normal development and image import still work; video thumbnails/proxies fail with FFMPEG_REQUIRED, and EXR/TGA/complex TIFF need OpenImageIO.

Packaged builds use the controlled media bundle (FFmpeg 8.1 LGPL-only + OpenImageIO 3.1.12.0); gates verify provenance and hashes (bundle-lock.json promotion status + source-lock.json version match). For local development you can point at any trusted FFmpeg via SERPENT_FFMPEG_PATH (needs the required filters/encoders; ffprobe in the same directory; GPL builds are local-dev only):

# macOS
export SERPENT_FFMPEG_PATH="$HOME/tools/ffmpeg/ffmpeg"
npm start
# Windows
$env:SERPENT_FFMPEG_PATH = 'C:\tools\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe'
npm start

Quit Serpent completely before retrying (single-instance lock; a second npm start does not replace a running process).

Common commands​

npm run lint             # ESLint
npm run typecheck        # tsc --noEmit
npm run test             # unit + worker integration (runs in Electron)
npm run test:unit        # unit only
npm run test:worker      # worker integration only
npm run test:e2e         # Playwright E2E
npm start                # development launch
npm run start:multi      # two instances

Notes​

  • Tests run under Electron's ABI (test:worker/test go through run-vitest-with-electron.mjs); after npm run package, run npm run rebuild:native to restore the dev native module
  • npm start auto-avoids occupied Vite ports