Ohm installers#

Installer builds live here, one folder per platform, kept out of the app's npm workspaces so that packaging tools never end up in the app's dependency tree.

installers/
├─ shared/          branding artwork + the staging step both platforms use
│  ├─ branding.html the source of every image (icon, NSIS pages, DMG background)
│  ├─ assets/       the rendered images, committed so a build needs no design tools
│  ├─ config.mjs    product identity (appId, version, Electron version)
│  └─ stage.mjs     builds the app and lays it out the way it ships
├─ windows/         NSIS installer     → windows/dist
├─ macos/           DMG + zip          → macos/dist
├─ linux/           AppImage/deb/tar   → linux/dist
└─ build/           scratch space (staged app); safe to delete

Build#

cd installers
npm install
npm run assets          # once, or after changing branding.html

Windows (run on Windows):

npm run build:win                                  # NSIS installer, x64
npm run build:win -- --arch arm64
npm run build:win -- --targets nsis,portable,zip
npm run build:win -- --backends cpu,vulkan,cuda    # GPU llama.cpp, much larger
npm run build:win -- --no-build                    # reuse the last app build
npm run build:win -- --out windows/dist2           # build somewhere else

electron-builder deletes and recreates <out>/win-unpacked, so a build fails with EBUSY: resource busy or locked while anything is holding that folder — a shell whose current directory is inside it is enough, as is a running Ohm.exe. Close it, or use --out to build elsewhere.

macOS (run on macOS — hdiutil and codesign exist only there):

npm run build:mac                       # DMG + zip, arm64
npm run build:mac -- --arch x64
npm run build:mac -- --arch universal
npm run build:mac -- --validate         # any OS: check assets, staging and config

Linux (run on Linux for AppImage and deb):

npm run build:linux                           # AppImage + deb, x64
npm run build:linux -- --arch arm64
npm run build:linux -- --targets tar.gz       # works from any host
npm run build:linux -- --validate             # any OS: check assets, staging and config

AppImage and deb shell out to tooling that only exists on Linux (appimagetool, fakeroot/dpkg). tar.gz and dir are plain file copying, so they build from Windows or macOS too — useful for a smoke test, though the llama.cpp binaries for Linux are only installed when npm runs on Linux.

From the repository root, build.bat package (Windows) and ./build.sh package (macOS, Linux) do the install, the checks, the app build and the platform's packaging in one step.

All three scripts build the app first (npm run build in the repo root), so a fresh clone needs only npm install at the root and in installers/.

Testing the package#

npm run check runs against the source tree, where every file is on disk and every path resolves. Packaging is where a file stops being staged, a worker stops being bundled, or the compiled help never reaches resources — and the app still starts, so nobody notices until it is installed.

npm run smoke                                      # the default win-unpacked build
node scripts/smoke-package.cjs --app "C:\Program Files\Ohm\Ohm.exe"
node scripts/smoke-package.cjs --keep              # leave the throwaway profile behind

It drives the packaged app over CDP against a fresh scripts folder and a throwaway profile, so it never touches the Ohm you use, and checks eleven things that can only fail after packaging:

Run it after every buildinstaller.bat, before sending anyone the .exe.

What ends up in the package#

Two deliberate choices:

• No asar. The app serves its own UI with net.fetch(file://…) and starts the Ohm interpreter in a worker thread; neither can see inside an asar archive.
• CPU-only llama.cpp by default. The Vulkan and CUDA builds add ~600 MB. Pass --backends cpu,vulkan,cuda when you want them.

Roughly: a 120 MB Windows installer, 460 MB installed.

Windows installer behaviour#

• A wizard (welcome → install for me/everyone → folder → progress → finish), branded with the sidebar and header from shared/assets.
• Per-user by default, so no UAC prompt; "anyone who uses this computer" is offered on the install-mode page and elevates.
• Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts, and an "Ohm version" entry in Apps & features.
• HKCU\Software\Ohm records InstallLocation and Version.
• Uninstalling removes the program, the shortcuts and those keys. It asks — defaulting to no — whether to also delete %APPDATA%\Ohm (settings, saved credentials, downloaded models). Documents\Ohm, where your scripts and projects live, is never touched.

Customise the wizard in windows/installer.nsh; electron-builder calls those macros at the matching point of its own NSIS script.

macOS disk image#

• A DMG whose window shows the app, an arrow and the Applications folder on the drawn background, plus a .zip of the same .app.
• Hardened runtime with entitlements for JIT (V8 and the Lua VM) and for loading the unsigned llama.cpp binary.

Signing#

Both builds work unsigned — useful locally, and what --validate assumes. For a build other people will install, set these in the environment before building:

Unsigned Windows builds get a SmartScreen warning on first run; unsigned macOS builds get Gatekeeper's "unidentified developer".

Branding#

Every image comes from shared/branding.html, rendered by the repo's own Electron (npm run assets) into shared/assets:

Edit the HTML, re-run npm run assets, rebuild. The Ω is drawn as geometry, not type, so it renders the same on a machine with no fonts installed.