The ultimate Electron app with Next.js and React Server Components
With the emergence of React Server Components and Server Actions writing Web apps became easier than ever. The simplicity when developer has all server APIs right inside the Web app, natively, with types and full support from Next.js framework for example (and other RSC frameworks too, of course) is astonishing.
At the same time, Electron is a de-facto standard for modern desktop apps written using web technologies, especially when application must have filesystem and other system API access, while being written in JS (Tauri receives an honorable mention here if you know Rust or if you only need a simple WebView2 shell).
I asked myself, why not to combine best of both worlds, and run usual Next.js application right inside the Electron and enjoy all benefits that comes with React Server Components?
I have explored all options available and haven’t found a suitable one, so I wrote a small lib next-electron-rsc that can bridge the gap between Next.js and Electron without running a server or opening any ports.
