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@reticlehq/electron reaches the two places the renderer cannot: the IPC boundary, and capturePage(). Version 2.8.0. Apache 2.0. Depends on @reticlehq/core. Peer dependency: electron >= 22. No build step.

Why it exists

In Electron the interesting failures happen across IPC. The renderer asks the main process for something, the main process quietly fails, and the renderer-side SDK sees nothing at all. That reads as “this app makes no backend calls” rather than “you are blind to them”.

npm i -D @reticlehq/electron

Exports map

There is no . export. Two subpaths only.

Subpath	File	Shape
`./preload`	`preload.cjs`	Side effect only. Exports nothing
`./main`	`main.cjs`	`{ installReticleCapture }`

The preload

// preload.js: this line must be FIRST
require('@reticlehq/electron/preload');

const { contextBridge, ipcRenderer } = require('electron');
// ... your own bridge setup

It must run before require('electron') and before any contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld call. It patches ipcRenderer while those methods are still writable, so ordering is not a style preference.

It patches three methods, and each IPC call then surfaces to Reticle as a network record on ipc://<channel> with initiator: 'ipc':

Method	Recorded as
`ipcRenderer.invoke`	Two-way, with its outcome
`ipcRenderer.sendSync`	Two-way, with its outcome
`ipcRenderer.send`	One-way, dispatched, with no outcome

It then exposes window.__reticleIpc through the context bridge, with three members used by the SDK rather than by you:

Member	Signature	Notes
`subscribe`	`(callback) => number`	Returns a token, or `-1` if the argument is not a function
`unsubscribe`	`(token) => void`	Real removal
`capture`	`(fullPage) => Promise<string \| null>`	Resolves to a capture file path, `null` when no main handler is installed, and propagates the explicit full-page refusal

The main process

const { installReticleCapture } = require('@reticlehq/electron/main');

const win = new BrowserWindow({
  /* ... */
});
installReticleCapture(win);

installReticleCapture(win): void is a no-op on null or undefined, tracks the window until it closes, and registers the capture handler once for the whole app. The handler calls webContents.capturePage(), writes the PNG into a per-process 0700 captures directory as reticle-capture-<n>.png, and returns the file path rather than the bytes, because the transport has a 64KB cap. It returns null on an empty image or any error, and it refuses fullPage: true explicitly rather than silently returning a viewport shot.

Renderer wiring

The renderer still needs the SDK. A packaged app is a production build, so the connect call has to opt in:

reticle.connect({ allowInProduction: true });

Or, with the Vite plugin, reticle({ desktop: true }).

Desktop setup in full

Electron and Tauri wiring, and what reticle doctor checks for each.

Tools

Beyond the loop

CLI commands

Packages

Grammar

Long form

@reticlehq/electron

Why it exists

Exports map

The preload

The main process

Renderer wiring

Desktop setup in full

​Why it exists

​Exports map

​The preload

​The main process

​Renderer wiring

Desktop setup in full

Why it exists

Exports map

The preload

The main process

Renderer wiring