Smart-Renderers

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A TypeScript plugin for Electron main-process renderer management. It watches tracked windows / webviews / offscreen renderers, starts a countdown after they go idle, and then throttles, hibernates, or destroys them. Activity restores reversible actions.

Install the root package to get the full public API.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• ESM ("type": "module")
• Electron 20+ is an optional peer. Outside Electron the runtime still works; renderer actions fall back to an in-memory port unless you supply your own.

Install

pnpm add smart-renderers
# or: npm install smart-renderers

This package re-exports the private workspace packages @smart-renderers/core (idle + countdown) and @smart-renderers/manager (actions). They are bundled into the published tarball and are not installed separately.

To try the latest dev tag instead of the latest official release:

pnpm add smart-renderers@dev

Version badges above read npm dist-tags (latest and dev) and update automatically.

Quick start

Call this from the Electron main process:

import { BrowserWindow } from "electron";
import { attachContents, createSmartRenderers } from "smart-renderers";

const renderers = createSmartRenderers({
  countdownMs: 15 * 60 * 1000,
  idleAfterMs: 0,
  policy: {
    onExpired: "hibernate",
    revertOnActivity: true,
    untrackOnDestroy: true,
  },
});

const window = new BrowserWindow({ show: true });
const detach = attachContents(renderers, window.webContents, window);

window.on("focus", () => {
  renderers.reportActivity(String(window.webContents.id));
});

window.on("closed", () => {
  detach();
});

// Later
renderers.dispose();

attachContents tracks webContents.id as the target id, binds a default Electron handle, and returns a function that untracks it.

Docs

• How it works
• API — options, methods, events, snapshots, lower-level exports
• Electron actions
• Packages

Example

examples/electron is a live Electron app that attaches smart-renderers to real BrowserWindows. It shortens the timers, injects a controllable idle source, and shows countdown events plus throttle / hibernate / destroy on screen.

pnpm example:electron

See examples/electron/README.md.

License

MIT