Layonara Forge — NWN Development IDE

Electron desktop application for Neverwinter Nights module development.
Clone, edit, build, and run a complete Layonara NWNX server with only
Docker required.

- React 19 + Vite frontend with Monaco editor and NWScript LSP
- Node.js + Express backend managing Docker sibling containers
- Electron shell with Docker availability check and auto-setup
- Builder image auto-builds on first use from bundled Dockerfile
- Cross-platform: Windows (.exe), macOS (.dmg), Linux (.AppImage)
- Gitea Actions CI for automated release builds

electron/docker-check.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+import { exec } from "child_process";
+
+export interface DockerStatus {
+  available: boolean;
+  version?: string;
+  error?: string;
+}
+
+export function checkDocker(): Promise<DockerStatus> {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    exec("docker version --format '{{.Server.Version}}'", (err, stdout) => {
+      if (err) {
+        resolve({
+          available: false,
+          error: "Docker is not running or not installed.",
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+      resolve({
+        available: true,
+        version: stdout.trim().replace(/'/g, ""),
+      });
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+export function dockerDownloadUrl(): string {
+  switch (process.platform) {
+    case "win32":
+      return "https://desktop.docker.com/win/main/amd64/Docker%20Desktop%20Installer.exe";
+    case "darwin":
+      return process.arch === "arm64"
+        ? "https://desktop.docker.com/mac/main/arm64/Docker.dmg"
+        : "https://desktop.docker.com/mac/main/amd64/Docker.dmg";
+    default:
+      return "https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/";
+  }
+}

electron/main.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+import { app, BrowserWindow, shell, dialog } from "electron";
+import path from "path";
+import { checkDocker, dockerDownloadUrl } from "./docker-check";
+import { defaultWorkspacePath, detectNwnHome } from "./paths";
+
+let mainWindow: BrowserWindow | null = null;
+let serverPort: number;
+
+function setEnvironment(): void {
+  if (!process.env.WORKSPACE_PATH) {
+    process.env.WORKSPACE_PATH = defaultWorkspacePath();
+  }
+  if (!process.env.NWN_HOME_PATH) {
+    const detected = detectNwnHome();
+    if (detected) process.env.NWN_HOME_PATH = detected;
+  }
+  if (!process.env.GIT_PROVIDER_URL) {
+    process.env.GIT_PROVIDER_URL = "https://gitea.layonara.com";
+  }
+  process.env.ELECTRON = "1";
+}
+
+async function startBackend(): Promise<number> {
+  const { startServer } = await import(
+    path.join(__dirname, "../packages/backend/dist/index.js")
+  );
+  const port = await findFreePort();
+  await startServer(port);
+  return port;
+}
+
+function findFreePort(): Promise<number> {
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    const net = require("net");
+    const srv = net.createServer();
+    srv.listen(0, () => {
+      const port = srv.address().port;
+      srv.close(() => resolve(port));
+    });
+    srv.on("error", reject);
+  });
+}
+
+function createWindow(port: number): BrowserWindow {
+  const win = new BrowserWindow({
+    width: 1280,
+    height: 900,
+    minWidth: 960,
+    minHeight: 600,
+    title: "Layonara Forge",
+    icon: path.join(__dirname, "../assets/icon.png"),
+    webPreferences: {
+      preload: path.join(__dirname, "preload.js"),
+      contextIsolation: true,
+      nodeIntegration: false,
+    },
+  });
+
+  win.loadURL(`http://localhost:${port}`);
+
+  win.webContents.setWindowOpenHandler(({ url }) => {
+    if (url.startsWith("http")) shell.openExternal(url);
+    return { action: "deny" };
+  });
+
+  win.on("closed", () => {
+    mainWindow = null;
+  });
+
+  return win;
+}
+
+async function showDockerMissing(): Promise<boolean> {
+  const url = dockerDownloadUrl();
+  const { response } = await dialog.showMessageBox({
+    type: "warning",
+    title: "Docker Required",
+    message: "Layonara Forge requires Docker to build modules and run the NWN server.",
+    detail: "Docker Desktop must be installed and running before using the Forge.\n\nClick \"Download Docker\" to open the download page, or \"Check Again\" after installing.",
+    buttons: ["Download Docker", "Check Again", "Quit"],
+    defaultId: 0,
+    cancelId: 2,
+  });
+
+  if (response === 0) {
+    shell.openExternal(url);
+    return showDockerMissing();
+  }
+  if (response === 1) {
+    const status = await checkDocker();
+    if (status.available) return true;
+    return showDockerMissing();
+  }
+  return false;
+}
+
+app.whenReady().then(async () => {
+  setEnvironment();
+
+  const docker = await checkDocker();
+  if (!docker.available) {
+    const installed = await showDockerMissing();
+    if (!installed) {
+      app.quit();
+      return;
+    }
+  }
+
+  try {
+    serverPort = await startBackend();
+  } catch (err: any) {
+    dialog.showErrorBox(
+      "Forge Startup Error",
+      `Failed to start the backend server:\n\n${err.message}`,
+    );
+    app.quit();
+    return;
+  }
+
+  mainWindow = createWindow(serverPort);
+});
+
+app.on("window-all-closed", () => {
+  app.quit();
+});
+
+app.on("activate", () => {
+  if (mainWindow === null && serverPort) {
+    mainWindow = createWindow(serverPort);
+  }
+});

electron/paths.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import path from "path";
+import os from "os";
+import fs from "fs";
+
+export function defaultWorkspacePath(): string {
+  return path.join(os.homedir(), "Layonara Forge");
+}
+
+export function detectNwnHome(): string | null {
+  const candidates: string[] = [];
+
+  if (process.platform === "win32") {
+    const docs = path.join(os.homedir(), "Documents", "Neverwinter Nights");
+    candidates.push(docs);
+    const steam = path.join(
+      "C:",
+      "Program Files (x86)",
+      "Steam",
+      "steamapps",
+      "common",
+      "Neverwinter Nights",
+    );
+    candidates.push(steam);
+  } else if (process.platform === "darwin") {
+    candidates.push(path.join(os.homedir(), "Documents", "Neverwinter Nights"));
+    candidates.push(
+      path.join(os.homedir(), "Library", "Application Support", "Neverwinter Nights"),
+    );
+  } else {
+    candidates.push(path.join(os.homedir(), ".local", "share", "Neverwinter Nights"));
+    candidates.push(
+      path.join(os.homedir(), ".steam", "steam", "steamapps", "common", "Neverwinter Nights"),
+    );
+  }
+
+  for (const candidate of candidates) {
+    try {
+      if (fs.statSync(candidate).isDirectory()) return candidate;
+    } catch {
+      continue;
+    }
+  }
+  return null;
+}

electron/preload.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import { contextBridge } from "electron";
+
+contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld("forge", {
+  platform: process.platform,
+});

electron/tsconfig.json

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "extends": "../tsconfig.base.json",
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "outDir": "dist",
+    "rootDir": ".",
+    "module": "CommonJS",
+    "moduleResolution": "node"
+  },
+  "include": ["*.ts"]
+}