ToolBox Development

This section is for contributors working on the Power Platform ToolBox host application itself — the Electron shell that loads and runs tools — as distinct from building a tool that runs inside it. It covers the technology stack, how the project is organized, and the workflow for getting a change from a fork into a release.

Power Platform ToolBox is built with Electron, TypeScript, Vite, SCSS, and pnpm; contribute by forking the repo, running pnpm install and pnpm run dev, and targeting your pull request at the dev branch.

Technology stack

The host application is built with:

Electron — the desktop application framework.
TypeScript
Vite
SCSS
pnpm — the package manager used across the project.

Prerequisites

To contribute to the host, you need:

Node.js 18 or higher.
pnpm 10 or higher.
Git.
VS Code (recommended editor).

Getting started

New contributors fork the repository, clone their fork locally, and run:

bash

pnpm install

to set up dependencies. Start development mode with:

bash

pnpm run dev

For a step-by-step walkthrough, see Getting Started.

Project organization

The codebase separates concerns across a few key directories:

src/main/ — the main process, handling Node.js-side operations.
src/renderer/ — the renderer process, managing the UI.
An API layer that facilitates communication between the main and renderer processes.

See Architecture for a deeper look at how these pieces fit together.

Development workflow

The typical workflow involves running lint checks, formatting code, type checking, and building the application:

bash

pnpm run lint
pnpm run build

Platform-specific builds are available too, for example:

bash

pnpm run package:win

Contributing standards

Target the dev branch with your pull requests, not main.
Follow the Conventional Commits format, using types such as feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore, perf, and ci.

Pull request requirements

Pull requests must include a meaningful title, test results, references to related issues, and completion of the provided PR template checklist before they're merged into dev.

Release strategy

Nightly pre-releases are generated automatically from merges into dev, using the version format 1.0.0-dev.YYYYMMDD.
Stable releases follow a dev-to-main branch merge.

Introduction