Fix desktop native optional dependency packaging

[Prgm-code]

Summary

Fixes desktop packaging regressions where nightly Linux and Windows builds could ship ffi-rs without the platform-native optional @yuuang/ffi-rs-* binding required at runtime.

Covered issues:

• Fixes Linux AppImage backend crashes: missing @yuuang/ffi-rs-linux-x64-gnu optional dependency #3812
• Fixes [Bug]: last 24 hours of Nightly's failing to start on Windows 10 #3807
• Fixes [Bug]: Nightly .758 still won't launch on macOS arm64 — @yuuang/ffi-rs-darwin-arm64 dropped from app.asar (#3790 didn't cover optional native deps) #3804

Problem

Recent nightly desktop builds started failing during backend startup because the packaged app included ffi-rs, but did not include the native optional dependency that ffi-rs loads for the current platform.

On Linux AppImage builds, the backend crashed with:

Cannot find module '@yuuang/ffi-rs-linux-x64-gnu'

On Windows builds, affected users saw the app never render a window. The server child process was crash-looping with:

Cannot find module '@yuuang/ffi-rs-win32-x64-msvc'

Both failures happen before the desktop backend can become ready, so the UI either shows a generic Electron process error or never opens.

Root Cause

There were two related packaging gaps.

Linux AppImage

The staged production pnpm-workspace.yaml declared the target os and cpu, but did not declare libc.

Packages such as @yuuang/ffi-rs-linux-x64-gnu are optional dependencies with:

{
  "os": ["linux"],
  "cpu": ["x64"],
  "libc": ["glibc"]
}

Without libc: ["glibc"], pnpm could skip that optional native package during the staged production install, leaving ffi-rs present but unable to resolve its Linux binding.

Windows

The Windows stage already requested the right target architectures, including Windows and Linux/glibc for WSL. However, Electron Builder was detecting the staged app as an npm project when collecting node_modules.

Because the staged install uses pnpm, npm-style collection can miss optional dependency subtrees from the pnpm layout. That caused the Windows artifact to omit packages like:

@yuuang/ffi-rs-win32-x64-msvc

The fix explicitly passes a pnpm user agent to Electron Builder so it uses the pnpm collector for the staged app.

Changes

• Add libc: ["glibc"] to Linux desktop staging architecture metadata.
• Keep Windows staging behavior for host Windows plus Linux/glibc WSL backend.
• Add resolvePackageManagerUserAgent() to convert packageManager syntax:

pnpm@11.10.0

into npm user-agent syntax:

pnpm/11.10.0

• Set buildEnv.npm_config_user_agent before invoking Electron Builder.
• Add tests for Linux staging architecture metadata and packageManager-to-user-agent conversion.

Validation

Commands run:

vp test run scripts/build-desktop-artifact.test.ts
vp check
vp run typecheck

Local artifacts generated for verification:

node scripts/build-desktop-artifact.ts --platform linux --target AppImage --arch x64 --build-version 0.0.29-nightly.20260708.999 --output-dir release-test

node scripts/build-desktop-artifact.ts --platform win --target nsis --arch x64 --build-version 0.0.29-nightly.20260708.999 --output-dir release-test --skip-build

Artifact inspection confirmed:

• Linux AppImage includes:

resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/@yuuang/ffi-rs-linux-x64-gnu/ffi-rs.linux-x64-gnu.node

• Windows installer includes:

resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/@yuuang/ffi-rs-win32-x64-msvc/ffi-rs.win32-x64-msvc.node

Note: the local Windows installer was generated without T3CODE_DESKTOP_WSL_PREBUILD, so it validates the primary Windows backend packaging path and the missing ffi-rs binding, but not the WSL backend binary path.

Note

Fix desktop native optional dependency packaging for Linux and package manager user agent

• Adds libc: ["glibc"] to supportedArchitectures in createStageWorkspaceConfig for Linux builds in build-desktop-artifact.ts, ensuring native optional dependencies targeting glibc are included during staged production installs.
• Introduces resolvePackageManagerUserAgent, which converts a package.json packageManager field (e.g. pnpm@11.10.0) to a user-agent string (pnpm/11.10.0) for use by electron-builder.
• Sets npm_config_user_agent in the electron-builder environment using the derived user agent before the env-scrubbing step.

^{Macroscope summarized 6d0d98e.}

---

Note

Medium Risk
Changes only desktop packaging scripts but affect runtime-critical native modules; mis-staging would still break backend startup on Linux/Windows without obvious compile-time failures.

Overview
Fixes desktop builds shipping ffi-rs without the platform-specific @yuuang/ffi-rs-* optional bindings, which caused Linux AppImage and Windows backend crash-loops (Cannot find module '@yuuang/ffi-rs-…').

Linux staging: createStageWorkspaceConfig now sets libc: ["glibc"] for Linux targets (not only Windows), so staged pnpm install --prod resolves glibc-scoped optional natives like @yuuang/ffi-rs-linux-x64-gnu.

Electron Builder / Windows: Adds resolvePackageManagerUserAgent() to map root packageManager (pnpm@11.10.0) to npm_config_user_agent form (pnpm/11.10.0), and sets that on the electron-builder env so collection uses the pnpm layout and optional Windows bindings (e.g. @yuuang/ffi-rs-win32-x64-msvc) are not dropped.

Tests cover Linux workspace supportedArchitectures (including libc in full yaml fixtures) and user-agent conversion.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 6d0d98e. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

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[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved

Build script bug fix that adds missing libc: ["glibc"] configuration for Linux desktop builds and a utility function for electron-builder package manager detection. Changes are limited to packaging scripts with good test coverage.

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[phillip-hirsch]

Also seeing this on MacOS chipsets (SEE: Discord Thread):

ARM: Error: Cannot find module '@yuuang/ffi-rs-darwin-arm64'
Intel: Error: Cannot find module '@yuuang/ffi-rs-darwin-x64'

[avocardow]

Can confirm the npm_config_user_agent change fixes the macOS arm64 case too (#3804). Traced it independently before finding this PR.

Electron-builder detects pnpm fine at first (staged package.json packageManager field), but then resolves the workspace root via pnpm --workspace-root exec pwd and uses the raw stdout as a path. In the freshly staged app pnpm 11 prepends install/verify output, so the "root" comes back as:

? Verifying lockfile against supply-chain policies (372 entries)...
Lockfile is up to date, resolution step is skipped
...
Done in 2.2s using pnpm v11.10.0
/private/var/folders/.../t3code-desktop-mac-stage-xxx/app

Re-detection at that "path" finds nothing -> falls back to npm_config_user_agent -> unset under vp exec -> npm. The npm collector walks the pnpm tree and silently drops optional dep subtrees. @yuuang/ffi-rs-darwin-arm64, @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk-darwin-arm64, @clerk/electron-passkeys-darwin-arm64, @msgpackr-extract/msgpackr-extract-darwin-arm64, msgpackr-extract, detect-libc, node-gyp-build-optional-packages. (mac arm64)

A/B tested master vs master + the env var (only change): master collects 176 modules via the npm collector; with the var set the pnpm collector runs, 183 modules, all 7 back in the asar, app launches. So this fixes #3804 as well.