Problem with using .cjs in Electron mode during development and build

[mulder3062]

What happened?

I am developing an Electron app in a Quasar CLI environment and have encountered a problem, so I am summarizing it here. Because of a required dependency library, I changed the environment from ESM to CommonJS as shown below. A .quasar/dev-electron/electron-main.cjs file is created, but the Electron CLI always looks for the .quasar/dev-electron/electron-main.mjs file. What I expect is for the .quasar/dev-electron/electron-main.cjs file to be found and executed.

I am looking for a solution.

What did you expect to happen?

1. The electron-main.cjs file is created.
2. electron cli runs electron-main.cjs.

Reproduction URL

https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/quasar-electron-l7ldfq

How to reproduce?

1. Modify quasar.config.ts to quasar.config.cjs.
2. Modify the following file contents:
   package.json:

{
  "type": "module" // before
  "type": "commonjs" // now
}

tsconfig.json:

{
  "module": "ESNext" // before
  "module": "CommonJS" // now
}

quasar.config.cjs:

{
  // before
  electron: {
    // extendElectronMainConf (esbuildConf) {},        
  }

  // now
  electron: {
    extendElectronMainConf (esbuildConf) {
      esbuildConf.format = 'cjs';
      esbuildConf.resolveExtensions = [ '.cjs', '.mjs', '.js', '.cts', '.mts', '.ts', '.json' ],
      esbuildConf.outfile = '.quasar/dev-electron/electron-main.cjs'
    },
  }
}

Flavour

Quasar CLI with Vite (@quasar/cli | @quasar/app-vite)

Areas

Electron Mode

Platforms/Browsers

Electron

Quasar info output

$ npm run info

> [email protected] info
> quasar info


Operating System - Windows_NT(10.0.22631) - win32/x64
NodeJs - 22.2.0

Global packages
  NPM - 10.7.0
  yarn - Not installed
  pnpm - Not installed
  bun - Not installed
  @quasar/cli - undefined
  @quasar/icongenie - Not installed
  cordova - Not installed

Important local packages
  quasar - 2.16.4 -- Build high-performance VueJS user interfaces (SPA, PWA, SSR, Mobile and Desktop) in record time
  @quasar/app-vite - 2.0.0-beta.14 -- Quasar Framework App CLI with Vite
  @quasar/extras - 1.16.11 -- Quasar Framework fonts, icons and animations
  eslint-plugin-quasar - Not installed
  vue - 3.4.27 -- The progressive JavaScript framework for building modern web UI.
  vue-router - 4.3.2
  pinia - 2.1.7 -- Intuitive, type safe and flexible Store for Vue
  vuex - Not installed
  vite - 5.2.11 -- Native-ESM powered web dev build tool
  vite-plugin-checker - Not installed
  eslint - 8.57.0 -- An AST-based pattern checker for JavaScript.
  esbuild - 0.20.2 -- An extremely fast JavaScript and CSS bundler and minifier.
  typescript - 5.3.3 -- TypeScript is a language for application scale JavaScript development
  workbox-build - Not installed
  register-service-worker - Not installed
  electron - 30.0.8 -- Build cross platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
  electron-packager - Not installed
  @electron/packager - 18.3.2 -- Customize and package your Electron app with OS-specific bundles (.app, .exe, etc.) via JS or CLI
  electron-builder - 24.13.3 -- A complete solution to package and build a ready for distribution Electron app for MacOS, Windows and Linux with “auto update” support out of the box
  @capacitor/core - Not installed
  @capacitor/cli - Not installed
  @capacitor/android - Not installed
  @capacitor/ios - Not installed

Quasar App Extensions
  *None installed*

Networking
  Host - omen
  Ehternet - *.*.*.*
  vEthernet (WSL (Hyper-V firewall)) - *.*.*.*

Relevant log output

App • Using quasar.config.cjs in "cjs" format
 App • Using .env files: .env
 App •  WAIT  • Compiling of Electron Main with Esbuild in progress...
 App •  WAIT  • Compiling of Electron Preload (electron-preload) with Esbuild in progress...
 App •  DONE  • Electron Main compiled with success by Esbuild • 2040ms

 App •  DONE  • Electron Preload (electron-preload) compiled with success by Esbuild • 2036ms

 App • Running "C:\MyProject\node_modules\electron\cli.js --inspect=5858 C:\MyProject\.quasar\dev-electron\electron-main.mjs" in C:\MyProject

Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:5858/03d6791c-7279-4750-bb8c-6c85606a9408
For help, see: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/inspector
[ESLint] Found 0 error and 0 warning

 App • Command "C:\MyProject\node_modules\electron\cli.js" failed with exit code: 1

 App • ⚠️  Electron process ended with error code: 1

Additional context

Since CodeSandbox is not a Windows OS, you only need to check the output log.

In particular the following message
`App • Running "/workspace/node_modules/electron/cli.js --inspect=5858 /workspace/.quasar/dev-electron/electron-main.mjs" in /workspace