electron

Electron App Automation

Electron apps (Slack, VS Code, Discord, Notion, Figma desktop, …) render their UI as Chromium web content. macbeth automates them the same way it does native apps, with a few Electron-specific things to know.

Connect

Connect by name or PID as usual:

connect_app({ "name": "Slack" })

On connect, macbeth enables Chromium's accessibility tree (AXManualAccessibility) and waits for the web content to expose descendants. Branded Electron distributions are recognised via ElectronAsarIntegrity, ChromiumBaseVersion, or a renamed *Framework.framework + Helper (Renderer) layout. list_apps reports these apps with runtime: electron and includes declared aliases and bundle IDs.

Reconnecting the same app refreshes readiness without waiting again unless you pass readyTimeoutMs explicitly — useful after a first connect reported empty_web_area.

Expect a readiness delay

After connecting, Chromium needs a short, non-deterministic moment (usually <1s) to construct the tree. connect_app already polls for this, but if the very first query_tree looks empty (just a window shell), wait briefly and query again — the web content is still materializing. For slow apps, connect with a longer wait:

connect_app({ "name": "Slack", "readyTimeoutMs": 5000 })

Discover the tree first

Always run query_tree after connecting, before building locators — Electron trees vary a lot between apps and change as the app renders. Web content lives under a web_area node:

[window "Slack"] h:h_0
  [web_area] h:h_5
    [button "Send"] h:h_31
    [text_field] h:h_28
    [heading "Threads"] h:h_12
    ...

Scope queries to the web_area and target elements directly — recursive descent means you don't need to name every intermediate container:

{ "query": [{ "role": "window" }, { "role": "web_area" }, { "role": "button", "title": "Send" }] }

Common web-content roles: web_area, heading, link, button, text_field, text_area, checkbox, radio, list, table, text. Note Chromium sometimes exposes a contenteditable message box as text_area rather than text_field — check the tree.