An unofficial Don't Starve Food Guide in an Electron desktop app. The bundled guide works offline; external HTTPS links open in your default browser.
Ingredient pickers offer Cooking: Practical to hide redundant forms and uncommon inputs while keeping recipe specialties, or Cooking: Everyday for a smaller routine cooking list. Cooking: All restores every available ingredient. Each picker remembers its choice; switching views leaves selected ingredients in place.
Efficiency tables group consecutive combinations for the same recipe, preserving their sort order. Expand a recipe to inspect combinations or click its ingredients to load the Simulator. Pause calculations to inspect more results, and use Reset filters to restore the analysis's original filters. The progress bar counts all checked combinations, including those without a valid recipe, and calculations yield frequently to keep scrolling and pause responsive.
Download Windows and Linux builds from Releases. Windows has a Squirrel installer and a portable ZIP. Linux has an AppImage and a Debian package. Builds target a specific processor architecture; AppImages still require a compatible Linux system.
Basaltwater on Debian is the reference development environment. Its shared standards and skills provide environment support; the native commands below also work with manually installed prerequisites on the documented platforms.
Use Node.js 24.22.1+ within 24.x (LTS) or 26.12.1+ within 26.x (Current) and Git. CI uses Node.js 24; nvm use selects Node 24.22.1 from .nvmrc. Dependency installation rejects older Node versions. The app and embedded guide each have their own dependencies, so install both:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/bluehexagons/foodguide-app.git
cd foodguide-app
npm ci
npm ci --ignore-scripts --prefix app/foodguide
npm startFor an existing checkout, run git submodule update --init --recursive before installing. GitHub's generated source archives omit the guide submodule; use a recursive clone.
The wrapper is written in strict TypeScript. Starting and packaging automatically compile the wrapper and embedded guide, then generate sprite sheets and platform icons from the guide's assets. Generated files stay out of Git.
The app starts with one window. Launching it again focuses the running app.
File → New Window (Ctrl+N / Cmd+N) and modified section-link clicks are
available for optional comparisons. Pot choices and picker views are independent;
named inventories, cookbook dishes, theme, and language synchronize across windows.
The # links beside food and recipe names link to a highlighted entry.
File → Copy Link to Current Section (Ctrl+Shift+C / Cmd+Shift+C) copies a
web link to the section and game. Use the guide's Share button to include a pot
or inventory snapshot, choose which page settings to include, or link to the
GitHub repository or development site. Sharing choices stay in the current
window until it closes; links never include your installation path.
Shared inventory links create new named copies. My cookbook saves combinations
with their game settings. Options provides language and theme settings alongside JSON backup
import/export for inventories and dishes, including transfers between the app
and web guide. Language and theme controls also remain in the main header.
npm run check
npm run audit
npm run test:electroncheck runs wrapper and guide unit tests, oxlint, oxfmt checks, and strict TypeScript checks for the wrapper, Forge configuration, and guide. audit checks both dependency sets. test:electron opens the real app with a temporary profile, checks sprites, keyboard and mouse ingredient entry, keyboard table sorting and focus, saved preferences, and sandbox settings, then closes it. These commands require the two dependency installs above. The Electron test also needs a graphical session; Linux CI uses xvfb-run -a npm run test:electron.
See development and dependency maintenance for the repository layout, submodule updates, and packaging dependency overrides. See artifact retention before clearing generated output, packaged apps or smoke-test captures.
Electron Forge builds for the current operating system and architecture:
npm run package
npm run makeThe unpacked app goes in out/foodguide-app-<platform>-<arch>/; installers go in out/make/. Packaging verifies that the archive contains the guide, sprites, runtime dependencies, and licenses, and excludes development files.
| Platform | Configured outputs | Additional requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Squirrel installer, portable ZIP | Build on Windows |
| Linux | AppImage, Debian package | mksquashfs from squashfs-tools; Debian packaging tools |
| macOS | DMG | Build on macOS |
On Debian/Ubuntu, install Linux build tools with sudo apt-get install squashfs-tools dpkg. For other distributions, install their equivalent packages. To target a different architecture, pass Forge's --arch option, for example npm run make -- --arch=arm64. A normal build produces one architecture rather than a universal macOS app.
GitHub Actions validates and builds Windows, Linux, and macOS on pushes to main, pull requests, and manual runs. CI artifacts expire after three days. Version tags publish Windows and Linux release artifacts and SHA256 checksums; see release instructions.
The repository is licensed under Apache-2.0, as is the embedded Food Guide. See the guide's About tab for contributors and game asset credits. Don't Starve and its artwork belong to Klei Entertainment; this project is unofficial.