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Windows validation

Skill Recorder supports native Windows 11 builds for both x64 and ARM64. The architecture gate lives in .github/workflows/windows.yml and runs on GitHub's windows-latest and native windows-11-arm images.

Architecture-sensitive components

Component Windows x64 Windows ARM64 Notes
Electron 43 Yes Yes Official Electron archives
Koffi / foreground-window FFI Yes Yes Prebuilt N-API packages; no compiler
Sharp / libvips Yes Yes @img/sharp-win32-* packages
ONNX Runtime Yes Yes Both payloads ship in onnxruntime-node
GitHub Copilot CLI Yes Yes @github/copilot-win32-* packages
TypeScript, Rolldown, Lightning CSS Yes Yes Native development packages exist for both
Standalone FFmpeg / ffmpeg-static No No Chromium replaced all current media uses
Electron ffmpeg.dll codec library Yes Yes LGPL-2.1+; standard Electron component and notices

get-windows remains an optional dependency for macOS/Linux. Windows uses Koffi to call user32, dwmapi, and kernel32 directly, so a missing Windows get-windows prebuild cannot break installation or runtime capture.

Why native ARM64 installation now works

The previous install blocker was ffmpeg-static, whose postinstall script had no Windows ARM64 binary. It has been removed from package.json, the lockfile, Vite externals, electron-builder unpack rules, and packaged output.

Screen recording still uses Chromium's VP8/VP9 MediaRecorder. In parallel, the capture renderer reads the desktop track, deduplicates 1 fps snapshots, and writes a heartbeat at least every five seconds. Post-processing selects, crops, and deduplicates those JPEGs without decoding the WebM.

Narration no longer shells out to FFmpeg either. A hidden Chromium renderer decodes Opus/WebM with AudioContext, downmixes/resamples to 16 kHz mono, and the main process performs silence detection before Whisper transcription.

Automated gate

For each Windows architecture, CI:

  1. Installs native Node 24 and runs npm ci.
  2. Loads Sharp, ONNX Runtime, and Koffi.
  3. Runs unit tests and the production build.
  4. Builds the architecture-specific NSIS installer.
  5. Verifies the packaged PE machine type and the Sharp, ONNX, Koffi, and Copilot payload architecture.
  6. Inspects loose and app.asar paths, fails if ffmpeg-static or a standalone FFmpeg executable appears, and verifies Electron's codec DLL and license notices.

Release publication is additionally gated on attaching the pinned LGPL source and relinking materials listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

Local equivalents:

npm ci
npm test
npm run build
npm run dist:win:arm64  # on native Windows ARM64
node scripts/verify-windows-package.mjs arm64

Use dist:win:x64 and x64 for the x64 package. Building each installer on its native runner ensures npm selects the correct optional native packages. The package scripts reject cross-architecture builds instead of producing an installer containing host-architecture Koffi, Sharp, or Copilot binaries.

Manual Windows ARM64 smoke test

Automated packaging cannot validate desktop permissions or real foreground apps. Before a release, run this checklist on a physical Windows 11 ARM64 machine:

  1. Confirm node -p "process.arch" and the running Electron process both report arm64.
  2. Start a two-minute recording, leave the screen static for at least 15 seconds, then switch among a Win32 app, Settings, a browser, and an elevated app.
  3. Confirm app.activate records the owning process (not ApplicationFrameHost.exe for Settings) and does not crash on the elevated app.
  4. Confirm video.webm, video-frames.json, periodic files under video-frames/, and retained JPEGs under frames/.
  5. Request cropped frames from the Sessions analysis and verify exact crop dimensions and readable text.
  6. Record narration, transcribe it, and confirm timestamped segments without a system FFmpeg installation.
  7. Open a pre-change recording. With system FFmpeg installed, legacy frame extraction should work; without it, the event-only analysis must still work and log one actionable compatibility warning.

Known limitations

  • Browser URL capture still uses the existing Windows PowerShell UI Automation sidecar. Core app/window tracking does not depend on PowerShell.
  • Snapshot information is capped by the intentional 1 fps desktop capture rate. Asking for a higher sampling density cannot create additional visual detail.
  • A standalone system FFmpeg is optional and legacy-only; it is never downloaded, bundled, or required for new recordings. Electron's standard LGPL codec DLL remains part of the Chromium runtime.