This is (hopefully) the simplest way to load contents of all active BrowserWindows within electron when the source files are changed.

Disclaimer: this module is in its very early stages and the logic is still not mature enough.

npm install electron-reload

Just initialize this module with desired glob or file path to watch and let it refresh electron browser windows as targets are changed:

'use strict';

const {app, BrowserWindow} = require('electron');

require('electron-reload')(__dirname);

// Standard stuff
app.on('ready', () {
  let mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({width: 800, height: 600});

  mainWindow.loadUrl(`file://${__dirname}/index.html`);
  // the rest...
});

Not that the above code only refreshes WebContents of all BrowserWindows. So if you want to have a hard reset (starting a new electron process) you can just pass the path to the electron executable in the options object. For example if you already have electron pre-built installed you could just do

require('electron-reload')(__dirname, {
  electron: require('electron-prebuilt')
});

electron_reload(paths, options)

• paths: a file, directory or glob pattern to watch
• options (optional): chokidar options plus electron property pointing to electron executables. (default: {ignored: /node_modules|[\/\\]\./})

Simply put, I was tired and confused by all other available modules which are so complicated* for such an uncomplicated task!

* e.g. start a local HTTP server, publish change events through a WebSocket, etc.!

If you want to have least effort when developing electron packages, take a look at neutron!

• 1.0.0: Adapt to Electron 1.0 new API
• 0.3.0: Use new method of accessing app (e.g. require(electron).app)
• 0.2.0: Use new electrons (> v0.32.3) browser-window-created event