hexvero

Know what changed inside your Electron release.

Diff two builds of an Electron app and see the IPC channels, preload bridge, window settings and network hosts that changed, with file and line on both sides.

Website · Try it · CI · AI agents · Comparison · Limits · Docs

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Try it in 10 seconds

npx hexvero demo

Needs Node.js 22.12 or newer. It copies two builds of a small example app (NotesDesk 1.4.0 and 1.5.0) into ./hexvero-demo and shows what changed. Excerpt, … marks cuts:

What changed between notesdesk-1.4.0.asar and notesdesk-1.5.0.asar
  Two builds of a small example Electron app, read statically. Nothing was executed.

  interfaces (2)
    + preload.js::notesdesk::checkUpdate  @ b: preload.js:9, handler main.js:30 · link direct
    - preload.js::notesdesk::openInShell  @ a: preload.js:9, handler main.js:30 · link direct
  …
  ipcChannels (2)
    + update:check  @ b: receiver main.js:30, sender preload.js:9
    ? shell:open  @ a: receiver main.js:30, sender preload.js:9
        the other side has values there that could not be resolved
  windows (1)
    ~ main.js::win  @ b: main.js:8
        nodeIntegration: true → false, nodeIntegrationInEffect: "on" → "off", sandbox: false → true
  …
  endpoints (1)
    + main.js::fetch::https://updates.notesdesk.example/latest.json  @ b: main.js:30 · literal

? means hexvero could not tell, so shell:open is reported as unknown, not as removed. Then turn it into a gate:

$ npx hexvero check hexvero-demo/notesdesk-1.4.0.asar hexvero-demo/notesdesk-1.5.0.asar --policy hexvero-demo/policy.json
hexvero check fail: the policy is violated
  ✗ new-interface-member  notesdesk.checkUpdate  new · fail
  ✗ new-external-host  updates.notesdesk.example  new · fail
  …
$ echo $?
3

npx hexvero ui --demo --open shows the same comparison in a local web UI with the source lines of both builds side by side. The full tour: walkthrough.

Why

• A release review asks what the update changed: which channels a page can now reach, which preload members appeared, which window got more permissive, which servers the code now calls.
• A diff of the shipped bundle does not answer that. It is minified JavaScript inside an app.asar; running the app to find out is not always allowed, and a checklist scanner looks at one build, not the change.
• hexvero answers it from the files: each change with the file and line it was read from in both builds, what it could not establish, and a policy that fails CI on a new member, host or more permissive window. Nothing is executed.

What it reads

Inputs: an app.asar, a macOS .app, a Windows or Linux install directory, or the release .zip you publish. Installers (.dmg, setup .exe, AppImage) need unpacking first. Per-platform paths: docs/cli.md.

On your own app

npx hexvero compare old/YourApp.app new/YourApp.app --report report.html   # one offline HTML page
npx hexvero init old/YourApp.app                                            # starting policy, current hosts allowed
npx hexvero check old/YourApp.app new/YourApp.app --policy .hexvero/policy.json

To accept what is there today, add --baseline .hexvero/baseline.json --update-baseline once; later runs fail only on new findings.

Use it in CI

Pinned to a version so a release cannot change your results unannounced:

jobs:
  hexvero:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with:
          persist-credentials: false
      - uses: actions/setup-node@949feb2413d6458794dcd2491c4babbbce0c15c1 # v7
        with:
          node-version: 24
      # Build your app and fetch the previous release here, e.g. into previous/ and dist/.
      - run: npx --yes [email protected] check previous/app.asar dist/app.asar --policy .hexvero/policy.json

Baseline, Markdown job summary and a least-privilege SARIF upload for code scanning: docs/ci.md.

For AI agents

In Claude Code, server and skill come as one plugin:

/plugin marketplace add maximilianfeix/hexvero
/plugin install hexvero@hexvero

Elsewhere, npx hexvero setup --apply registers the MCP server with the coding agents it finds (dry run without --apply), or run npx -y [email protected] mcp over stdio. Text inside the target is treated as data, never as instructions. Clients, tools and what an agent receives: docs/mcp.md.

How it compares

Electronegativity's README says it is no longer maintained. hexvero covers its use case for release review; parity with its full list of checks is in progress, not shipped. REA does much that hexvero does not (dynamic analysis, devices, decompilers); use it for that. Sources, dates and every caveat: docs/comparison.md.

Accuracy and limits

On the newest blind set, written by someone without access to hexvero, it found 52 of 64 IPC channels with none false, and it misses and misreports rows in other lists (all numbers). It reads files and never runs them, so a finding is what the code contains, not what it does at run time or whether it is exploitable; a passing check is not a security verdict. Parsing a hostile file still processes attacker-controlled bytes, within size, depth and time limits. The full list: docs/accuracy.md.

Docs

Walkthrough · CLI · CI · MCP · Policy schema · Electron rules and sources · Accuracy · Benchmarks · Other formats (native binaries, APK, WebAssembly and more) · Changelog

No. Targets are parsed as bytes; nothing is executed. The UI binds to 127.0.0.1 with a per-session token. There is no telemetry and no network call in the code base. Through a cloud-hosted agent, the results that agent requests go to its model provider like any other tool output. Use hexvero only on software you may examine (DISCLAIMER.md).

Contributing

npm install && npm run check      # typecheck, lint, format, unit tests, shape rules
npm run e2e                       # the user flows on real inputs

Rules in CONTRIBUTING.md; good first issue is sized for an afternoon. Found a wrong or missing fact? Open a bug report with hexvero doctor output and, if you can, the file.

If hexvero showed you something you would have missed in a release, a ⭐ helps the next Electron team find it.

License

MIT