From ba24f5f9035ff27c4349969b589525c17c98afc4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Moti Zilberman <moti@meta.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 02:50:05 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Demote `electron` to devDependency (#53438)

Summary:
Pull Request resolved: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/pull/53438

Changelog: [Internal]

Makes `flavor: 'prebuilt'` the default mode of launching the RNDT standalone shell, and the *only* mode supported in the published version of the package. See D78351931 for more context.

With this, we can demote `electron` from `dependencies` to `devDependencies`. This makes it possible to make `debugger-shell` a dependency of `dev-middleware` (and thus of all major frameworks) without significantly impacting `npm install` times. We'll add this dependency on `debugger-shell` in an upcoming diff (D78351937).

We also stop publishing the `dist/electron` subdirectory (and `src/electron` for good measure) since the corresponding code will always be bundled into the prebuilt binary instead.

Reviewed By: huntie

Differential Revision: D78351934

fbshipit-source-id: 2a4b03e852c4d0330250567c41dca09d1c4f3abd
---
 .../__tests__/electron-dependency-test.js              |  2 +-
 packages/debugger-shell/package.json                   | 10 ++++++++--
 packages/debugger-shell/src/node/index.flow.js         |  2 +-
 3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/debugger-shell/__tests__/electron-dependency-test.js b/packages/debugger-shell/__tests__/electron-dependency-test.js
index d0be1077d5b..9b785bd7701 100644
--- a/packages/debugger-shell/__tests__/electron-dependency-test.js
+++ b/packages/debugger-shell/__tests__/electron-dependency-test.js
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ describe('Electron dependency', () => {
     // $FlowFixMe[untyped-import] - package.json is not typed
     const ourPackageJson = require('../package.json');
 
-    const declaredElectronVersion = ourPackageJson.dependencies.electron;
+    const declaredElectronVersion = ourPackageJson.devDependencies.electron;
     expect(declaredElectronVersion).toBeTruthy();
 
     // $FlowFixMe[untyped-import] - package.json is not typed
diff --git a/packages/debugger-shell/package.json b/packages/debugger-shell/package.json
index 6c1706dd55d..3d268cbfbfd 100644
--- a/packages/debugger-shell/package.json
+++ b/packages/debugger-shell/package.json
@@ -30,10 +30,16 @@
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "cross-spawn": "^7.0.6",
-    "electron": "37.2.6",
     "fb-dotslash": "0.5.8"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
+    "electron": "37.2.6",
     "semver": "^7.1.3"
-  }
+  },
+  "files": [
+    "!**/__tests__/**",
+    "bin",
+    "dist",
+    "!src/electron"
+  ]
 }
diff --git a/packages/debugger-shell/src/node/index.flow.js b/packages/debugger-shell/src/node/index.flow.js
index 3b7e0dbcca6..8490b8f42ed 100644
--- a/packages/debugger-shell/src/node/index.flow.js
+++ b/packages/debugger-shell/src/node/index.flow.js
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ async function unstable_spawnDebuggerShellWithArgs(
   args: string[],
   {
     mode = 'detached',
-    flavor = 'dev',
+    flavor = 'prebuilt',
   }: $ReadOnly<{
     // In 'syncAndExit' mode, the current process will block until the spawned process exits, and then it will exit
     // with the same exit code as the spawned process.