Native Node Modules

For some features, the desktop version of Element can make use of native Node modules. These allow Element to integrate with the desktop in ways that a browser cannot.

Currently the only native module is Seshat, which adds support for local event indexing and full text search in E2E encrypted rooms.

Prebuilt binaries

Seshat is consumed via the @matrix-org/seshat npm package, which ships prebuilt binaries for every platform Element Desktop supports as per-platform optionalDependencies:

Platform	Architectures	SQLCipher
Linux	x64, arm64	static
macOS	x64, arm64	static
Windows	x64, arm64	static

pnpm only installs the binary matching the machine running the install. Building for another architecture (for example a Windows arm64 package on an x64 machine, or the macOS universal package) needs pnpm to install the extra binaries too. This is done by adding a supportedArchitectures block to pnpm-workspace.yaml before running pnpm install, for example for a macOS universal build:

supportedArchitectures:
    os: [current] # Assuming you are on "darwin"
    cpu: [x64, arm64]

The CI workflows do this automatically. The electron-builder configuration prunes binaries for other platforms and architectures from the packaged app, so only the ones needed by the target end up in the package.

Verifying a Linux package

The Linux CI workflow checks every .node file in the packaged app with apps/desktop/scripts/glibc-check.sh to ensure it does not require a newer glibc than our oldest supported distribution ships. If you upgrade Seshat and this check fails, the MAX_GLIBC value in .github/workflows/build_desktop_linux.yaml documents the current ceiling.

Building from source

Should you need to build Seshat yourself, for example for an unsupported platform or to link against the system SQLCipher, follow the instructions in the Seshat repository and use pnpm link to substitute the resulting package for @matrix-org/seshat.