Fix auto-updates on app launch by setting the value in NODE_ENV

[sejas]

Related issues

• Fixes STU-1122

Proposed Changes

• It passes the process.env.NODE_ENV to the packaged version
• That will fix the auto-updates that expect the NODE_ENV to be production. See:

  studio/src/updates.ts

  Lines 22 to 24 in acacf62

  	const shouldPoll =
  	process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' && app.isPackaged && ! isDevRelease( app.getVersion() );

Testing Instructions

Production

• Locate the latest updated log in ~/Library/Logs/Studio/studio-20251210.0.log
• Checkout this branch
• Run npm install && npm run make
• Find the .dmg created in out/make
• Install and open the Studio app
• Confirm you see in the log this output, and it doesn't mention Skipping auto-updates:

[2025-12-10T15:24:47.750Z][info][main] App version: 1.6.6
[2025-12-10T15:24:47.750Z][info][main] Environment: production

Development

• Close the app and run npm start
• Open the logs and confirm the output says development:

[2025-12-10T15:24:47.554Z][info][main] Skipping auto-updates {
  "env": "development",
  "isPackaged": false,
  "version": "1.6.6"
}
...
[2025-12-10T15:24:47.750Z][info][main] App version: 1.6.6
[2025-12-10T15:24:47.750Z][info][main] Environment: development

Before this changes NODE_EN was undefined

If you remove the line added in electron.vite.config.ts, and then make another build, then you'll see how NODE_ENV was undefined with this output in the log:

[2025-12-10T15:24:09.012Z][info][main] Skipping auto-updates {
  "isPackaged": true,
  "version": "1.6.6"
}
[2025-12-10T15:24:09.133Z][info][main] App version: 1.6.6
[2025-12-10T15:24:09.133Z][info][main] Environment: undefined

Pre-merge Checklist

• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?

[github-actions]

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing eefa717 vs trunk

site-editor

Metric	trunk	eefa717	Diff	Change
load	15013.00 ms	16480.00 ms	+1467.00 ms	🔴 9.8%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	eefa717	Diff	Change
siteCreation	23467.00 ms	23645.00 ms	+178.00 ms	🔴 0.8%
siteStartup	9993.00 ms	10038.00 ms	+45.00 ms	🔴 0.5%

---

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change

[epeicher]

Thanks @sejas! I have tested this, and it works as expected. I don't see the env and I can see the skipping message in the previous version, while I now see the environments, both production and development, and I don't see the skipping message in Production anymore. LGTM!

Trunk	This branch production	This branch development

[wojtekn]

@sejas thanks for the fix!

Which version introduced that issue?

[sejas]

The issue was introduced in Studio v1.6.0 when we switched to Vite. I also confirmed that auto-updates worked as expected in the previous version v1.5.6 ( pfHvTO-Au-p2 )

[wojtekn]

Thanks for confirming that @sejas .