Startup-run NPM

startup-run

Run command-line scripts at startup with ease.

Supports Windows, macOS and Linux (Desktop).

Features

Run non-GUI scripts at startup, hidden.
Run as current user on Windows (running as service would cause problems for scripts with UI interactions).
Log to file.
Auto restart (respawn) on exit.

Installation

npm install startup-run

Usage

import {StartupRun} from 'startup-run';

const run = StartupRun.create('awesome-script');

await run.enable();

await run.disable();

await run.isEnabled(); // boolean

await run.start(); // start daemon.

await run.stop(); // stop daemon.

// Setup to enable/disable startup, this exits current process if either
// `enable` or `disable` is true.
await run.setup({
  enable: process.argv.includes('--startup'),
  disable: process.argv.includes('--disable-startup'),
});

StartupRun.daemonSpawned; // boolean, is current process spawned by daemon.

Default Options

const run = StartupRun.create('<name>', {
  command: process.execPath,
  args: process.argv.slice(1),
  cwd: process.cwd(),
  env: {},
  log: true,
  respawn: true,
});

Implementations

Windows

On Windows, it adds a startup item to registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, thus starting the script at login as current user.

Solutions like pm2 run scripts as service, which would cause problems for scripts with UI interactions.

Tested on:

Windows 11

macOS

On macOS, it adds a .plist file to ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

Tested on:

macOS Sonoma 14

Linux

On Linux, it adds a .desktop file to ~/.config/autostart.

Tested on:

Ubuntu 22.04 (Desktop)

Third Parties

node-auto-launch

Package startup-run is inspired by node-auto-launch but for different scenarios. While node-auto-launch focuses on GUI applications, startup-run focuses on scripts instead.

It refers some implementation details from node-auto-launch, but is overall refactored or rewritten to better serve its own design goals.