Closes #5053
Closes #5083

Summary

Both reports show MarkText 0.19.1 on Windows crashing on every launch with:

TypeError: Invalid URL
    at new URL (node:internal/url:819:25)
    at EditorWindow._buildUrlWithSettings (…\app.asar\out\main\index.js:5816:17)

The dialog and the issue title also show raw i18n keys (error.unexpectedMainProcess, error.unexpectedErrorWithMessage).

Cause. Both happen when the user's environment has NODE_ENV=development, which is a common global setting on Node.js developers' machines. The main process checks process.env.NODE_ENV at runtime to tell electron-vite dev from a built app. electron-vite leaves process.env untouched in the main bundle, so the user's value reaches a packaged app, and the app takes every development branch:

• _buildUrlWithSettings loads the window from process.env.ELECTRON_RENDERER_URL. Only electron-vite dev sets that variable, so new URL(undefined) throws. This is the crash.
• loadTranslations looks for locales under the working directory. It finds nothing, so every main-process string falls back to its key.
• cli() drops the command line (files to open, --user-data-dir) and uses the marktext-dev profile instead.
• The single instance lock is skipped, and the log levels change.

Fix. These checks now read import.meta.env.DEV, which electron-vite replaces at build time: true under electron-vite dev, false in electron-vite build. In the built main bundle the development branches are removed. baseUrl is always the file:// URL, the lock is always requested, and ELECTRON_RENDERER_URL no longer appears.

Changed checks: windows/base.ts (renderer URL), cli/index.ts (dev profile), main/index.ts (single instance lock, console log level), utils/index.ts (file log level), common/i18n.ts (locale directory), and common/filesystem/paths.ts (getResourcesPath, currently unused).

Until a release with this fix ships, affected users can remove NODE_ENV from their environment (or start MarkText from a shell where it is unset).

Reproduction

On macOS with the packaged 0.19.1 app, NODE_ENV=development marktext produces the same stack with the same line and column numbers as both reports, plus 308 Translation file not found errors. 0.20.0-rc.2 and a develop build crash the same way (_buildUrlWithSettings → Invalid URL).

Type of change

• Bug fix (non-breaking, fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking, adds functionality)
• Breaking change (causes existing functionality to change)
• Documentation update

Test plan

• New tests added
  • issue-5053-node-env-development.spec.ts (e2e, built app) launches with NODE_ENV=development. It checks that the window loads from file://, that the --user-data-dir from the command line is used, and that the app holds the single instance lock. It fails on develop: no window opens, and the main log shows Invalid URL at _buildUrlWithSettings. It passes with this change.
  • launchElectron gets an env option so a spec can set environment variables for the app.
• electron-vite dev still runs in development mode. The window loads http://localhost:5173/?udp=…marktext-dev…, and info logs are printed.
• pnpm run typecheck passes, eslint reports 0 errors on the changed files, and all desktop unit tests pass (818/818).
• Tested on: macOS (built app via Playwright, packaged 0.19.1 / rc.2 for the reproduction)

Notes for reviewers

env.ts still reads NODE_ENV !== 'production' for isDevMode and debug. Those checks give the same result whether NODE_ENV is unset or development, so they don't cause this crash, and I left them alone. Changing them would turn debug mode off in every packaged build, which is a separate decision.

#5375 (#3020) changes the single instance lock call on the line after the if changed here in packages/desktop/src/main/index.ts. Whichever PR merges second needs a trivial rebase.

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