Hi everyone 👋,

I'm building a desktop app using Nuxt 4 + Electron, and everything works fine in development mode, but when I package the app for production, the frontend doesn't load. Instead, I get this error:

Not allowed to load local resource: file:///C:/Users/Trojan%20Technologies/AppData/Local/Programs/testapp/resources/app.asar/.output/public/index.html

🧱 Project Setup
Electron main process (main/main.js):

function createWindow() { mainWindow = new BrowserWindow({ width: 400 , height: 600, autoHideMenuBar: true, title: 'test', titleBarStyle: 'hiddenInset', closable: true, webPreferences: { contextIsolation: true, nodeIntegration: false, } }); if (!app.isPackaged) { mainWindow.loadURL('http://localhost:3000/'); } else { const indexPath = path.join(__dirname, '../.output/public/index.html'); mainWindow.loadFile(indexPath); } }

Nuxt Config

import tailwindcss from "@tailwindcss/vite"; export default defineNuxtConfig({ compatibilityDate: '2025-07-15', devtools: { enabled: true }, css: ['~/assets/css/main.css'], ssr: false, app: { baseURL: '/', buildAssetsDir: '/_nuxt/', }, vite: { plugins: [tailwindcss()], }, });

package.json

"scripts": { "build": "npm run compile", "dev": "concurrently \"nuxt dev\" \"npm run compile && electron out/main.js\"", "generate": "nuxt generate", "preview": "nuxt preview", "postinstall": "nuxt prepare", "compile": "tsc -p tsconfig.main.json", "build:win": "npm run build && electron-builder --win" }, "build": { "appId": "test.app", "productName": "TestApp", "files": [ "out/**/*", ".output/**/*" ], "asarUnpack": [ ".output" ], "win": { "target": ["nsis"] } }

🧩 Problem
The app installs fine on Windows, but when opened, Electron throws the "Not allowed to load local resource" error — it can’t load index.html from inside .asar.

I’ve already tried:

1. unpacking .output with asarUnpack
2. adjusting path.join to point at both .output and .output/public
3. verifying that index.html exists in the unpacked resources folder

Still, it fails to load.

❓ Question

How should I correctly load the Nuxt static build output (.output/public) inside Electron in production?
Should I be using nuxt generate or a different preset for Electron?
Or do I need to serve the .output/public folder via a local server instead of loading it as a file?

Any help or example setups would be amazing 🙏