Why your Electron deep link works on macOS but not on Windows

Electron desktop sign-in callbacks using custom URL schemes behave differently across platforms: macOS sends links to a running app through the `open-url` event, while Windows and Linux launch a second process whose command-line arguments must be forwarded to the original instance through Electron’s `second-instance` event. Reliable handling therefore requires acquiring `app.requestSingleInstanceLock()` before creating windows, registering the protocol through AuthKit’s `registerProtocol()` inside `app.whenReady()`, and detecting URLs by their scheme rather than assuming they are the last command-line argument. Packaged applications must declare the scheme in their build configuration for macOS and Linux so links can open the app, whereas Windows registers it at runtime after the installed app has first run. The AuthKit Electron SDK manages protocol listeners and development registration details, but developers remain responsible for the single-instance lock, cleanup, compatible Electron and Node versions, and Linux keyring availability for secure session storage. Testing should include packaged builds on all platforms, especially Windows and Linux cold starts, because a successful macOS flow does not confirm that forwarding, packaging configuration, or Linux credential storage work elsewhere.

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