electron/docs/api/ipc-main.md

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---
title: "ipcMain"
description: "Communicate asynchronously from the main process to renderer processes."
slug: ipc-main
hide_title: false
---
# ipcMain
> Communicate asynchronously from the main process to renderer processes.
Process: [Main](../glossary.md#main-process)
The `ipcMain` module is an [Event Emitter][event-emitter]. When used in the main
process, it handles asynchronous and synchronous messages sent from a renderer
process (web page). Messages sent from a renderer will be emitted to this
module.
For usage examples, check out the [IPC tutorial][].
## Sending messages
It is also possible to send messages from the main process to the renderer
process, see [webContents.send][web-contents-send] for more information.
* When sending a message, the event name is the `channel`.
* To reply to a synchronous message, you need to set `event.returnValue`.
* To send an asynchronous message back to the sender, you can use
`event.reply(...)`. This helper method will automatically handle messages
coming from frames that aren't the main frame (e.g. iframes) whereas
`event.sender.send(...)` will always send to the main frame.
## Methods
The `ipcMain` module has the following method to listen for events:
### `ipcMain.on(channel, listener)`
* `channel` string
* `listener` Function
* `event` [IpcMainEvent][ipc-main-event]
* `...args` any[]
Listens to `channel`, when a new message arrives `listener` would be called with
`listener(event, args...)`.
### `ipcMain.once(channel, listener)`
* `channel` string
* `listener` Function
* `event` [IpcMainEvent][ipc-main-event]
* `...args` any[]
Adds a one time `listener` function for the event. This `listener` is invoked
only the next time a message is sent to `channel`, after which it is removed.
### `ipcMain.removeListener(channel, listener)`
* `channel` string
* `listener` Function
* `...args` any[]
Removes the specified `listener` from the listener array for the specified
`channel`.
### `ipcMain.removeAllListeners([channel])`
* `channel` string (optional)
Removes listeners of the specified `channel`.
### `ipcMain.handle(channel, listener)`
* `channel` string
* `listener` Function\<Promise\<any\> | any\>
* `event` [IpcMainInvokeEvent][ipc-main-invoke-event]
* `...args` any[]
Adds a handler for an `invoke`able IPC. This handler will be called whenever a
renderer calls `ipcRenderer.invoke(channel, ...args)`.
If `listener` returns a Promise, the eventual result of the promise will be
returned as a reply to the remote caller. Otherwise, the return value of the
listener will be used as the value of the reply.
```js title='Main Process' @ts-type={somePromise:(...args:unknown[])=>Promise<unknown>}
ipcMain.handle('my-invokable-ipc', async (event, ...args) => {
const result = await somePromise(...args)
return result
})
```
```js title='Renderer Process' @ts-type={arg1:unknown} @ts-type={arg2:unknown}
async () => {
const result = await ipcRenderer.invoke('my-invokable-ipc', arg1, arg2)
// ...
}
```
The `event` that is passed as the first argument to the handler is the same as
that passed to a regular event listener. It includes information about which
WebContents is the source of the invoke request.
Errors thrown through `handle` in the main process are not transparent as they
are serialized and only the `message` property from the original error is
provided to the renderer process. Please refer to
[#24427](https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/24427) for details.
### `ipcMain.handleOnce(channel, listener)`
* `channel` string
* `listener` Function\<Promise\<any\> | any\>
* `event` [IpcMainInvokeEvent][ipc-main-invoke-event]
* `...args` any[]
Handles a single `invoke`able IPC message, then removes the listener. See
`ipcMain.handle(channel, listener)`.
### `ipcMain.removeHandler(channel)`
* `channel` string
Removes any handler for `channel`, if present.
[IPC tutorial]: ../tutorial/ipc.md
[event-emitter]: https://nodejs.org/api/events.html#events_class_eventemitter
[web-contents-send]: ../api/web-contents.md#contentssendchannel-args
[ipc-main-event]:../api/structures/ipc-main-event.md
[ipc-main-invoke-event]:../api/structures/ipc-main-invoke-event.md