How are we supposed to run the application in non-dev mode? | TanStack | Page 1

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 5:58 PM

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I'm very confused by this and I've read the getting started docs multiple times. How do I run the tanstack start app in NON-dev mode? In the docs there's a vite build script, but what do we do after we run vite build...?

I browsed the dist directory that got created after vite build, and I found a dist/server/server.js, but running node dist/server/server.js doesn't start the server at all.

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 6:16 PM

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I found this script hidden in a small section in the hosting docs: "start": "node .output/server/index.mjs", however this .output folder does not exist at all for me. vite build creates a dist folder, not a .output folder.

sonic sedge Oct 14, 2025, 6:17 PM

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You should check out the hosting docs.
Depending on where you are hosting your production server you will have different outputs in the dist folder (usually)
https://tanstack.com/start/latest/docs/framework/react/guide/hosting

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 6:22 PM

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I'm using node.js with Docker

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It says I can use the node .output/server/index.mjs command, but that doesn't exist.

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It also says I should install a nitro plugin? I'm not sure what the point of that is. The basic example at https://tanstack.com/start/latest/docs/framework/react/examples/start-basic uses node .output/server/index.mjs, but it doesn't use a nitro plugin at all in its vite config.

brave crow Oct 14, 2025, 7:51 PM

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clever crane It also says I should install a nitro plugin? I'm not sure what the point of tha...

the example is outdated

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it doesn't have a way to run a prod build

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yes you may install nitro

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it will build an optimal server runner for you

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ts start only builds a fetch handler

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which is good, because it means the server can be very easily delegated

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to netlify, vercel, or nitro for example

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you can create a server entry file yourself if you want

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using express and/or srvx

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or Bun.serve, or Deno.serve

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do whatever you want. but if you want something no brain that just works, then go nitro

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 9:38 PM

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can it be done with... fastify? 🙂

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:01 PM

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sure

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:05 PM

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Hmm, I just tried nitro but it always listens on port 3000 and I can't find a way to change that. It seems to ignore the port I set in my vite config's server.port.

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:07 PM

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in dev or prod?

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in prod, set PORT env var

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https://nitro.build/deploy/runtimes/node#environment-variables

Node.js - Nitro

Run Nitro apps with Node.js runtime.

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:10 PM

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thanks, didn't think it would be env var, I was looking in the config page of the docs

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hmm, I took a peek at the source code and it DOES look like the nitro vite plugin is looking at vite config's server.port. It says:

          server: {
            port:
              Number.parseInt(process.env.PORT || "") ||
              userConfig.server?.port ||
              ctx.nitro.options.devServer?.port ||
              3000,
          },

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I'm throwing in some console.log statements in my build to see if I can figure out why that number is still getting overridden by 3000

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yeah it's not carrying over into the .output/server/index.mjs file, which reads env vars all over again from scratch:

const port = destr(process.env.NITRO_PORT || process.env.PORT) || 3e3;

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time to clone this repo and tinker!

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I don't like having to declare my port twice -- once in vite config and again in an env var

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:29 PM

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why is that an issue?

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dev server could very well have a different port than prod

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you could add a define to set process.env.PORT to 3000

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:34 PM

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I have this in my vite.config.ts:

const { SERVER_PORT } = process.env;
const port = parseInt(SERVER_PORT || 15502);

export default defineConfig({
  server: { port },
  ...
});

I'm in a monorepo with a shared Dockerfile that is used across multiple apps and is setting an env var named SERVER_PORT for production servers.

Also, I sometimes want to test the "built" version of my app locally, and my apps work behind a separately running reverse proxy server that operates on port. If the dev mode port and the "built" mode port that is running locally are different, then my local dev workflow no longer works to test the "built" version.

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We have fastify apps, express apps, and other apps in the monorepo. We built a single Dockerfile to support all of them. When we built it we assumed that every type of app would be able to configure its port in this way.

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:40 PM

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ok then does the define approach work?

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:40 PM

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I'm trying it right now

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This doesn't work:

const { SERVER_PORT } = process.env;
const port = parseInt(SERVER_PORT || 15502);

export default defineConfig({
  define: {
    PORT: port,
  },
  server: { port },
  ...
});

It still listens on 3000

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:43 PM

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try this

define: {
    `process.env.PORT`: JSON.stringify(port),
  },

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:44 PM

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ah, that did work

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This also worked:

    define: {
        'process.env.NITRO_PORT': port,
    },

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:46 PM

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you could also just run start inside fastify, if this is what you have right now

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have a look at this example that shows how to embed into an express server

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https://github.com/TanStack/router/blob/main/e2e/react-start/custom-basepath/express-server.ts

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:48 PM

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Hmmm, I don't have a strong reason to do that since this is a greenfield brand new app.

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I do however need to define some healthz-endpoints so kubernetes can ping them. I defined them as a vite plugin thinking that the vite server would run in prod, but I guess that's wrong and I need to redefine them in nitro?

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:53 PM

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vite server does not run in prod

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you can define them as server routes in Start

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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vite server does not run in prod
Ah, so does that mean I can move vite from dependencies to devDependencies?

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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or as a separate API service in nitro

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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clever crane > vite server does not run in prod Ah, so does that mean I can move vite from `d...

yes

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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you can define them as server routes in Start
I didn't do that because I have a custom base route

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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or, if you embed in a custom server, then there

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:54 PM

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clever crane > you can define them as server routes in Start I didn't do that because I have ...

what do you mean?

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:55 PM

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my vite config has:

export default defineConfig({
  base: '/temp/h2-initiative',
  // ...
});

Therefore I thought all the routes I define in Start would be prefixed with /temp/h2-initiative

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:55 PM

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they will, yes

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:56 PM

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and I wanted to listen to /livez, /readyz and not /temp/h2-initiative/livez

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:56 PM

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well then dont set the base in vite

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:56 PM

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these would be the only endpoints that need to be outside the base

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 10:56 PM

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and move the other routes in a folder that expresses the base?

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 10:57 PM

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Yeah I thought about that option as well, but I wanted to keep these routes separate from the application routes since they exist purely for kubernetes healthchecks and not actual business stuff. There are some pretty good advantages of setting the base.

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or as a separate API service in nitro
Is this a robust feature in Nitro or would you recommend that I avoid it?

smoky junco Oct 14, 2025, 11:04 PM

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nitro3 overall is still alpha, so i cant say really

clever crane Oct 14, 2025, 11:31 PM

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Thanks. I’ll try the fastify option

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Might also tinker with nitro

clever crane Oct 15, 2025, 3:06 AM

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@smoky junco I spent some time thinking about this. In the example you showed me: https://github.com/TanStack/router/blob/main/e2e/react-start/custom-basepath/express-server.ts

I'm not sure I understand why the express-server is being used in development mode at all. Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to continue to use vite dev in development and ONLY use the express server in production mode?

brave crow Oct 15, 2025, 6:16 AM

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it's just an example to show capabilities

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you can strip the dev part

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and use the entrypoint only for prod

clever crane Oct 15, 2025, 2:14 PM

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thank you all for your help!

smoky junco Oct 15, 2025, 7:43 PM

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clever crane <@796276385726988289> I spent some time thinking about this. In the example you ...

using express in dev makes sense when you actually use other express routes during dev, e.g. API routes and you need to call them from client/server during dev

clever crane Oct 15, 2025, 9:18 PM

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📎 message.txt

smoky junco Oct 17, 2025, 5:15 PM

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nice! want to create an example in the router github repo?

clever crane Oct 17, 2025, 6:13 PM

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I was thinking about turning this into a fastify plugin and publishing on npm first

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I already got started on that, hopefully get some time this weekend to continue

full void Oct 18, 2025, 3:29 PM

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would be awesome to see it in action, I am using it with fastify as well, awesome combo!

clever crane Oct 19, 2025, 1:38 AM

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Here's how far I got so far, haven't published to npm yet though before I ran out of time: https://github.com/onlywei/fastify-tanstack-start

GitHub

GitHub - onlywei/fastify-tanstack-start: Convenience plugin to serv...

Convenience plugin to serve Tanstack Start apps on a Fastify server - onlywei/fastify-tanstack-start

clever crane Oct 20, 2025, 2:55 PM

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OK we are published: https://www.npmjs.com/package/fastify-tanstack-start

clever crane Oct 20, 2025, 3:22 PM

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smoky junco yes

starting to make some small PRs to update docs based on what I've learned here: https://github.com/TanStack/router/pull/5547

GitHub

docs: Install vite as a devDependency by onlywei · Pull Request #5...

strange mauve Oct 24, 2025, 5:15 PM

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clever crane starting to make some small PRs to update docs based on what I've learned here: ...

i have a problem here it give this error " {"level":50,"time":1761323412845,"pid":11608,"hostname":"BILU","err":{"type":"Error","message":"Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'","stack":"Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME]: Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'\n at throwIfUnsupportedURLScheme (node:internal/modules/esm/load:209:11)\n at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:107:3)\n at ModuleLoader.load (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:800:12)\n at ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:580:43)\n at #createModuleJob (node:internal/modules/esm/loa
der:604:36)\n at #getJobFromResolveResult (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:338:34)\n at ModuleLoader.getModuleJobForImport (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:306:41)\n at process.processTicksAndRe
jections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)\n at async onImport.tracePromise.proto (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:643:25)","code":"ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ESM_URL_SCHEME"},"msg":"Only URLs with a scheme in: file, data, and node are supported by the default ESM loader. On Windows, absolute paths must be valid file:// URLs. Received protocol 'c:'"}
" and i'm using solidJs with tanstack start is it compatible?

#How are we supposed to run the application in non-dev mode?