Building for Production

Build

Stop the dev server and run:

npm run build

The build bundles the client and server code, then executes every static page and layout to prerender them. The result lands in dist:

dist/
├── public/                    # served as static files
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── about/index.html
│   ├── blog/index.html
│   ├── blog/hello-waku/index.html
│   ├── blog/server-components/index.html
│   ├── built/index.html
│   ├── contact/index.html
│   ├── RSC/                   # prerendered payloads for client-side navigation
│   ├── assets/                # JS and CSS bundles
│   └── ...                    # plus everything copied from public/
└── server/                    # the server that renders dynamic routes

You can read the rendering model straight out of this listing:

• Every static page is now an HTML file, including one page per staticPaths entry of the blog post route.
• /now is nowhere in dist/public. A dynamic page has no build-time output; it lives in dist/server and executes when requested.
• The RSC directory holds the prerendered payloads that make client-side navigation between static pages fast.

Run it

npm run start

Open http://localhost:8080 and check the two pages from the previous chapter:

• /built shows the moment the build ran, and reloading never changes it. The page executed once, during npm run build; you are now being served its artifact.
• /now shows a new timestamp on every reload. The page executes on each request, and Waku does not implicitly cache the result.

This is the whole freshness model, observed: static at build time, fresh at request time. To update prerendered content, such as a blog post in src/lib/posts.ts, run npm run build again: a rebuild produces new artifacts.

Deploy

The starter uses Waku's default adapter, which targets Node.js and automatically switches when the build runs on Vercel, Netlify, or Cloudflare. Other adapters cover AWS Lambda, Deno, and Bun. Fully static sites can skip the server entirely and deploy dist/public to any static host.

See the deployment guides for specifics:

• Static Deployments
• Cloudflare
• AWS Lambda
• Docker

Where to go from here

You have now seen every idea from The Mental Model working: file-based routing, server and client components, declared rendering modes, and a production build that honors them.

• The guides cover specific capabilities: styling, metadata, request context, middleware, and more.
• The waku-examples repository has focused, runnable examples for common patterns.
• The API reference documents the full routing convention set, server actions, and API routes.