Are backend-only apps supported?

[alex-deev]

Im looking for a unified toolchain for backend-only apps, like for Express and Hono.

Im trying to migrate my microservices from Deno to Node, and this would be really appreciated!

[fengmk2]

It should be supported. If you encounter any issues, please feel free to let us know at any time.

[KevinAndrewDong]

Yes for toolchain (env, install, check, test, run, pack). Not as a first-class “backend-only vp dev” product yet (see open requests for pure Node watch without port 5173).

Recommended pattern (Hono/Express):

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx watch src/server.ts",
    "start": "node dist/server.js",
    "check": "vp check",
    "test": "vp test"
  }
}

vp install
vp run dev      # your API (Bun/Node/tsx) — not `vp dev`
vp check
vp test

Monorepo (API + optional web):

# packages/api: "dev": "tsx watch src/index.ts"
# packages/web: "dev": "vp dev"
vp run -r --parallel --filter @repo/api --filter @repo/web dev

So: migrate Deno → Node services with Vite+ for lint/test/tasks; keep the HTTP server as a normal Node script under vp run, until native backend watch lands.

[fengmk2]

Thanks for sharing this setup! You can run TypeScript files directly with [vpx](https://viteplus.dev/guide/vpx), without adding a tsx dependency:

vpx src/server.ts

For development with automatic restarts, use vpx --watch src/server.ts. Your dev script can be:

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "vpx --watch src/server.ts"
  }
}

Then run vpr dev, which is shorthand for vp run dev. This gives backend-only apps a watch workflow without starting the Vite dev server.