Development vs Production

Dex behaves differently in development and production modes. This guide explains the differences.

Development Mode

Run with bun run dev:

bun run dev

Characteristics:

• Hot reload on file changes
• Detailed error messages
• Source maps enabled
• Faster startup, slower runtime
• Watches and rebuilds on demand

Server behavior:

• Serves from core/router/.generated/
• SPA fallback for client-side routes
• Pretty logging (colored output)

Environment:

• NODE_ENV=development
• PORT=7990 (default)

Production Mode

Build with bun run build, then run:

cd build
PORT=7990 ./server

Characteristics:

• Optimized bundles
• Minified code
• No source maps
• Faster runtime, slower startup
• Single-threaded

Server behavior:

• Serves static assets from build/assets/
• SPA fallback for client-side routes
• Plain logging (no colors)

Environment:

• NODE_ENV=production
• PORT from env (default: 7990)

Key Differences

API-Only Mode

Run without serving the frontend:

cd build
DEX_API_ONLY=1 ./server

Useful for:

• API gateway setups
• Separate frontend deployment
• Backend-only services

Environment Variables

Best Practices

1. Develop locally — use bun run dev
2. Test production build — run bun run build && ./server before deploying
3. Use API-only — for backend-only deployments
4. Set PORT — in production environments

See Also

• Build Process — How builds work
• Production Server — Deployment guide
• Development Watch — Dev tooling