Cloudflare’s new Vite plugin (v1.0) streamlines web application development on Cloudflare Workers by integrating the Workers runtime directly into the Vite build process and adding official support for React Router v7.
The plugin leverages Vite 6’s Environment API to allow developers to run Worker code within the workerd runtime, aligning development and production environments. Michal Kuncio, a senior frontend engineer, noted on X:
By leveraging the @vite_js Environment API, you can now use Cloudflare Workers on your development server to mimic production behavior.
Moreover, this integration builds on Vite’s popularity as a fast build tool. Developers like Shivani Sharma on LinkedIn praise it for its superior speed, bundling, and configuration flexibility compared to Create React App and its efficient hot module replacement and robust plugin ecosystem.
Vite 6 introduces the Environment API, a significant architectural change that enables the Vite dev server to interact with various custom runtime environments, including workers. Cloudflare collaborated with the Vite team on this API.
(Source: Cloudflare blog post)
The Cloudflare Vite plugin supports single-page applications (SPAs) built with frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte. Developers can create new React SPAs using the create-cloudflare CLI, which handles create-vite and configures the Cloudflare Vite plugin. Existing Vite SPA projects can be updated by adding the @cloudflare/vite-plugin dependency and a wrangler.jsonc configuration file.
The plugin integrates the Vite dev server with Workers Assets for front-end applications. In addition, the plugin streamlines the development and deployment workflow for applications with a Worker backend. The Vite development server runs the Worker in the Cloudflare Workers runtime. Developers can modify Worker code (e.g., in api/index.ts) and see changes without losing UI state. The plugin also simplifies the build and deployment process: vite build outputs both client and server code, vite preview allows previewing the build in the Workers runtime, and wrangler deploys the application directly.
The Cloudflare Vite plugin also supports React Router v7. Developers can create new React Router applications using the create-cloudflare CLI. Ardizanki, a software engineer specializing in the React ecosystem, tweeted:
React Router is the best bridge from React 18 to 19. Use it as a full framework or as a library within your own architecture.
The plugin simplifies the Worker’s configuration, giving developers more control.
Lastly, the plugin supports the complete Cloudflare Developer Platform, including KV, D1, Service Bindings, RPC, Durable Objects, Workflows, and Workers AI. Existing Workers can be adapted for Vite by installing the @cloudflare/vite-plugin dependency and adding a Vite configuration.
