From 37be55242deadc80353ebe4649a4883c1e1fd441 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dave <futurechimp@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:05:09 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Auto-build the fronted into the release binary on cargo build
 --release

---
 README.md       | 18 ++++++++----------
 server/build.rs | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
 2 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 810c2ac..8199a3c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,30 +3,28 @@
 This app runs as a single Rust web server binary that serves the Vite/React frontend and exposes APIs.
 The frontend lives in the `frontend/` directory.
 
+You can also run the frontend and backend separately in development (Vite dev server + Rust API).
+
 ## Running it in development
 
 ```bash
 # Build the frontend
 cd frontend
-pnpm install
-pnpm build
-cd ..
+pnpm install 
+pnpm dev
 
 # Run the server (serves embedded frontend/dist/)
 cargo run
 ```
 
-## Running it in production
+## Production
 
 ```bash
-# Build the frontend
-cd frontend
-pnpm install
-pnpm build
-cd ..
+# Build the release binary (also builds the frontend via build.rs)
+cargo build --release
 
 # Run the server (serves embedded frontend/dist/)
-cargo run
+./target/release/story-kit-server
 ```
 
 
diff --git a/server/build.rs b/server/build.rs
index 4e396fc..50f5e24 100644
--- a/server/build.rs
+++ b/server/build.rs
@@ -1,23 +1,37 @@
-use std::fs;
+use std::env;
 use std::path::Path;
+use std::process::Command;
 
-fn main() {
-    let dist_dir = Path::new("../frontend/dist");
+fn run(cmd: &str, args: &[&str], dir: &Path) {
+    let status = Command::new(cmd)
+        .args(args)
+        .current_dir(dir)
+        .status()
+        .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("Failed to run {} {:?}: {}", cmd, args, e));
 
-    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=build.rs");
-
-    if let Ok(entries) = fs::read_dir(dist_dir) {
-        for entry in entries.flatten() {
-            let path = entry.path();
-            if path.is_dir() {
-                if let Ok(sub_entries) = fs::read_dir(&path) {
-                    for sub_entry in sub_entries.flatten() {
-                        println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed={}", sub_entry.path().display());
-                    }
-                }
-            } else {
-                println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed={}", path.display());
-            }
-        }
+    if !status.success() {
+        panic!("Command failed: {} {:?}", cmd, args);
     }
 }
+
+fn main() {
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=build.rs");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-env-changed=PROFILE");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/package.json");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/pnpm-lock.yaml");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/vite.config.ts");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/index.html");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/src");
+    println!("cargo:rerun-if-changed=../frontend/public");
+
+    let profile = env::var("PROFILE").unwrap_or_default();
+    if profile != "release" {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    let frontend_dir = Path::new("../frontend");
+
+    // Ensure dependencies are installed and build the frontend bundle.
+    run("pnpm", &["install"], frontend_dir);
+    run("pnpm", &["build"], frontend_dir);
+}