Auto-build the fronted into the release binary on cargo build --release

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
+pnpm dev
-cd ..
 
 # Run the server (serves embedded frontend/dist/)
 cargo run
 ```
 
-## Running it in production
+## Production
 
 ```bash
-# Build the frontend
+# Build the release binary (also builds the frontend via build.rs)
-cd frontend
+cargo build --release
-pnpm install
-pnpm build
-cd ..
 
 # Run the server (serves embedded frontend/dist/)
-cargo run
+./target/release/story-kit-server
 ```
 
 

server/build.rs

@@ -1,23 +1,37 @@
-use std::fs;
+use std::env;
 use std::path::Path;
+use std::process::Command;
+
+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));
+
+    if !status.success() {
+        panic!("Command failed: {} {:?}", cmd, args);
+    }
+}
 
 fn main() {
-    let dist_dir = Path::new("../frontend/dist");
-
     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");
 
-    if let Ok(entries) = fs::read_dir(dist_dir) {
+    let profile = env::var("PROFILE").unwrap_or_default();
-        for entry in entries.flatten() {
+    if profile != "release" {
-            let path = entry.path();
+        return;
-            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());
-            }
-        }
     }
+
+    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);
 }