TanStack Start

Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart deploys a TanStack Start app to a Hetzner Cloud Server. TanStack Start is pure Vite, so Alchemy runs your project’s own vite build: the SSR server runs as a systemd Hetzner.Service on port 3000, and client assets are baked into the unit and served first. Omit server and Alchemy creates a cpx12 Ubuntu 24.04 box in fsn1. The live URL is http://{ipv4}:3000 — the Service has no TLS. No adapter.

Install

The build integration is not bundled with alchemy. Install @alchemy.run/frontend-frameworks; the resource loads its /tanstack-start and /tanstack-start/node exports from your project at deploy time. It is only used at build time, so a dev dependency is enough:

bun

bun add -d @alchemy.run/frontend-frameworks

npm

npm install -D @alchemy.run/frontend-frameworks

pnpm

pnpm add -D @alchemy.run/frontend-frameworks

yarn

yarn add -D @alchemy.run/frontend-frameworks

Configure Vite

Your vite.config.ts stays what TanStack Start’s scaffold gives you — no adapter, no deployment preset. Vite plugins like Tailwind go in plugins as usual:

vite.config.ts

import tailwindcss from "@tailwindcss/vite";
import { tanstackStart } from "@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite";
import viteReact from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [tailwindcss(), tanstackStart(), viteReact()],
});

Alchemy drives that config’s builder.buildApp() and forces the SSR bundle to be self-contained, then wraps its fetch handler as a Node HTTP server on port 3000.

Remove @cloudflare/vite-plugin if present

The TanStack CLI adds @cloudflare/vite-plugin when scaffolding a new app. It builds for workerd, not Node, so a Hetzner deploy needs it gone:

vite.config.ts

import { cloudflare } from "@cloudflare/vite-plugin";
import { tanstackStart } from "@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite";
import viteReact from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    cloudflare({ viteEnvironment: { name: "ssr" } }),
    tanstackStart(),
    viteReact(),
  ],
  plugins: [tanstackStart(), viteReact()],
});

Declare the Website

Declare the site as a module-level const (rather than inline in the Stack):

alchemy.run.ts

import * as Hetzner from "alchemy/Hetzner";

export const Website = Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Website");

Pass server to host the site on an existing Hetzner.Server — several sites and APIs can share one box. rootDir is the project root — the directory holding package.json and vite.config.*. It defaults to ".", so set it only when the app does not sit next to alchemy.run.ts:

export const Website = Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Website", {
  rootDir: "./app",
});

Add it to the Stack

Yield the site from your Stack and return its URL:

alchemy.run.ts

import * as Alchemy from "alchemy";
import * as Effect from "effect/Effect";

export default Alchemy.Stack(
  "MyTanStackSite",
  {
    providers: Hetzner.providers(),
    state: Alchemy.localState(),
  },
  Effect.gen(function* () {
    const site = yield* Website;
    return { url: site.url };
  }),
);

Requests matching a built client asset are served first; everything else — SSR routes, server routes, server functions — falls through to the Node handler on the Server.

The live url is http://{ipv4}:3000. site.server and site.service are the Hetzner resources underneath — undefined during alchemy dev.

See the TanStack Start API reference for every prop and attribute.

Add environment variables

Process environment is a top-level env map — plain strings, or Redacted values:

alchemy.run.ts

export const Website = Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Website", {
  env: {
    API_BASE: "https://api.example.com",
  },
});

The values are copied onto process.env before the build and the dev server, and onto the systemd unit at deploy time, so server code reads the same keys in both modes. Client inlining is whatever Vite does (VITE_ prefixes).

An output from another resource only exists once that resource is yielded, so declare the site inside the Stack generator instead:

alchemy.run.ts

Effect.gen(function* () {
  const api = yield* Api;

  const site = yield* Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Website", {
    env: { API_BASE: api.url },
  });

  return { url: site.url };
});

Read the environment in a server function

The TanStack Start server is a plain Node process, so server functions read the environment from process.env:

src/routes/index.tsx

import { createServerFn } from "@tanstack/react-start";

const getApiBase = createServerFn({ method: "GET" }).handler(() => ({
  apiBase: process.env.API_BASE ?? "unset",
}));

Values prefixed VITE_ are inlined into the client bundle at build time instead, as import.meta.env.VITE_* — set those in the shell that runs alchemy deploy, not in env.

Read the environment in a server route

Server routes run on the same Node process and read process.env the same way:

src/routes/api.hello.ts

import { createFileRoute } from "@tanstack/react-router";

export const Route = createFileRoute("/api/hello")({
  server: {
    handlers: {
      GET: () => new Response(process.env.API_BASE ?? "unset"),
    },
  },
});

Build configuration

The build runs through your project’s own vite.config.ts — the tanstackStart() plugin and everything else in it apply as-is. Keep vite’s default build.outDir (dist); the integration reads the server and client output from dist/server and dist/client.

Local dev

bun alchemy dev

alchemy dev runs TanStack Start’s own Vite dev server (native HMR) instead of deploying; site.url is the local address and no Hetzner resources are created. Wrap the site in Alchemy.remote() to deploy the live Server and Service even during dev:

export const Website = Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Website").pipe(
  Alchemy.remote(),
);

Solid variant

TanStack Start’s Solid flavor works the same way — swap the plugins in vite.config.ts and keep the identical alchemy.run.ts:

vite.config.ts

import { tanstackStart } from "@tanstack/solid-start/plugin/vite";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import viteSolid from "vite-plugin-solid";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [tanstackStart(), viteSolid({ ssr: true })],
});

@tanstack/solid-start exposes the same tanstackStart() plugin entry point and the same client/ssr build environments, so the deploy is identical.

Custom domain

const zone = yield* Hetzner.Zone("dns", { name: "example.com" });
const site = yield* Hetzner.Website.TanStackStart("Web", {
  domain: "app.example.com",
  zone,
});

domain requires an existing Hetzner.Zone — the Website does not create one. It adds an A record pointing at the Server’s public IPv4. url becomes http://app.example.com:3000. There is no TLS on the Service.

Where next

• TanStack Start API reference
• Servers and Services
• DNS