fullstack: independent server and client

[jarjk]

i.e. how to dx serve client without server and server without client

goal

running server and client on a seperate port

tries

Cargo.toml features:

[features]
default = ["web"]
web = ["dioxus/web"]
desktop = ["dioxus/desktop"]
mobile = ["dioxus/mobile"]
server = ["dioxus/server", "dep:tokio"]

main.rs

mod frontend;
mod backend;

fn main() {
    dioxus::logger::initialize_default();

    #[cfg(feature = "server")]
    dioxus::serve(|| async move {
        backend::ensure_env_vars();

        let router = dioxus::server::router(frontend::App);
        Ok(router)
    });

    #[cfg(not(feature = "server"))]
    dioxus::launch(app::App);
}

serving only the server

tried:

• dx serve --no-default-features --server, but it starts the client as well
• cargo r --no-default-features --features server, but it dies with

thread 'main' (1046326) panicked at $HOME/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-1949cf8c6b5b557f/dioxus-server-0.7.2/src/server.rs:413:29:
Couldn't read public directory at "$PWD/target/debug/public": No such file or directory (os error 2)
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

supposedly it happens because it would like to serve the client, but can't, right?

how could one avoid requiring an App in the server?

serving only the client

tried:

• dx serve --web, as there's absolutely no server feature enabled here AFAIK, still, it starts the server

EDIT: in the end I came up with this Makefile (do your best to ignore the code-quality, this is pretty much the first one I've ever written), which solves our use-case quite well (apollo):

APOLLO_EVENT_TITLE?=hack-a-polo

dx-args:=@server --server --features server_state_save @client --web

serve:
	APOLLO_EVENT_TITLE=${APOLLO_EVENT_TITLE} dx serve ${dx-args}

serve-no-state:
	APOLLO_EVENT_TITLE=${APOLLO_EVENT_TITLE} dx serve --web

build:
	dx bundle ${dx-args}

web-bundle:
	-rm -r web-apollo.zip target/dx # would bloat otherwise
	dx bundle --release ${dx-args}
	cp -r target/dx/apollo/release/web/public .
	-rm web-apollo.zip
	zip web-apollo public/* public/assets/*
	rm -r public
	unzip -l web-apollo.zip

server-build:
	@echo 'probably `ulimit -n 1024`' # needed on my mac for sure
	cargo zigbuild --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --no-default-features --features server_state_save,web
	cp target/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/apollo apollo-x86_64-linux-gnu

bundle: web-bundle server-build
	@echo "scp apollo-x86_64-linux-gnu web-apollo.zip <target>"

clean:
	cargo clean

help list:
	@echo "*serve*: build, run and reload on changes"
	@echo "serve-no-state: build, run and reload on changes, don't save server state"
	@echo "build: bundle in debug mode"
	@echo "web-bundle: bundle the web-client"
	@echo "server-build: build in release mode for x64-linux"
	@echo "bundle: web-bundle and server-build"
	@echo "clean: clean target"

[matyushkin]

In Dioxus 0.7 fullstack, the server and client are tightly coupled by design — dioxus::serve() bundles both. But you can separate them:

Client only (no server)

Use --platform web to build just the client:

dx serve --platform web

or to build without serving:

dx build --platform web

This produces static files in target/dx/<app>/release/web/public/ that you can serve from any web server (nginx, caddy, etc.).

Server only (no client build)

The panic you see (Couldn't read public directory at .../target/debug/public) happens because dioxus::serve() expects pre-built client assets. The fix:

1. First, build the client: dx build --platform web
2. Then, create the expected directory or symlink:

   mkdir -p target/debug/public
   # Copy or symlink the web build output there
   cp -r target/dx/<app>/release/web/public/* target/debug/public/

3. Now cargo run --no-default-features --features server will work

Alternative: @client and @server modifiers (Dioxus 0.7)

Dioxus 0.7 supports per-target args:

dx serve @client --features web @server --features server

This runs both but as separate processes. You can configure different ports in Dioxus.toml:

[server]
port = 8080

[web.dev_server]
port = 3000

For a truly independent setup

If you want a standalone API server without any Dioxus frontend coupling, consider not using dioxus::serve() at all. Instead, use axum directly for your backend and have server functions call your API:

// server binary (pure axum, no dioxus frontend)
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let app = axum::Router::new()
        .route("/api/...", ...)
        .register_server_functions(); // if you still want #[server] fns
    
    axum::serve(listener, app).await.unwrap();
}

Then your Dioxus client connects to this server via the server function endpoint configuration.

See also: Dioxus fullstack project setup

[jarjk]

well, that's quite a reply, thank you for your effort

nevertheless it's completely useless and I'd be most surprised if you had anything to do with it other than prompting an AI model

I've already tried most solutions listed which make sense, but as stated above, they DO NOT work.

I'd be delighted to flag/hide your response as irrelevant, but unfortunately github doesn't provide such feature