Deployment and Rendering

TanStack Start deploys to any hosting provider via Vite and Nitro. This skill covers hosting setup, SSR configuration, prerendering, and SEO.

Hosting Providers

Cloudflare Workers

pnpm add -D @cloudflare/vite-plugin wrangler

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import { tanstackStart } from '@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite'
import { cloudflare } from '@cloudflare/vite-plugin'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

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

// wrangler.jsonc
{
  "name": "my-app",
  "compatibility_date": "2025-09-02",
  "compatibility_flags": ["nodejs_compat"],
  "main": "@tanstack/react-start/server-entry",
}

Deploy: npx wrangler login && pnpm run deploy

Worker env is per-request. Cloudflare Workers inject env vars at request time. process.env.X at module scope evaluates to undefined even on the server. The Cloudflare-canonical way to read env (including from module scope) is the cloudflare:workers env binding:

import { env } from 'cloudflare:workers'
const apiHost = env.API_HOST

Or read process.env.X per-request inside .handler() / middleware .server(). See Cloudflare's environment-variables docs and start-core/execution-model.

Netlify

pnpm add -D @netlify/vite-plugin-tanstack-start

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import { tanstackStart } from '@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite'
import netlify from '@netlify/vite-plugin-tanstack-start'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

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

Deploy: npx netlify deploy

Nitro (Vercel, Railway, Node.js, Docker)

npm install nitro@npm:nitro-nightly@latest

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import { tanstackStart } from '@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite'
import { nitro } from 'nitro/vite'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'

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

Build and start: npm run build && node .output/server/index.mjs

Bun

Bun deployment requires React 19. For React 18, use Node.js deployment.

// vite.config.ts — add bun preset to nitro
plugins: [tanstackStart(), nitro({ preset: 'bun' }), viteReact()]

Selective SSR

Control SSR per route with the ssr property.

ssr: true (default)

Runs beforeLoad and loader on server, renders component on server:

export const Route = createFileRoute('/posts/$postId')({
  ssr: true, // default
  loader: () => fetchPost(), // runs on server during SSR
  component: PostPage, // rendered on server
})

ssr: false

Disables server execution of beforeLoad/loader and server rendering:

export const Route = createFileRoute('/dashboard')({
  ssr: false,
  loader: () => fetchDashboard(), // runs on client only
  component: DashboardPage, // rendered on client only
})

ssr: 'data-only'

Runs beforeLoad/loader on server but renders component on client only:

export const Route = createFileRoute('/canvas')({
  ssr: 'data-only',
  loader: () => fetchCanvasData(), // runs on server
  component: CanvasPage, // rendered on client only
})

Functional Form

Decide SSR at runtime based on params/search:

export const Route = createFileRoute('/docs/$docType/$docId')({
  ssr: ({ params }) => {
    if (params.status === 'success' && params.value.docType === 'sheet') {
      return false
    }
  },
})

SSR Inheritance

Children inherit parent SSR config and can only be MORE restrictive:

• true → data-only or false (allowed)
• false → true (NOT allowed — parent false wins)

Default SSR

Change the default for all routes in src/start.ts:

import { createStart } from '@tanstack/react-start'

export const startInstance = createStart(() => ({
  defaultSsr: false,
}))

Static Prerendering

Generate static HTML at build time:

// vite.config.ts
tanstackStart({
  prerender: {
    enabled: true,
    crawlLinks: true,
    concurrency: 14,
    failOnError: true,
  },
})

Static routes are auto-discovered. Dynamic routes (e.g. /users/$userId) require crawlLinks or explicit pages config.

SEO and Head Management

Basic Meta Tags

export const Route = createFileRoute('/')({
  head: () => ({
    meta: [
      { title: 'My App - Home' },
      { name: 'description', content: 'Welcome to My App' },
    ],
  }),
})

Dynamic Meta from Loader Data

export const Route = createFileRoute('/posts/$postId')({
  loader: async ({ params }) => fetchPost(params.postId),
  head: ({ loaderData }) => ({
    meta: [
      { title: loaderData.title },
      { name: 'description', content: loaderData.excerpt },
      { property: 'og:title', content: loaderData.title },
      { property: 'og:image', content: loaderData.coverImage },
    ],
  }),
})

Structured Data (JSON-LD)

head: ({ loaderData }) => ({
  scripts: [
    {
      type: 'application/ld+json',
      children: JSON.stringify({
        '@context': 'https://schema.org',
        '@type': 'Article',
        headline: loaderData.title,
      }),
    },
  ],
})

Dynamic Sitemap via Server Route

// src/routes/sitemap[.]xml.ts
export const Route = createFileRoute('/sitemap.xml')({
  server: {
    handlers: {
      GET: async () => {
        const posts = await fetchAllPosts()
        const sitemap = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  ${posts.map((p) => `<url><loc>https://myapp.com/posts/${p.id}</loc></url>`).join('')}
</urlset>`
        return new Response(sitemap, {
          headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/xml' },
        })
      },
    },
  },
})

Common Mistakes

1. HIGH: Missing nodejs_compat flag for Cloudflare Workers

// WRONG — Node.js APIs fail at runtime
{ "compatibility_flags": [] }

// CORRECT
{ "compatibility_flags": ["nodejs_compat"] }

2. MEDIUM: Bun deployment with React 18

Bun-specific deployment only works with React 19. Use Node.js deployment for React 18.

3. MEDIUM: Child route loosening parent SSR config

// Parent sets ssr: false
// WRONG — child cannot upgrade to ssr: true
const parentRoute = createFileRoute('/dashboard')({ ssr: false })
const childRoute = createFileRoute('/dashboard/stats')({
  ssr: true, // IGNORED — parent false wins
})

// CORRECT — children can only be MORE restrictive
const parentRoute = createFileRoute('/dashboard')({ ssr: 'data-only' })
const childRoute = createFileRoute('/dashboard/stats')({
  ssr: false, // OK — more restrictive than parent
})

Cross-References

• start-core/server-routes — API endpoints for sitemaps, robots.txt
• start-core/execution-model — SSR affects where code runs