How to build Solid 2 with Docker?

[PatAlcala9]

This question is actually

How do I build SSR with Docker or Podman?

I'm used to

Building SPA and static sites with Podman, since it can read Dockerfiles. To my understanding, if it will build on Docker, it will on Podman just fine.

Dockerfile used for SPA and static site

FROM node:24.20-alpine AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN corepack enable
RUN pnpm install --dangerously-allow-all-builds
COPY . .
RUN pnpm build

FROM nginx:stable-alpine AS runtime
COPY ./nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
COPY --from=build /app/dist /usr/share/nginx/html
EXPOSE 8080

That begs the question

How do I do that in an SSR-built site?

Alternately

I used pm2 as a backup, but it's not the same as having everything in a container.

[xop01]

Podman reads that Dockerfile. The nginx stage is the part that only works for a static site. It copies files out of dist and serves them. An SSR build has to run a Node process, so the last stage has to be Node, not nginx.

For SolidStart, set the server preset to node-server and start the file the build writes:

ENV HOST=0.0.0.0
ENV PORT=3000
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", ".output/server/index.mjs"]

HOST=0.0.0.0 is what makes the port reachable from outside the container. If pnpm build prints a different server file, run that file. You can still put nginx in front of it as a proxy to port 3000. Do not replace the Node process with a copy of dist.

@PatAlcala9

[PatAlcala9]

Solid 2 has a different build outcome. But I finally figured out what the problem was after reading around the solidjs website.

By default, the start.node isn't enabled at the vite plugin. It needs to be set as solid({ start: { node: true }, ssr: true}).

At default

vite.config.ts would look like this:

import solid from '@solidjs/vite-plugin'

plugins: [
      solid({ start: true, ssr: true, extensions: ['.jsx', '.tsx'], diagnostics: true }),
],

After building, the dist folder will contain client and server folders. And neither has a file that can be run by node.

To enable

vite.config.ts should look like this:

import solid from '@solidjs/vite-plugin'

plugins: [
     solid({ start: { node: true }, ssr: true, extensions: ['.jsx', '.tsx'], diagnostics: true }),
],

Now the server folder will have an additional file called node.js and you can run it as node dist/server/node.js

New Dockerfile

Combined with your suggestion:

FROM node:24.20-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN corepack enable
RUN pnpm install --dangerously-allow-all-builds
COPY . .
RUN pnpm build

ENV HOST=0.0.0.0
ENV PORT=3000
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "--env-file-if-exists=.env.local","./dist/server/node.js"]

And it works fine. Thanks.