vite+ refuses to run dev server in root package of monorepo if index.html is not in root

Describe the bug

when running vp dev in the root package of a monorepo, if the index.html is not in the root directory (e.g. via setting the root option in the vite config), then vp dev shows a prompt box asking you which package you intended to run the dev server for.
vite does not exhibit the same behaviour, instead it correctly discovers the index.html and starts a dev server.

Reproduction

https://github.com/solonovamax/vite-plus-dev-src-index-reproduction

Steps to reproduce

pnpm install
pnpm dev

vite+ prompts you to "Select a package to dev"

System Info

vp env current: cannot run, see: #2515

here's envinfo instead, if it helps:

$ pnpx envinfo

  System:
    OS: Linux 7.1 Arch Linux
    CPU: (8) x64 AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics
    Memory: 22.25 GB / 62.17 GB
    Container: Yes
    Shell: 5.3.15 - /bin/bash
  Binaries:
    Node: 26.4.0 - /home/solonovamax/.nvm/versions/node/v26.4.0/bin/node
    pnpm: 11.22.0 - /home/solonovamax/.nvm/versions/node/v26.4.0/bin/pnpm
    bun: 1.3.14 - /usr/bin/bun
    Deno: 2.9.3 - /usr/bin/deno
  Managers:
    Cargo: 1.97.1 - /usr/bin/cargo
    Gradle: 9.6.1 - /usr/local/bin/gradle
    Maven: 3.9.16 - ~/.sdkman/candidates/maven/current/bin/mvn
    pip3: 26.1.2 - /usr/bin/pip3
  Utilities:
    7z: 26.02 - /usr/bin/7z
    CMake: 4.4.0 - /usr/bin/cmake
    Make: 4.4.1 - /usr/bin/make
    GCC: 16.1.1 - /usr/lib/ccache/bin/gcc
    Git: 2.55.0 - /usr/bin/git
    Git LFS: 3.7.1 - /usr/bin/git-lfs
    Clang: 22.1.8 - /usr/lib/ccache/bin/clang
    Ninja: 1.13.2 - /usr/bin/ninja
    Mercurial: 7.2.3 - /usr/bin/hg
    Subversion: 1.14.5 - /usr/bin/svn
    FFmpeg: 8.1.2 - /usr/bin/ffmpeg
    Curl: 8.21.0 - /usr/bin/curl
    OpenSSL: 3.6.3 - /usr/bin/openssl
    ccache: 4.13.6 - /usr/bin/ccache
    Calibre: 9.11.0 - /usr/bin/calibre
  Servers:
    Apache: 2.4.68 - /usr/bin/apachectl
    Nginx: 1.30.3 - /usr/bin/nginx
  Virtualization:
    Docker: 29.6.2 - /usr/bin/docker
    Docker Compose: 5.3.1 - /usr/bin/docker-compose
  IDEs:
    Nano: 9.1 - /usr/bin/nano
    VSCode: 1.127.0 - /usr/bin/code
    Vim: 9.2 - /usr/bin/vim
  Languages:
    Bash: 5.3.15 - /usr/bin/bash
    Go: 1.26.5 - /usr/bin/go
    Java: 25.0.3 - /home/solonovamax/.sdkman/candidates/java/current/bin/javac
    Perl: 5.42.2 - /usr/bin/perl
    Protoc: 35.1 - /usr/bin/protoc
    Python: 3.14.6 - /usr/bin/python
    Python3: 3.14.6 - /usr/bin/python3
    R: 4.6.1 - /usr/bin/R
    Rust: 1.97.1 - /usr/bin/rustc
  Databases:
    MySQL: 15.2 (MariaDB) - /usr/bin/mysql
    PostgreSQL: 18.4 - /usr/bin/postgres
    SQLite: 3.53.3 - /usr/bin/sqlite3
  Browsers:
    Chromium: 150.0.7871.124

note: the "browsers" is incorrect. see: tabrindle/envinfo#303

$ pnpm vp --version
VITE+ - The Unified Toolchain for the Web

vp v0.2.9

Local vite-plus:
  vite-plus  v0.2.9

Tools:
  vite             v8.2.1
  rolldown         v1.2.3
  vitest           v4.1.10
  oxfmt            v0.62.0
  oxlint           v1.77.0
  oxlint-tsgolint  v7.0.2001
  tsdown           v0.22.14

Used Package Manager

pnpm

Logs

Validations

Read the Contributing Guidelines.
Check that there isn't already an issue for the same bug.
Confirm this is a Vite+ issue and not an upstream issue (Vite, Vitest, tsdown, Rolldown, or Oxc).
The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example.

Also related, in a monorepo where the root package is the application and which does not have index.html in the root, the dev server will open a prompt to select which package to run the dev server for, and the root package is not in that list.
this is likely due to the following:

vite-plus/packages/cli/binding/src/cli/app_target.rs

Lines 156 to 203 in fc32f3c

    
           /// Heuristic ranking signal: does a directory look runnable for `command`? 
        
           /// Used for ordering and single-candidate auto-selection, never for hiding. 
        
           /// The rules are documented in rfcs/cwd-flag.md ("The likely-runnable 
        
           /// heuristic"); keep both in sync. Two variants because the workspace root 
        
           /// needs a stronger signal than member packages: a shared root 
        
           /// `vite.config.ts` (lint/fmt/tasks) is the normal monorepo setup and must 
        
           /// not make the root look like an app, or auto-select would run the silent 
        
           /// root build this feature exists to prevent. 
        
           /// 
        
           /// Root variant. Takes the root config [`classify`] already resolved for the 
        
           /// `defaultPackage` lookup, so the file is read and parsed once per 
        
           /// invocation. A declared `build` block (a library/SSR build with no entry 
        
           /// HTML) makes the root a target for `vp build` only: dev/preview serve an 
        
           /// app, for which the signal is a root `index.html`. A shared root config 
        
           /// for lint/fmt/tasks declares neither, so it never makes the root a target. 
        
           fn root_looks_runnable( 
        
               config: &vp_static_config::FieldMap, 
        
               dir: &AbsolutePath, 
        
               command: &str, 
        
           ) -> bool { 
        
               match command { 
        
                   // Bare `vp pack` succeeds when tsdown's default entry exists or the 
        
                   // config explicitly declares a `pack` block (a spread that only 
        
                   // might contain `pack` does not count: auto-select acts on this 
        
                   // signal, so a false positive runs tsdown in a non-packable package). 
        
                   "pack" => { 
        
                       dir.as_path().join("src/index.ts").is_file() || config.get_declared("pack").is_some() 
        
                   } 
        
                   "build" => { 
        
                       dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file() || config.get_declared("build").is_some() 
        
                   } 
        
                   _ => dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file(), 
        
               } 
        
           } 
        
           /// Member variant of the likely-runnable heuristic; see 
        
           /// [`root_looks_runnable`]. Resolves the member's own config lazily: this 
        
           /// executes per workspace package, and for `pack` the one-stat entry check 
        
           /// runs first because the config check reads and parses a file. 
        
           fn member_looks_runnable(dir: &AbsolutePath, command: &str) -> bool { 
        
               match command { 
        
                   "pack" => { 
        
                       dir.as_path().join("src/index.ts").is_file() 
        
                           || vp_static_config::resolve_static_config(dir).get_declared("pack").is_some() 
        
                   } 
        
                   _ => vp_static_config::has_config_file(dir) || dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file(), 
        
               } 
        
           }

I don't feel like making a separate reproduction sample for this, so instead I'm just posting it as a comment.

See: #770
Caused by: #2031

My current workaround to this issue is to symlink the index.html into the project root.
I have my index.html under src because I personally find that it helps clean things up, so the symlink is only a temporary measure until this is fixed.

This is expected Vite behavior rather than a Vite+ bug. Since index.html is under src, set root: "src" in vite.config.ts: https://vite.dev/config/shared-options#root

Also related, in a monorepo where the root package is the application and which does not have index.html in the root, the dev server will open a prompt to select which package to run the dev server for, and the root package is not in that list.
this is likely due to the following:

Hi, this is a separate problem, could you please submit a separate issue for that?

This is expected Vite behavior rather than a Vite+ bug. Since index.html is under src, set root: "src" in vite.config.ts: https://vite.dev/config/shared-options#root

iirc I do actually have that in the project where I encountered it, but I'll double check in five minutes

sorry, that took a bit, but I checked and in the repository where I encountered it I had root set to "src"

Hi, this is a separate problem, could you please submit a separate issue for that?

would I need to provide a reproduction sample for this? because it takes like 10-15 minutes to make a reproduction sample every time

@solonovamax

@solonovamax You can set https://github.com/liang-demos/vite-plus-root-app-picker-repro as the reproduction url, and you can also directly commit to this repo if you think there is something doesn't matches your idea.

okay, from some further testing, I have discovered that my initial assumptions were false. vite+ exhibits the same behaviour as vite does in all these scenarios, except for one: when running vp dev in a monorepo where the root project is the app and the index.html is not present in the root directory.
vite-plus instead presents the picker which gave me the false impression that I should instead run vp dev ., which does not work because I should have instead run vp dev src/ (vite exhibits the same behaviour as vite+ if I run vite dev . instead of vite dev src/.

rather than creating a separate issue, I'm going to modify the current issue & the reproduction sample

Update reproduction sample

updated the sample & the issue, the other repository is no longer necessary

@solonovamax

@solonovamax It should be a bug, I will fix it soon.

fix(cli): improve workspace app target classification (voidzero-dev#2530

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vite+ refuses to run dev server in root package of monorepo if index.html is not in root #2516

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	/// Heuristic ranking signal: does a directory look runnable for `command`?
	/// Used for ordering and single-candidate auto-selection, never for hiding.
	/// The rules are documented in rfcs/cwd-flag.md ("The likely-runnable
	/// heuristic"); keep both in sync. Two variants because the workspace root
	/// needs a stronger signal than member packages: a shared root
	/// `vite.config.ts` (lint/fmt/tasks) is the normal monorepo setup and must
	/// not make the root look like an app, or auto-select would run the silent
	/// root build this feature exists to prevent.
	///
	/// Root variant. Takes the root config [`classify`] already resolved for the
	/// `defaultPackage` lookup, so the file is read and parsed once per
	/// invocation. A declared `build` block (a library/SSR build with no entry
	/// HTML) makes the root a target for `vp build` only: dev/preview serve an
	/// app, for which the signal is a root `index.html`. A shared root config
	/// for lint/fmt/tasks declares neither, so it never makes the root a target.
	fn root_looks_runnable(
	config: &vp_static_config::FieldMap,
	dir: &AbsolutePath,
	command: &str,
	) -> bool {
	match command {
	// Bare `vp pack` succeeds when tsdown's default entry exists or the
	// config explicitly declares a `pack` block (a spread that only
	// might contain `pack` does not count: auto-select acts on this
	// signal, so a false positive runs tsdown in a non-packable package).
	"pack" => {
	dir.as_path().join("src/index.ts").is_file() \|\| config.get_declared("pack").is_some()
	}
	"build" => {
	dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file() \|\| config.get_declared("build").is_some()
	}
	_ => dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file(),
	}
	}

	/// Member variant of the likely-runnable heuristic; see
	/// [`root_looks_runnable`]. Resolves the member's own config lazily: this
	/// executes per workspace package, and for `pack` the one-stat entry check
	/// runs first because the config check reads and parses a file.
	fn member_looks_runnable(dir: &AbsolutePath, command: &str) -> bool {
	match command {
	"pack" => {
	dir.as_path().join("src/index.ts").is_file()
	\|\| vp_static_config::resolve_static_config(dir).get_declared("pack").is_some()
	}
	_ => vp_static_config::has_config_file(dir) \|\| dir.as_path().join("index.html").is_file(),
	}
	}

vite+ refuses to run dev server in root package of monorepo if index.html is not in root #2516

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solonovamax commented on Aug 20, 2026

solonovamax commented on Aug 20, 2026

jong-kyung commented on Aug 21, 2026

liangmiQwQ commented on Aug 21, 2026

solonovamax commented on Aug 21, 2026

solonovamax commented on Aug 21, 2026

liangmiQwQ commented on Aug 21, 2026

solonovamax commented on Aug 22, 2026

solonovamax commented on Aug 22, 2026

fengmk2 commented on Aug 22, 2026

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