Production build fails to serve PWA assets (manifest.webmanifest, icons) on Nuxt 4 with node-server preset

[ecanquiz]

Description:

When building a Nuxt 4 application with @vite-pwa/nuxt, the PWA assets (manifest.webmanifest, icons, favicon.ico, etc.) are correctly generated and placed in .output/public/. However, when running the production server with node .output/server/index.mjs, Nitro looks for these assets in .output/server/chunks/public/ instead, causing 404 errors.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new Nuxt 4 project
2. Install and configure @vite-pwa/nuxt:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@vite-pwa/nuxt'],
  pwa: {
    registerType: 'autoUpdate',
    manifest: {
      name: 'Test App',
      short_name: 'Test',
      // ... manifest config
    }
  }
})

3. Generate PWA assets (icons, manifest)
4. Run npm run build
5. Run production server: node .output/server/index.mjs
6. Try to access /manifest.webmanifest or /favicon.ico

Expected Behavior

The PWA assets should be served correctly from the production server without any manual intervention.
Actual Behavior

The server returns a 500/404 error with:

H3Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/path/to/.output/server/chunks/public/manifest.webmanifest'

Environment

• Nuxt version: 4.x (latest)
• @vite-pwa/nuxt version: latest (0.9.0)
• Nitro preset: node-server (default)
• Node.js version: v24.16.0
• Package manager: npm

Additional Context

The assets are correctly generated in .output/public/:

$ ls .output/public/
manifest.webmanifest  favicon.ico  pwa-64x64.png  pwa-192x192.png  pwa-512x512.png  maskable-icon-512x512.png  apple-touch-icon-180x180.png

However, the production server expects them in .output/server/chunks/public/.

Temporary Workaround

After building, manually copy the assets:

mkdir -p .output/server/chunks/public && cp -r .output/public/* .output/server/chunks/public/

Or add to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "nuxt build && mkdir -p .output/server/chunks/public && cp -r .output/public/* .output/server/chunks/public/"
  }
}

Related Issues / References

• Similar issue reported on Stack Overflow: Nuxt 4 production can't find static assets
• Related Nitro issue: Static assets not served from correct location in node-server preset

Possible Root Cause

The @vite-pwa/nuxt module writes assets to .output/public/, but when using the node-server preset in Nitro (default for Nuxt 4), the server expects static assets in .output/server/chunks/public/. This path mismatch breaks the PWA installation capability in production.

Suggested Fix

The module should detect the Nitro preset and write assets to the appropriate location, or Nitro should be configured to serve static assets from .output/public/ in all presets.

Labels

• #bug
• #production
• #nuxt4
• #nitro

[userquin]

can you try using v1.1.1 (latest version)?