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React + Vite

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React ↗ is a framework for building user interfaces. It allows you to create reusable UI components and manage the state of your application efficiently. You can use React to build a single-page application (SPA), and combine it with a backend API running on Cloudflare Workers to create a full-stack application.

This guide shows you how to deploy a React + Vite application to Cloudflare Workers. You can either create a new project using the create-cloudflare CLI (C3) or adapt an existing React + Vite project.

Start from CLI - scaffold a full-stack app with a React SPA, Cloudflare Workers API, and the Cloudflare Vite plugin for lightning-fast development.

npm create cloudflare@latest -- my-react-app --framework=react

Or just deploy - create a full-stack app using React, a Workers API, and Vite, with CI/CD and previews all set up for you.

Deploy to Workers

  1. Create a new project with the create-cloudflare CLI (C3)

    npm create cloudflare@latest -- my-react-app --framework=react

    How is this project set up?

    The following is a simplified file tree of the project.

    • my-react-app
      • src/
        • App.tsx
      • worker/
        • index.ts
      • index.html
      • vite.config.ts
      • wrangler.jsonc

    wrangler.jsonc is your Wrangler configuration file. In this file:

    • main points to worker/index.ts. This is your Worker, which is going to act as your backend API.
    • assets.not_found_handling is set to single-page-application, which means that routes that are handled by your React SPA do not go to the Worker, and are thus free.
    • If you want to add bindings to resources on Cloudflare's developer platform, you configure them here. Read more about bindings.

    vite.config.ts is set up to use the Cloudflare Vite plugin. This runs your Worker in the Cloudflare Workers runtime, ensuring your local development environment is as close to production as possible.

    worker/index.ts is your backend API, which contains a single endpoint, /api/, that returns a text response. At src/App.tsx, your React app calls this endpoint to get a message back and displays this.

  2. Develop locally with the Cloudflare Vite plugin

    After creating your project, run the following command in your project directory to start a local development server.

    npm run dev

    What's happening in local development?

    This project uses Vite for local development and build, and thus comes with all of Vite's features, including hot module replacement (HMR).

    In addition, vite.config.ts is set up to use the Cloudflare Vite plugin. This runs your application in the Cloudflare Workers runtime, just like in production, and enables access to local emulations of bindings.

  3. Deploy your project

    Your project can be deployed to a *.workers.dev subdomain or a Custom Domain, from your own machine or from any CI/CD system, including Cloudflare's own Workers Builds.

    The following command will build and deploy your project. If you are using CI, ensure you update your "deploy command" configuration appropriately.

    npm run deploy

If you already have a React + Vite application, you can adapt it to deploy to Cloudflare Workers using the Cloudflare Vite plugin. This approach preserves your existing code while adding the ability to deploy to Cloudflare's edge network with static assets and an optional API Worker.

  1. Navigate to your project directory

    Open your existing React + Vite project in your editor of choice. If you do not have one yet, scaffold a new project with Vite first:

    npm create vite@latest -- my-react-app --template react-ts

    Next, open the my-react-app directory in your editor of choice.

  2. Add the Cloudflare Vite plugin

    Add the Cloudflare dependencies

    npm i -D @cloudflare/vite-plugin wrangler

    Add the Cloudflare Vite plugin to your project

    In your vite.config.ts, add the Cloudflare Vite plugin after your framework plugin:

    vite.config.tsts
    import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
import { cloudflare } from "@cloudflare/vite-plugin";

export default defineConfig({
	plugins: [react(), cloudflare()],