How to build with Vite in Docker using yarn workspaces focus --production?

[calinLazuran]

Hi Vite team,

We're using Vite in a monorepo with yarn workspaces and building our frontend in Docker. The goal is to avoid installing devDependencies in the build step (due to license compliance issues — e.g., [email protected] pulled via Vite), so we use:

RUN yarn workspaces focus --production

However, Vite is a devDependency — and the build fails because vite.config.ts can’t resolve the Vite module.

We tried a few approaches:

• Installing Vite globally (did not work)

RUN npm install -g vite
RUN yarn workspaces focus --production
RUN yarn build

This still failed with module resolution errors, likely because the local vite.config.ts expects Vite to be installed in node_modules.
Fallback solution that works (but not ideal)

-Run full yarn install
-Build the frontend
-Delete node_modules afterward

We'd prefer a cleaner way where Vite is only present during the build step, but not in the production image or lockfile (for license scanning). Ideally, something like this:

Dev dependencies like vite, @vitejs/plugin-react, etc., are isolated from runtime
We can build using yarn workspaces focus --production or similar.

References:

• https://vite.dev/guide/dep-pre-bundling#automatic-dependency-discovery
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/76142476
• How do you decide what goes to dependencies/devDependencies? vite#1803

Can you recommend a best practice for this?
Maybe a pattern that works well in workspaces + Docker setups for CI/CD pipelines?

Thanks a lot!

[ArnaudBarre]

What I use and I think should fit your need is the docker builder pattern, where I first install all deps in one layer, run vite build and import only the dist folder in the second layer where only "runtime deps" are installed