vite build

In development, the browser fetches hundreds of separate modules: fine on localhost, far too slow over a real network. So for production, Vite does bundle: vite build (usually npm run build) runs your app through Rolldown and writes the result to dist/.

Rolldown is a fast bundler written in Rust. Before Vite 8, builds used Rollup; Rolldown keeps Rollup's plugin API, so most plugins still work. On the way, it optimises everything:

• Tree-shaking: code you never use is dropped
• Minification: code is squeezed as small as possible, with short names and no spaces
• Code splitting: the app is cut into chunks that load only when needed
• Content hashes in file names: for long-term caching