PreviewDrop for Nuxt

Deploy previews for Nuxt apps

Push a branch, get a live preview URL. PreviewDrop builds your Nuxt app, runs the Nitro Node server, and posts the link to the pull request, usually within a couple of minutes — SSR and server routes fully working.

TL;DR

Connect your repo, push. PreviewDrop detects Nuxt, runs npm run build and boots .output/server/index.mjs behind a TLS-terminated subdomain. Nitro bundles your server routes and dependencies, so SSR, API handlers and runtime config all behave exactly as they do locally.

What the build needs to do

You don't write this. PreviewDrop detects Nuxtfrom your repo and builds the container for you — a Dockerfile in your repo is not used. The reference below shows the install, build and start steps a working Nuxt image needs. If detection gets one wrong, set the matching Install, Build or Start command in Project Settings. Your app must listen on $PORT.

Reference (not read by PreviewDrop)
FROM node:22-slim AS build
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:22-slim
WORKDIR /app
ENV NODE_ENV=production HOST=0.0.0.0
# Nitro bundles deps into .output — no runtime node_modules needed
COPY --from=build /app/.output ./.output
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", ".output/server/index.mjs"]

Environment variables

Set these in the Variables tab of your PreviewDrop project. They're encrypted at rest and injected into every preview container at start.

Variable	Example value	Note
PORT	3000	Nitro reads PORT (or NITRO_PORT) automatically.
HOST	0.0.0.0	Or NITRO_HOST. Makes the server reachable from the proxy.
NUXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE	https://api.example.com	NUXT_PUBLIC_* overrides runtimeConfig.public at runtime — read on container start.

Common gotchas

Set HOST=0.0.0.0

Nitro reads HOST and PORT. Without HOST=0.0.0.0 it can bind to localhost inside the container and the preview will 502.

Start from the whole .output directory

The Nitro build is fully self-contained in .output — it bundles your server dependencies, so you don’t need to copy node_modules separately. Keep .output intact and, if detection picks a different start, set the Start command to node .output/server/index.mjs.

Use runtimeConfig for env, not import.meta.env

Public values exposed to the client should live under runtimeConfig.public and be overridden with NUXT_PUBLIC_* env vars — unlike Next.js, Nuxt reads these at runtime, so you can change a project variable without rebuilding.

SSR is the default — keep it for previews

The Node server path assumes SSR (the default). If you set ssr: false or run nuxt generate for a static site, there’s no Node server — serve the static .output/public with a static file server instead.

Why not Vercel or Netlify?

Nuxt deploys fine to Vercel and Netlify — PreviewDrop is the option when you’d rather self-host the Nitro Node server, want password-protected client previews, prefer flat per-workspace pricing, or run Nuxt next to a backend API that also needs branch previews. We detect the app and run the real Node process behind HTTPS.

Preview your Nuxt app in 5 minutes

Connect a repo, push a branch, get a URL. No credit card, no trial clock.

Start free