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ADR 001 — Static export (Vite) over SSR for the AlphaSwarm client surface

Context​

The AlphaSwarm frontend rewrite (alphaswarm_client/, Vite 7 + React 19 + Tailwind 4 + shadcn/ui) is the cutover-complete operator UI. The legacy webui/ (Next.js 15 / antd) remains in tree only as a rollback path. The new alphaswarm_client container needs to bundle a UI build, the legacy fallback, and the FastAPI gateway into a single deployable image.

Three rendering options were considered for the canonical UI:

  1. Server-side rendering (Next.js) — server-rendered React with client-side hydration, mounted under uvicorn via WSGIMiddleware.
  2. Static export (Next.js) — next build with output: 'export', identical to the prompt's original §2.1 wording.
  3. Static export (Vite) — pnpm --dir alphaswarm_client build emitting a single dist/ static SPA bundle.

Decision​

The canonical UI shipped in alphaswarm_client is the Vite static export under alphaswarm_client/. The Next.js legacy webui/ is mounted as a rollback surface at /webui and Solara at /legacy, but neither is the default landing page.

Concretely:

  • Stage 1 of /build/docker/alphaswarm_client/Dockerfile runs pnpm --dir alphaswarm_client build and copies alphaswarm_client/dist/ to /app/static/.
  • The FastAPI app in alphaswarm/api/main.py mounts /static to the Vite asset directory and falls back to index.html for client-side routes (SPA fallback).
  • The Vite app calls API endpoints through a relative /api prefix; the FastAPI gateway proxies those to whatever the ConnectivityConfig env vars point at.

Consequences​

Positive

  • Single-process Python runtime — no Node.js in the production image, smaller attack surface, no npm supply-chain risk in production.
  • No SSR cold-start cost. The whole UI is ~3 MB of static assets served with Cache-Control: immutable.
  • Identical container in dev, k3d, and Kubernetes — only env vars change.
  • Vite is already canonical per alphaswarm_client/CUTOVER.md. Picking the in-flight stack avoids reopening the cutover debate.

Negative

  • No streaming-SSR for the operator UI. WebSocket and SSE streams (chat, live, telemetry) carry the live data instead, which matches the existing throttled useChatStream / useLiveStream hooks.
  • SEO and first-paint metrics are weaker than SSR, but the AlphaSwarm UI is an authenticated operator console, not a public site — neither matters.
  • Pre-rendered routes per user/tenant are not possible. All personalisation happens client-side using Auth0 claims from useUser().

Alternatives considered​

  • SSR — rejected because it forces Node.js into the runtime image and adds a separate process to supervise.
  • Static export (Next.js) — rejected to avoid maintaining two frontend toolchains. The Next.js webui stays as rollback only.

Implementation references​

  • Frontend build target: alphaswarm_client/package.json "build": "vite build"
  • Production Dockerfile: alphaswarm_platform/build/docker/alphaswarm_client/Dockerfile
  • SPA fallback handler: alphaswarm/api/main.py::serve_spa
  • Cutover history: alphaswarm_client/CUTOVER.md