vpr build sets NODE_ENV to "null" and produces development import.meta.env values

[fengmk2]

Describe the bug

After upgrading from Vite+ 0.2.1 to 0.2.2, running vp build through the Vite Task runner changes process.env.NODE_ENV to the string "null".

A direct production build behaves correctly:

$ vp build
process.env.NODE_ENV: "production"

But the same build through vpr reports:

$ vpr build
process.env.NODE_ENV: "null"

This changes the generated import.meta.env values:

// vp build
{
  DEV: false,
  MODE: "production",
  PROD: true,
}

// vpr build
{
  DEV: true,
  MODE: "production",
  PROD: false,
}

This affects frameworks and plugins that rely on NODE_ENV === "production", including AnalogJS and Cloudflare Workers applications.

The expected behavior is for vpr build to preserve the production semantics of vp build.

Likely cause

This appears to be a contract mismatch between Vite and the Vite Task client.

Vite calls:

const nodeEnv = getEnv('NODE_ENV')
if (nodeEnv !== undefined) {
  process.env.NODE_ENV = nodeEnv
}

The Vite Task N-API method returns Option<String>. An absent value is converted by napi-rs to JavaScript null, while the JavaScript wrapper documents the return value as string | undefined.

The null value passes Vite's !== undefined check. Assigning it to process.env.NODE_ENV coerces it to the string "null".

The regression became active with the runner-aware integration in Vite+ commit a9c7034b, which updated Vite Task from 5833b374 to 8daa9bb7.

Reproduction

https://github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro

Steps to reproduce

git clone https://github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro.git
cd vite-plus-node-env-null-repro
npm ci
npm run repro

The reproduction removes NODE_ENV from the parent environment, runs both build paths, prints the generated bundles, and asserts the differing DEV and PROD values.

System Info

$ vp env current
Environment:
  Version       24.18.0
  Source        engines.node
  Source Path   /Users/mkyuan/git/github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro/package.json
  Project Root  /Users/mkyuan/git/github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro

Tool Paths:
  node  /Users/mkyuan/.vite-plus/js_runtime/node/24.18.0/bin/node
  npm   /Users/mkyuan/.vite-plus/js_runtime/node/24.18.0/bin/npm
  npx   /Users/mkyuan/.vite-plus/js_runtime/node/24.18.0/bin/npx

Package Manager:
  Name          npm
  Version       11.18.0
  Source        devEngines.packageManager
  Source Path   /Users/mkyuan/git/github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro/package.json
  Project Root  /Users/mkyuan/git/github.com/why-reproductions-are-required/vite-plus-node-env-null-repro
  Bin Path      /Users/mkyuan/.vite-plus/package_manager/npm/11.18.0/npm/bin/npm

$ vp --version
vp v0.2.2

Local vite-plus:
  vite-plus  v0.2.2

Tools:
  vite             v8.1.2
  rolldown         v1.1.4
  vitest           v4.1.9
  oxfmt            v0.57.0
  oxlint           v1.72.0
  oxlint-tsgolint  v0.24.0
  tsdown           v0.22.3

Environment:
  Package manager  npm v11.18.0
  Node.js          v24.18.0 (engines.node)

Used Package Manager

npm

Logs

=== Direct build: vp build ===
process.env.NODE_ENV: "production"
configEnv: {"mode":"production","command":"build","isSsrBuild":false,"isPreview":false}
vite v8.1.2 building client environment for production...

console.log(JSON.stringify({
  "BASE_URL": "/",
  "DEV": false,
  "MODE": "production",
  "PROD": true,
  "SSR": false
}));

=== Runner build: vpr build ===
$ vp build
process.env.NODE_ENV: "null"
configEnv: {"mode":"production","command":"build","isSsrBuild":false,"isPreview":false}
vite v8.1.2 building client environment for production...

console.log(JSON.stringify({
  "BASE_URL": "/",
  "DEV": true,
  "MODE": "production",
  "PROD": false,
  "SSR": false
}));

Validations

• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Checked that there is not already an issue for this bug.
• Confirmed that the issue only occurs through the Vite+ task runner.
• The provided repository is a minimal reproducible example.

[nickbelling]

I will note that this seemingly also applies when a task depends on a vanilla vp build task:

build: {
  command: 'vp build',
},
deploy: {
  command: 'wrangler deploy',
  dependsOn: ['build', 'db:migrate:prod'],
  cache: false,
},

Running the deploy task, which invokes the build task, causes the build task to produce the bad output as well.

[fengmk2]

@nickbelling Yes, we have a problem with the value conversion of undefined.

[wan9chi]

Fixed in voidzero-dev/vite-task#508