vinext deploy fails with wrangler error: assets config missing required directory property when using output: "export" in next.config.ts

[vikas5914]

Description

When using output: "export" in next.config.ts (static export mode), running vinext deploy fails during the wrangler deploy step. The build completes successfully (all 5 steps), but wrangler rejects the config because the assets property is missing the required directory field.

This happens because vinext deploy generates (or scaffolds) a wrangler.jsonc with an assets block that does not include directory. Wrangler 4.69.0 requires this field when assets is present.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a Next.js App Router project with vinext
2. Set output: "export" in next.config.ts:

   import type { NextConfig } from "next";
   
   const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
     output: "export",
   };
   
   export default nextConfig;

3. Run bunx vinext deploy
4. Build succeeds (all 5 steps complete), but deploy fails

Error Output

vinext deploy

  Project: vinext-static-out
  Router:  App Router
  ISR:     none

  Building for Cloudflare Workers...

[1/5] analyze client references...
...
[5/5] build ssr environment...
...

  Deploying to production...
Error: Command failed: .../node_modules/.bin/wrangler deploy

✘ [ERROR] The `assets` property in your configuration is missing the required `directory` property.

Environment

• vinext: 0.0.17
• wrangler: 4.69.0
• vite: 7.3.1
• next: 16.1.6
• bun: latest
• OS: macOS

next.config.ts

import type { NextConfig } from "next";

const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  output: "export",
};

export default nextConfig;

wrangler.jsonc (generated by vinext)

{
  "$schema": "node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json",
  "name": "vinext-static-out",
  "compatibility_date": "2026-03-01",
  "compatibility_flags": ["nodejs_compat"],
  "main": "./worker/index.ts",
  "assets": {
    "not_found_handling": "none",
    "binding": "ASSETS"
  },
  "images": {
    "binding": "IMAGES"
  }
}

[nathanschram]

Hey - ran into this same thing looking at vinext's deploy path. I think the issue is in generateWranglerConfig() in packages/vinext/src/deploy.ts - it looks like it generates the assets block with not_found_handling and binding but doesn't include directory, which wrangler 4.69.0+ requires when assets is specified as an object.

From reading the source, it looks like vinext v0.0.17 doesn't have a static export code path yet - detectProject() doesn't appear to read next.config at all, so output: "export" seems to be effectively ignored. The build still seems to run the standard Worker pipeline (which would explain why your 5 build steps succeed), but then wrangler rejects the generated config at deploy time.

There's already a PR in progress (#221) that should add proper static export support - directory in the config, a static export build pipeline, and skipping Worker-only deps. It's still in draft but the approach looks right.

In the meantime, a couple of workarounds depending on what you're after:

• If you actually need SSR/edge rendering - removing output: "export" from next.config.ts should let vinext do a normal Worker deployment

• If you specifically want a static site - you could probably bypass vinext entirely and go straight through Cloudflare Pages: next build && npx wrangler pages deploy ./out. Pages is purpose-built for static assets so you shouldn't need the Worker wrapper at all

[james-elicx]

Aiming to ship proper pre-rendering support towards the tail end of this weekend, and closely follow that with the fixes for this.