V4 Dev Server without reinstalling dependencies

[gramian]

Dear All,
I am trying to build a Docker container which starts a dev server via a pnpx lowdefy@4 dev --watch /mymount command.
However everytime I start this container, the dependencies of the separate @lowdefy/server-dev module are reinstalled, which takes too long.
I tried already to install @lowdefy/server-dev beforehand and point lowdefy to it via the --dev-directory argument. And I also I tried to add pnpm install in the dev server folder. Neither prevented the installation of dependencies when the container is started.

For example: What do I need to add here?

RUN pnpm add lowdefy@4

CMD pnpx lowdefy@4 dev --watch /mymount

Thank you for your help

[Gervwyk]

Hi @gramian
The dev server handles a bunch of logic to make developing lowdefy easier. Are you running the dev server in "prod" in order to make use of the --watch functionality?

[gramian]

No,
but I have a dev environment based on containers.

If I understand you correctly, you say the dev command is justfor developing on the lowdefy package itself and I should use lowdefy start with the watch: object for developing a page.

[gramian]

But wouldn't this require a rebuild every time I change a source .yaml file?

[gramian]

I found a solution:

RUN pnpm add lowdefy@4

RUN pnpm add @lowdefy/server-dev@4

RUN mkdir -p .lowdefy/dev

RUN mv node_modules/@lowdefy/server-dev/* .lowdefy/dev

RUN cd .lowdefy/dev && pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile

CMD pnpm exec lowdefy dev --watch /mymount

This is not very elegant, but simpler variants did not work.