Vercel API always returns HTML: serverless function entrypoint not found due to outputDirectory mismatch

[hotlong]

Bug Overview

On the current deployment, all /api/* requests return the Single-Page Application (SPA) HTML instead of invoking the intended serverless API function. This is blocking all API access in production (e.g., /api/v1/meta).

---

Root Cause Analysis

• vercel.json sets outputDirectory: "dist", which means Vercel expects all serverless functions (e.g., api/index.js) to be emitted under dist/api/.
• Current bundling script (scripts/bundle-api.mjs) outputs api/index.js at the project root, not under dist/.
• As a result, Vercel fails to find the API function and falls back to the SPA route, returning HTML for all API calls.

Why the recent code changes (PR #1001) did not help

• The PR swapped out the request listener for @hono/node-server/vercel's recommended handle() function but did not address the output path mismatch.
• None of the recent fixes made the function discoverable under dist/.

---

Evidence

• Current vercel.json:

  "outputDirectory": "dist",
  "rewrites": [
    { "source": "/api/(.*)", "destination": "/api" },
    { "source": "/((?!api/).*)", "destination": "/index.html" }
  ]

• Build script (as of 2026-03-31):

  // scripts/bundle-api.mjs
  outfile: 'api/index.js' // should be 'dist/api/index.js'

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Deploy current main branch to Vercel.
2. Open /api/v1/meta or any /api/* endpoint.
3. See HTML response instead of JSON.

Severity

• Critical — All API functionality in Studio Vercel deployment is broken.

---

What needs to be fixed

1. Update outfile: in bundle-api.mjs to dist/api/index.js.
2. (Optional) Add Vercel functions config to be explicit about the function entrypoint.
3. Ensure all references and docs expect the API output under dist/api/.

---

Acceptance Criteria

• API routes return JSON, not HTML, in deployed Vercel preview/prod.
• No 404/fallback rewrites for /api/* endpoints when API is present.
• Build output and function location are consistent with Vercel config.

---

/cc @hotlong