Bolt or Vite deploy used the wrong output directory

The build command exits 0, and the URL is still wrong. Sometimes Vercel says it could not find the output directory after the build. Sometimes the deployment goes Ready and the URL is a generic 404, or a Next.js 404, even though you never wrote a Next app. Bolt and Lovable export Vite projects. Vite writes the site to dist. The host was told to publish build or .next instead.

See which folder the build actually created

On your machine, from the directory that contains the app's package.json, run the same build the host runs. That is usually npm run build, and the script is vite build. When it finishes, Vite prints the files it emitted. The default build.outDir is dist, relative to the Vite project root. Look for dist/index.html and a dist/assets folder of hashed JavaScript and CSS.

If vite.config.ts sets build.outDir, that string replaces the default. Read it before you change the host. A config that says outDir: "build" is valid, and then the host must say build too. Guessing dist in that repo publishes an empty directory.

import { defineConfig } from "vite"
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react"

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  // Omit build.outDir to keep Vite's default, dist.
})

Three names get mixed up because import wizards reuse them:

• dist is Vite, which is what Bolt and a standard Lovable frontend emit.
• build is Create React App. Pointing a Vite project at build publishes a folder the build did not create.
• .next is Next.js. It is not a static export folder. A Vite preset left on the Next.js framework setting makes Vercel look there, or run next build, which this repo cannot satisfy.

Point Vercel or Netlify at that folder

On Vercel, open the project, then Settings, then Build and Deployment:

1. Framework Preset: Vite. If it says Next.js, change it. The preset chooses the build command and the output directory together.
2. Build Command: npm run build, or whatever package.json uses, as long as it runs vite build. Do not leave next build in place.
3. Output Directory: the folder you just opened, usually dist. No leading slash, and not dist/index.html. The value is the directory.
4. Root Directory: leave it as the repo root if package.json is there. If the Vite app is in a subfolder, set Root Directory to that subfolder. Otherwise Vercel runs the build at the repo root, finds no Vite app or the wrong one, and looks for dist in the wrong place.

Save and redeploy. Project settings apply to the next build, not to a deployment that already published the wrong folder.

On Netlify, Site configuration, then Build and deploy, then Build settings: build command npm run build, publish directory dist. The publish directory is the same idea as Vercel's output directory. A publish directory of build or . ships the source tree or an empty CRA folder. The SPA _redirects file only works if it was copied into this publish directory. Vite does that when the file lives in public/. See the refresh 404 guide after the home page itself loads.

Cloudflare Pages asks for a build command and a build output directory. Use dist unless outDir says otherwise. The output directory is relative to the root you configured, not to your laptop's home folder.

Read the log against the folder

1. Run npm run build locally and confirm index.html is inside the directory you will publish. Open that file and check that it references /assets/... scripts that exist beside it.
2. In the host log, find the output or publish directory it used. It should be that same folder. A line that mentions .next on a Vite repo means the preset is still Next.js.
3. If the log says the output directory was not found after the build, the build wrote somewhere else, or Root Directory is wrong so the relative path dist does not exist from where the builder looked.
4. When a deployment is Ready, request the URL. View source. You want your index.html, with your title or an empty div id="root", not the platform's 404 page. A platform 404 with a green build is the wrong folder. Your own app 404 only on client routes is the rewrite, and only shows up once this part is fixed.
5. If the HTML is correct and the screen is white, the files are published and the client is throwing. Continue with missing VITE_ variables. If the build never gets that far and the log names @rollup/rollup-linux-x64-gnu, the output directory is not the blocker yet.

Changing the output directory does not rewrite old URLs by itself. After you save the setting, the next deployment has to build again. Promoting an older deployment brings the old folder back.