Deployment models

Druxt is a layer on top of Nuxt and Drupal, and it deploys the way Nuxt deploys: as generated static files, or as a node server. nuxt generate renders every page to files at build time; nuxt build compiles an app that a node server renders per request. The choice decides where you can host, what it costs, and which features work. Request topology explains the request mechanics behind this page.

The models

The shapes, side by side:

%% The three deployment models and what keeps talking to Drupal
flowchart TB
  subgraph m1 [Fully static]
    H1[Static host] --- V1[Visitors]
  end
  subgraph m2 [Static + live backend]
    H2[Static host] --- V2[Visitors]
    V2 -.->|"forms, auth, search"| D2[(Drupal)]
  end
  subgraph m3 [Server-rendered]
    V3[Visitors] --> N3[Node service]
    N3 -->|every request| D3[(Drupal)]
  end

Fully static generates every page at build time and deploys plain files, with no backend left running. This is a deliberate build mode, not the default: an ordinary build still asks Drupal to resolve routes when a visitor navigates, so going backendless means disabling the router middleware (druxt.router.middleware: false in nuxt.config.js) and cutting out every runtime request. A databaseless backend completes the shape: Drupal exists only during the build, its content exported to files with Tome's Tome Sync, as in the quickstart-druxt-site-tome starter. The starter does not yet preconfigure the no-runtime-requests half, so treat that part as an advanced configuration.

Static + live backend is the recommended default. Pages are generated and served from a static host, while the browser talks to the still-running Drupal for the live parts: authenticated content, form submissions, search. With no frontend server to proxy through, this model needs CORS configured in Drupal.

Server-rendered runs the built app as a node service: a long-lived process you supervise, listening on a port behind your web server. Every request renders live data, the API proxy can shield the backend origin, and server middleware can hold secrets (mail delivery, search backends). You host and operate that node process alongside PHP.

Production sites also combine models into a hybrid: static files with a server fallback. One build serves generated pages from a web server with long cache headers, and a node service behind it catches routes that were not generated, such as authenticated pages. Nuxt's target option (the build target) can be driven by an environment variable so one nuxt.config.js serves all modes; Deploy a server-rendered site shows the working shape.

Choosing a model

• Content site, editors publish on a schedule: static + live backend, with scheduled rebuilds.
• Brochure site, content rarely changes: fully static, backend off or databaseless.
• Logged-in experiences, per-user pages, secrets in server code: server-rendered, or the hybrid above.

Serving Druxt from Drupal

A question that comes up regularly: can Druxt run progressively decoupled, served by Drupal itself?

What works today is the same-origin layout: generate the site and let the web server in front of Drupal serve the files, routing /jsonapi and /router to Drupal. One origin, no CORS, and Drupal cookies work everywhere. The frontend is still a whole application owning the page.

What Druxt does not do today is true progressive decoupling: rendering individual Druxt components inside Drupal-rendered (Twig) pages. The components need the running Nuxt application around them (its store and plugin system), which a Twig page does not have. The tracked feature request is a custom-elements build: web components a Drupal theme could attach as a library and place straight into markup. The DruxtClient already runs outside Nuxt, so the data half of that is ready.

Where to go next

• Deploy a static site: the generate-and-host procedure.
• Deploy a server-rendered site: the node service and the hybrid.
• Environment variables: what each build needs to know.
• The deploy-your-site tutorial: this page's decision, walked end to end from the quickstart.