Vite
WebStorm integrates with the Vite build tool that improves the frontend development experience. Vite consists of a dev server and a build command. The build server serves your source files over native ES modules. The build command bundles your code with Rollup, which is pre-configured to output highly optimized static assets for production.
WebStorm supports tsconfig.json and jsconfig.json path mappings in Vue style tags and recognizes Vite aliases.
In projects that consist of multiple modules with different Vite configurations, WebStorm can automatically detect the relevant configuration file for each module and use the module resolution rules from it, see Specifying the Vite configuration file to use below.
Before you start
Make sure you have Node.js on your computer.
Make sure the JavaScript and TypeScript and Vite required plugins are enabled on the Settings | Plugins page, tab Installed, see Managing plugins for details.
Create a new Vite application
The recommended way to start a new Vite application is the create-vite package, which WebStorm downloads and runs for you using npx. As a result, your development environment is preconfigured to use Vite and a basic template for one of the popular frameworks.
Of course, you can still download create-vite yourself or create an empty WebStorm project and install Vite in it.
Generate a Vite application with create-vite
Click Create New Project on the Welcome screen or select from the main menu. The New Project dialog opens.
In the left-hand pane, choose Vite.
In the right-hand pane:
Specify the path to the folder where the project-related files will be stored.
In the Node Interpreter field, specify the Node.js interpreter to use. Select a configured interpreter from the list or choose Add to configure a new one.
From the Vite list, select npx create-vite.
Alternatively, for npm version 5.1 and earlier, install the
create-vitepackage yourself by runningnpm install --g create-vitein the Terminal Alt+F12. When creating an application, select the folder where thecreate-vitepackage is stored.From the Template list, select the community maintained Vite template that targets the framework you are going to use in your application.
Optionally:
To use TypeScript instead of JavaScript, select the Use TypeScript template checkbox. WebStorm will generate .ts files for your application and a tsconfig.json configuration file.
When you click Create, WebStorm generates a Vite-specific project with all the required configuration files and downloads the required dependencies. WebStorm also creates an npm start and JavaScript Debug configurations with default settings for running or debugging your application.
Install Vite in an empty WebStorm project
In this case, you will have to configure the build pipeline yourself. Learn more about adding Vite to a project from the Vite official website.
Create an empty WebStorm project
Click Create New Project on the Welcome screen or select from the main menu. The New Project dialog opens.
In the left-hand pane, choose Empty Project. In the right-hand pane, specify the application folder and click Create.
Install Vite in an empty project
Open the empty project where you will use Vite.
In the embedded Terminal (Alt+F12) , type:
npm install --save-dev vite
Start with an existing Vite application
To continue developing an existing Vite application, open it in WebStorm and download the required dependencies.
Open the application sources that are already on your machine
Click Open on the Welcome screen or select from the main menu. In the dialog that opens, select the folder where your sources are stored.
Check out the application sources from your version control
Click Get from VCS on the Welcome screen.
Alternatively, select or from the main menu.
Instead of Git in the main menu, you may see any other Version Control System that is associated with your project. For example, Mercurial or Perforce.
In the dialog that opens, select your version control system from the list and specify the repository to check out the application sources from. See Check out a project (clone) for details.
Download the dependencies
Make sure your package.json lists the
vitepackage underdependenciesordevDependencies. That is necessary because WebStorm integration with Vite, especially autodetecting configuration files, requires that thevitepackage should be installed in your project or globally.Click Run 'npm install' or Run 'yarn install' in the popup:
You can use npm, Yarn 1, or Yarn 2, see npm and Yarn for details.
Select Run 'npm install' or Run 'yarn install' from the context menu of package.json in the editor or in the Project tool window.
Project security
When you open a project that was created outside WebStorm and was imported into it, WebStorm displays a dialog where you can decide how to handle this project with unfamiliar source code.
Select one of the following options:
Preview in Safe Mode: in this case, WebStorm opens the project in a preview mode. It means that you can browse the project's sources but you cannot run tasks and script or run/debug your project.
WebStorm displays a notification on top of the editor area, and you can click the Trust project… link and load your project at any time.
Trust Project: in this case, WebStorm opens and loads a project. That means project is initialized, project's plugins are resolved, dependencies are added, and all WebStorm features are available.
Don't Open: in this case, WebStorm doesn't open the project.
Learn more from Project security.
Configure Vite in WebStorm
Create Vite configuration files
Create one or several configuration files depending on your project structure: select a parent folder in the Project tool window and then select from the context menu.
The acceptable names are vite.config.js/vite.config.ts, vite.config.mjs, or vite.config.cjs.
Learn more from the Vite official website.
If necessary, use
aliasthat will be later recognized inimportstatements. Make sure you specify absolute paths in definitions of aliases. Learn more from the Vite official website.
Specify the Vite configuration files to use
Based on the analysis of a Vite configuration file, WebStorm understands the Vite configuration, resolves modules, and provides coding assistance in JavaScript and TypeScript files.
In WebStorm, you can choose between two configuration modes - automatic and manual.
With automatic configuration, WebStorm auto-detects the relevant Vite configuration file for each JavaScript or TypeScript file.
With manual configuration, you specify the Vite configuration file to use in your project. Manual configuration is useful if the name of your Vite configuration file is not recognized by WebStorm, see the list of recognized Vite config names below.
Choose how to detect Vite configuration
Open the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) and go to .
In the Detect Vite configuration files for module resolution area, select one of the following options:
Automatically: In this mode, for a JavaScript or TypeScript file, WebStorm will first look for a Vite configuration file in the folder where this JavaScript or TypeScript file is located, then in its parent folder, and so on.
As a result, if your project consists of multiple modules with different Vite configurations, each module will use the module resolution rules from its own Vite configuration file (if such config is found).
WebStorm recognizes JavaScript or TypeScript Vite configuration files with the following names and in the following order:
vite.config.js / vite.config.ts
vite.config.mjs
vite.config.cjs
Manually: In the Configuration file field, specify the location of the Vite config to use.
In this mode, the resolution rules from the specified configuration file will be applied to all modules in your project.
Select this option if the name of your Vite configuration file is not recognized by WebStorm, see the list of recognized Vite config names above.
