---
title: "Running on Bun"
description: "What is different when the runtime is Bun — and what only looks like it is."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rsc-kit.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Running on Bun

Bun is the default host, and most of an app never notices. What follows is
what an app *does* notice, collected from real ports: the framework's part
first, then the things that will look like the framework's fault and are not.

## Vite runs on Bun too

`vite` is a bin with a Node shebang, so `bun run dev` alone starts Vite —
and with it the dev server, the build and the prerender — under **Node**. An
app that imports `bun`, `bun:sqlite` or a Bun-only driver then fails at the
first render with `Cannot find package 'bun'`, in a project that just said
it was a Bun app.

The scaffold's scripts run Vite on Bun's runtime, and an existing app should
too:

```json title="package.json"
{
  "scripts": {
"dev": "bun --bun vite",
"build": "bun --bun vite build",
"start": "bun .output/server/index.mjs"
  }
}
```

`createTestApp()` runs that `build` script, so a test builds on the same
runtime the server ships on.

## Native dependencies stay outside the bundle

A package with a native binary — `sharp`, `bcrypt`, `better-sqlite3`,
`@prisma/client` — cannot be rolled into a server bundle: the build succeeds
and the server cannot load its own binary. The usual ones are left external
by default, and Nitro traces each into `.output/server/node_modules` with its
binaries, so the deployment is still one directory. For one that is not on
the list:

```ts title="vite.config.ts"
rscKit({ serverExternalPackages: ['@acme/native-thing'] })
```

The same applies on Node; it is only more visible on Bun because the
scaffold builds there.

## A build machine without the secrets

The build prerenders pages, which runs the app, which runs `instrumentation.ts`,
which imports `env.ts`. A build machine without the production variables
sets `SKIP_ENV_VALIDATION=1`; the server that runs the build validates at
startup regardless. And never `NODE_ENV` in a `.env` — Vite honours it, and
`NODE_ENV=development` turns `vite build` into a build that cannot render;
[the build refuses it](/installation#environment-variables) and names the
line.

## Not the framework's, but you will meet them

- **`bun test` reads `.env`.** Bun loads the package's `.env` into every test
  run. A test that must not see the app's variables — or must see only the
  ones it sets — runs with `bun test --env-file=/dev/null`.
- **Stripe's SDK is async-only on Bun.** `stripe.webhooks.constructEvent()`
  throws on every call because Bun has no synchronous WebCrypto;
  `constructEventAsync()` is the same check, awaited.
- **`pg` puts SQLSTATE in `errno`.** Bun's Postgres driver reports the
  five-character SQLSTATE (`23505`) where Node's `pg` reports it as `code`.
  Match on both if the app runs on both.
- **Bun's `setTimeout(0)` is a real millisecond**, as Node's is. Nothing to
  do; worth knowing when a test counts ticks.

---

Everything else — presets, deployment, the single binary — is on
[Where it runs](/hosts/where-it-runs).

Source: https://docs.rsc-kit.dev/hosts/bun/index.mdx