absolute dev

AbsoluteJS can run the dev server over HTTPS with local trusted certificates and HTTP/2 when you enable dev.https.

For certificate setup and mkcert prerequisites, see the absolute mkcert documentation.

In development, AbsoluteJS automatically serves/.well-known/appspecific/com.chrome.devtools.json on localhost so Chrome DevTools can detect your project and offer a workspace connection.

This route is dev-only. It is not served in production. Chrome uses it to map network files back to your local project root and keeps the mapping stable with a persisted UUID.

• Open Chrome DevTools on a running AbsoluteJS app.
• Chrome requests the well-known devtools JSON route.
• In Sources -> Workspaces, Chrome offers a Connect action for the project root.
• On Windows-hosted Chrome with WSL or Docker Desktop, AbsoluteJS rewrites Linux paths to UNC form so the workspace can mount correctly.

Example response:

{
  "workspace": {
    "root": "\\\\wsl.localhost\\Ubuntu\\home\\alex\\my-app",
    "uuid": "8e6dbf15-ff89-4fda-a640-a62416da70cc"
  }
}

AbsoluteJS uses a dedicated dev config namespace for development-server-only behavior. Today it includes HTTPS and Chrome DevTools workspace settings.

The DevTools feature works automatically under absolute dev, but you can override its behavior with dev.devtools. HTTPS is also configured here through dev.https.

import { defineConfig } from '@absolutejs/absolute';

export default defineConfig({
  dev: {
    https: true,
    devtools: {
      projectRoot: '.',
      uuidCachePath: '.cache/absolute/devtools-uuid',
      normalizeForWindowsContainer: true
    }
  }
});

If you are composing a custom Elysia server instead of relying on the built-in dev pipeline, AbsoluteJS also exposes the feature as a public plugin.

import { Elysia } from 'elysia';
import { devtoolsJson, networking } from '@absolutejs/absolute';

const app = new Elysia()
  .use(devtoolsJson('build', {
    projectRoot: '.',
    uuidCachePath: '.cache/absolute/devtools-uuid'
  }))
  .get('/', () => 'hello')
  .use(networking);

Use the plugin when you want the same Chrome DevTools workspace behavior in a custom server setup without depending on prepare() internals.