Installation

Requirements

• An existing NestJS 11 or 12 app (nest new works as is — ES module and CommonJS projects are both supported)
• Node.js 22.17+

Setup

npx @nestjs-ssr/react init

This command:

• Installs @nestjs-ssr/react and dependencies with your package manager (pnpm, npm, yarn or bun, detected from your lockfile)
• Registers RenderModule in app.module.ts
• Adds enableShutdownHooks() to main.ts
• Creates vite.config.ts
• Adds client/server entry points
• Adds a starter root layout (light/dark theme) and a /welcome page
• Updates tsconfig.json for JSX
• Modifies package.json scripts

It never overwrites a file that exists (unless --force), and your own controllers and tests are left alone.

pnpm 11 and later

pnpm 11+ fails an install when a dependency's build script has not been approved. A fresh nest new app can trip this before init runs: Nest 11's template (through @parcel/watcher) and the swc builder (@swc/core) both ship build scripts. Run pnpm approve-builds once in the app, then init. None of init's own dependencies need one.

If an install fails anyway, init leaves the project files in place, prints the install commands to rerun, and exits with a non-zero code.

init installs the exact version of @nestjs-ssr/react you ran it from, so a release candidate installs itself rather than the latest stable release.

Options

Flag	Effect
--port 3001	Vite dev server port (default 5173)
--mode stream	Use streaming SSR (renderToPipeableStream)
--pm npm	Package manager for installs and scripts
--no-examples	Skip the starter layout and /welcome page
--skip-install	Do not install dependencies
--project web	Nest CLI project name, for monorepos
--yes	Never prompt (implied when not running in a terminal)

Verify

pnpm start:dev

Open http://localhost:3000/welcome. The starter page explains how the request became a page, and its counter proves the page hydrated.

Your first page

// app.controller.ts
@Get()
@Render(Home)
getHome() {
  return { message: 'It works' };
}

// views/home.tsx
export default function Home({ message }: PageProps<{ message: string }>) {
  return <h1>{message}</h1>;
}

Open http://localhost:3000. See "It works". Done.

In a Nest 12 (ES module) project, write the import as './views/home.js'.