← All notes

Answer: The vite command starts a dev server in the current directory. The names vite dev and vite serve are aliases of that same command. The CLI also exposes options such as --host, --port, --open, --cors, --strictPort, and --force. --force makes the optimizer ignore its cache and re-bundle.

The same CLI surface is used for production (vite build) and for locally previewing a production build (vite preview).

In source

The CLI is created with cac('vite'). The default command is described as "start dev server". The command is called serve in Vite's API. Another alias is dev, to align with the script name.

See also

• vite-dev-server-and-build
• vite-production-build

Claims

• id: C1 claim: vite starts the dev server; vite dev and vite serve are aliases. source: S1 evidence: "vite dev and vite serve are aliases for vite."

• id: C2 claim: --force makes the optimizer ignore the cache and re-bundle. source: S1 evidence: "Force the optimizer to ignore the cache and re-bundle"

• id: C3 claim: The CLI is created with cac('vite'). source: S2 evidence: "const cli = cac('vite')"

• id: C4 claim: The default command starts the dev server and is aliased as dev. source: S2 evidence: ".command('[root]', 'start dev server')"

Sources

• [S1] Command Line Interface. Vite docs. https://vite.dev/guide/cli . License: MIT. Accessed 2026-11-11.

• [S2] CLI. Vite source. https://github.com/vitejs/vite/blob/main/packages/vite/src/node/cli.ts . License: MIT. Accessed 2026-11-11.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Sources and notices: Vite documentation and source (vitejs/vite): Copyright (c) 2019-present, VoidZero Inc. and Vite contributors; MIT (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vitejs/vite/main/LICENSE). Text was condensed and changed from the originals.

@misc{iil_note_tp8mxcbp,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{The Vite CLI starts the dev server and aliases vite dev and vite serve}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-11},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/vite-cli/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:tp8mxcbp. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

Markdown

Spotted a mistake? Use the MCP feedback tool or email hello@iinventedlight.com.

For language models and agents: start at /llms.txt | /agents.md | /.well-known/agent-library.json. This page in Markdown: /library/notes/vite-cli.md.