Introduction
Rouage is a minimal server-side rendering (SSR) solution for SolidJS.
Designed to be fast, flexible, and unopinionated. It provides the essentials: server rendering and client hydration, powered by a Vite plugin — no full-stack framework required.
⚙️ “Rouage” means “cog” in French
A small, precise part that powers a larger system.
Quick Start
The recommended way to create a new Rouage project:
npm create rouage@latestyarn create rouagepnpm create rouage@latestbun create rouage@latestdeno init --npm rouage@latestServer Focused
Rouage focuses purely on SSR and integrates with modern servers like Hono, Elysia, H3, and runtimes Node, Deno, Bun. Enabling full control over the server and its ecosystem without limitations.
SSR is hard: streaming, async rendering, asset manifests, styles, preloads, and caching all add complexity. Rouage solves this once — cleanly and predictably.
| Rendering Mode | Ideal Stack | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Static Site Generation | SolidJS × Astro | Pre-rendered static pages |
| Client-Side Rendering | SolidJS × Vite | Rich client-side interactions |
| Server-Side Rendering | SolidJS × Rouage | Dynamic pages and custom backends |
Declarative Routing
While many ecosystems have moved past file-based routing, most JavaScript frameworks still depend on it. It's convenient at first — but brittle as complexity grows.
Rouage takes a different approach: code-defined routing:
- 📝 Routes are written explicitly, not inferred from filenames
- 🧩 Structure remains flexible, with no imposed conventions
- 🛡️ Type safety and IDE support work naturally
- 🚀 Advanced use cases become straightforward — like i18n or custom logic
Why not SolidStart?
SolidStart is a great all-in-one solution for building SolidJS apps but its flexibility comes with additional complexity, conventions, and tooling layers.
Rouage is a Vite plugin. No CLI, no runtime, no boilerplate.
| SolidStart | Rouage | |
|---|---|---|
| Foundations | Vinxi x Nitro | Vite |
| Dependencies | 20+ | < 10 (core + peer deps) |
| Client bundle size | ~90 KB (gzipped) | ~35 KB (gzipped) |
| Server bundle size | ~220 KB | ~90 KB |
| Memory usage (avg) | 120–150 MB | 40–60 MB |
| CPU usage (avg load) | Higher | Lower |
See the full comparison repository for details.
Acknowledgements
Rouage is inspired by several innovative projects in the JavaScript ecosystem:
- SolidStart – SolidJS's official meta-framework, full-stack capabilities.
- SolidHop – A minimal and unopinionated Vike + Solid + Hono starter.
- Vike – A framework-agnostic SSR solution, formerly known as vite-plugin-ssr.