[Vite + Nitro] Workflow HMR not working — file changes not picked up in dev and slow rebuilding

[Yanick64]

[Vite + Nitro] Workflow HMR not working — file changes not picked up in dev and slow rebuilding

Environment

Package	Version
workflow	4.4.0
@workflow/nitro	4.1.0
@workflow/vite	4.0.9
@workflow/builders	4.0.10
nitro	3.0.260610-beta
vite	8.0.16
Node	24.15.0
OS	macOS (darwin)

Bug description

When using the recommended Vite + Nitro setup per the docs, editing a workflow file (containing "use workflow" / "use step" directives) does not trigger a rebuild of the workflow bundles. The dev server continues serving the stale version. Only a full restart picks up changes. Regular API route HMR (non-workflow files) works fine via Nitro's Vite environment.

Also the terminal says it is rebuilding (which takes around 8000 ms) and succeed, but still a console.log stays the same (old value) within a step for example.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set up a Vite + Nitro project per the docs:

// vite.config.ts
import { nitro } from "nitro/vite";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import { workflow } from "workflow/vite";
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    nitro({
      serverDir: "./src",
    }),
    workflow({ dirs: ["./src/workflows"] }),
  ],
  resolve: { tsconfigPaths: true },
});

2. Create a workflow file with "use workflow" and "use step" directives
3. Run vite (dev server)
4. Edit the workflow file (e.g. add a console.log inside a step)
5. Trigger the workflow — the old version still runs

Summary

We have two problems, HMR is not working and rebuilding is very slow. I am not sure how to rexolve those and can't find any other tickets about this.