diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 24e7d49..1c4f48a 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "@humanmade/webpack-helpers",
   "public": true,
-  "version": "1.0.0-alpha",
+  "version": "1.0.4-alpha",
   "description": "Reusable Webpack configuration components & related helper utilities.",
   "main": "index.js",
   "author": "Human Made",
diff --git a/src/config.js b/src/config.js
index 437c7ec..815a312 100644
--- a/src/config.js
+++ b/src/config.js
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ module.exports = {
 			'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
 		},
 		hot: true,
+		devMiddleware: {
+			writeToDisk: true,
+		},
 	},
 
 	watchOptions: {
diff --git a/src/externals.js b/src/externals.js
index d0630da..7fcab9f 100644
--- a/src/externals.js
+++ b/src/externals.js
@@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ module.exports = [
 	'hooks',
 	'html-entities',
 	'i18n',
-	'icons',
 	'interface',
 	'is-shallow-equal',
 	'keyboard-shortcuts',
diff --git a/src/helpers/clean-on-exit.js b/src/helpers/clean-on-exit.js
index 72b51c0..106e31f 100644
--- a/src/helpers/clean-on-exit.js
+++ b/src/helpers/clean-on-exit.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 const { unlinkSync } = require( 'fs' );
-const onExit = require( 'signal-exit' );
+const { onExit } = require( 'signal-exit' );
 
 /**
  * Register an onExit handler to remove one or more files when the server exits.
diff --git a/src/plugins.js b/src/plugins.js
index 1c4b8b8..4158fd1 100644
--- a/src/plugins.js
+++ b/src/plugins.js
@@ -126,8 +126,9 @@ module.exports = {
 	 * assets from the development server. A publicPath matching the URL
 	 * in the configuration's output.publicPath is required.
 	 *
-	 * @param {Object} options            Plugin options overrides.
-	 * @param {String} options.publicPath The base URI to prepend to build asset URIs.
+	 * @param {Object} options             Plugin options overrides.
+	 * @param {String} [options.publicPath] The base URI to prepend to build asset URIs
+	 * @param {String} [options.basePath]  Base path for manifest entries
 	 * @returns {ManifestPlugin} A configured ManifestPlugin instance.
 	 */
 	manifest: ( options = {} ) => new ManifestPlugin( {
@@ -143,6 +144,13 @@ module.exports = {
 			return file;
 		},
 		...options,
+		/**
+		 * Set basePath and publicPath to empty strings to prevent webpack-manifest-plugin v5+ from
+		 * adding 'auto/' prefix to asset paths, which doesn't match build output structure
+		 * These come after ...options to ensure they take precedence
+		 */
+		basePath: options.basePath === undefined ? '' : options.basePath,
+		publicPath: options.publicPath === undefined ? '' : options.publicPath,
 	} ),
 
 	/**