Deploying an app which uses hono RPC

[jnatmorris]

Just got a VPS recently and completely new to deploying apps using docker and wanted to see if anyone else has had a better idea than I when it comes to using hono RPC.

I have developed a hono server, as well as nextjs frontend. The nextjs application makes api calls using RPC via importing the hono server type. The type is imported by an ugly import type { AppType } from "../../server/src/index";, which breaks out of the nextjs directory and finds the server in the hono server directory.

// server.ts
export type AppType = typeof app
----
//client.ts
import type { AppType } from "../../server/src/index";
export const backend = hc<AppType>(process.env.BACKEND_URL); 

I'm planning on containerizing them separately. During the development the above code is not a problem as the server is visible to the nextjs application, even if ugly. When dockerizing my nextjs application I realized my mistake, unless I copy the server code into the image prior to building, obviously the build fails as the server, specifically server type, is not present for the client hono RPC code.

Possible solutions I've thought of:

1. Containerize both the server and nextjs app together - have heard this does not follow best practices, 1 process per container.
2. Somehow generate the server type prior to the build process - unsure of how and doesn't seem super clean
3. Use another image - One image for installing dependencies, another for building (where the server code is also included for the type), and a third for running the application. For context I've been following this repo which linked on the nextjs docs. This seems like the best options, but unsure if it is correct and have not had the time to test it out yet.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be more than happy to hear any suggestions.