Volt ⚡

Elixir-native frontend build tool. Dev server with HMR, Tailwind CSS compilation, and production bundling — no Node.js, no esbuild, no Vite.

Built on Rust NIFs: OXC for JS/TS, Vize for Vue SFCs + LightningCSS, Oxide for Tailwind scanning, and QuickBEAM for the Tailwind compiler.

Features

• Zero JavaScript toolchain — no node_modules, no npm, no npx
• JS/TS bundling — parse, transform, minify via OXC (Rust)
• Vue SFC support — single-file components with scoped CSS and Vapor IR
• Tailwind CSS v4 — parallel content scanning + full compiler, ~40ms builds
• Dev server — on-demand compilation with mtime caching and error overlays
• HMR — file watcher, WebSocket push, CSS hot-swap without page reload
• Production builds — tree-shaken bundles with content-hashed filenames and manifests
• Code splitting — dynamic import() creates async chunks, shared code extracted automatically
• CSS Modules — .module.css with LightningCSS-powered scoping
• Static assets — images, fonts, SVGs inlined or hashed
• JSON imports — import data from './data.json'
• Environment variables — .env files with import.meta.env.VOLT_*
• Import aliases — @/components/Button → assets/src/components/Button
• Plugin system — resolve, load, transform, and render_chunk hooks
• External modules — exclude packages from the bundle (e.g. Phoenix JS deps)

Installation

def deps do
  [{:volt, "~> 0.4.0"}]
end

Configuration

All config lives in your standard config/*.exs files:

# config/config.exs
config :volt,
  entry: "assets/js/app.ts",
  target: :es2020,
  external: ~w(phoenix phoenix_html phoenix_live_view),
  aliases: %{
    "@" => "assets/src",
    "@components" => "assets/src/components"
  },
  plugins: [],
  tailwind: [
    css: "assets/css/app.css",
    sources: [
      %{base: "lib/", pattern: "**/*.{ex,heex}"},
      %{base: "assets/", pattern: "**/*.{vue,ts,tsx}"}
    ]
  ]

# config/dev.exs
config :volt, :server,
  prefix: "/assets",
  watch_dirs: ["lib/"]

CLI flags override config values for one-off use.

Quick Start

Dev Server

Add the Plug to your Phoenix endpoint:

# lib/my_app_web/endpoint.ex
if code_reloading? do
  plug Volt.DevServer, root: "assets"
end

Start the watcher in config/dev.exs:

config :my_app, MyAppWeb.Endpoint,
  watchers: [
    volt: {Mix.Tasks.Volt.Dev, :run, [~w(--tailwind)]}
  ]

Production Build

mix volt.build

Building Tailwind CSS...
  app-1a2b3c4d.css  23.9 KB
Built Tailwind in 43ms
Building "assets/js/app.ts"...
  app-5e6f7a8b.js  128.4 KB
  manifest.json  2 entries
Built in 15ms

Code Splitting

Dynamic imports are automatically split into separate chunks:

// Loaded immediately
import { setup } from './core'

// Loaded on demand — becomes a separate chunk
const admin = await import('./admin')

Produces:

app-5e6f7a8b.js        42 KB   (entry)
app-admin-c3d4e5f6.js  86 KB   (async)
manifest.json           3 entries

Shared modules between chunks are extracted into common chunks to avoid duplication.

Disable with code_splitting: false in config or --no-code-splitting flag.

External Modules

Exclude packages that the host page already provides:

config :volt, external: ~w(phoenix phoenix_html phoenix_live_view)

Or per-build: mix volt.build --external phoenix --external phoenix_html

CSS Modules

Files ending in .module.css get scoped class names via LightningCSS:

/* button.module.css */
.primary { color: blue }

import styles from './button.module.css'
console.log(styles.primary) // "ewq3O_primary"

Static Assets

Images, fonts, and other files are handled automatically:

import logo from './logo.svg'    // small → data:image/svg+xml;base64,...
import photo from './photo.jpg'  // large → /assets/photo-a1b2c3d4.jpg

JSON Imports

import config from './config.json'
console.log(config.apiUrl)

Environment Variables

Create .env files in your project root:

VOLT_API_URL=https://api.example.com
VOLT_DEBUG=true

Access in your code:

console.log(import.meta.env.VOLT_API_URL)
console.log(import.meta.env.MODE)  // "development" or "production"
console.log(import.meta.env.DEV)   // true/false
console.log(import.meta.env.PROD)  // true/false

Files loaded: .env, .env.local, .env.{mode}, .env.{mode}.local

Import Aliases

config :volt, aliases: %{"@" => "assets/src"}

import { Button } from '@/components/Button'
// resolves to assets/src/components/Button

Plugins

Extend the build pipeline with the Volt.Plugin behaviour:

defmodule MyApp.MarkdownPlugin do
  @behaviour Volt.Plugin

  @impl true
  def name, do: "markdown"

  @impl true
  def resolve(spec, _importer) do
    if String.ends_with?(spec, ".md"), do: {:ok, spec}
  end

  @impl true
  def load(path) do
    if String.ends_with?(path, ".md") do
      html = path |> File.read!() |> Earmark.as_html!()
      {:ok, "export default #{Jason.encode!(html)};\n"}
    end
  end

  def resolve(_, _), do: nil
  def load(_), do: nil
end

config :volt, plugins: [MyApp.MarkdownPlugin]

Hooks: resolve/2, load/1, transform/2, render_chunk/2 — all optional.

Tailwind CSS

Volt compiles Tailwind CSS natively — no CLI binary, no CDN.

Oxide scans your source files in parallel for candidate class names, then the Tailwind v4 compiler (running in QuickBEAM) generates the CSS. LightningCSS handles minification.

# Programmatic API
{:ok, css} = Volt.Tailwind.build(
  sources: [
    %{base: "lib/", pattern: "**/*.{ex,heex}"},
    %{base: "assets/", pattern: "**/*.{vue,ts,tsx}"}
  ],
  css: File.read!("assets/css/app.css"),
  minify: true
)

Incremental Rebuilds

In dev mode, only changed files are re-scanned. If a .heex template adds new Tailwind classes, only those new candidates trigger a CSS rebuild — the browser gets a style-only update without a page reload.

HMR

The file watcher monitors your asset and template directories:

File type	Action
.ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx, .vue, .css	Recompile via Pipeline, push update over WebSocket
.ex, .heex, .eex	Incremental Tailwind rebuild, CSS hot-swap
.vue (style-only change)	CSS hot-swap, no page reload

The browser client auto-reconnects on disconnect and shows compilation errors as an overlay.

Mix Tasks

mix volt.build

Build production assets. Reads from config :volt, CLI flags override.

--entry          Entry file (repeatable for multi-page apps)
--outdir         Output directory
--target         JS target (e.g. es2020)
--external       Exclude from bundle (repeatable)
--no-minify      Skip minification
--no-sourcemap   Skip source maps
--no-hash        Stable filenames
--no-code-splitting  Disable chunk splitting
--mode           Build mode for env variables
--resolve-dir    Additional resolution directory (repeatable)
--tailwind       Build Tailwind CSS
--tailwind-css   Custom Tailwind input CSS file
--tailwind-source  Source directory for scanning (repeatable)

mix volt.dev

Start the file watcher for development.

--root           Asset source directory
--watch-dir      Additional directory to watch (repeatable)
--tailwind       Enable Tailwind CSS rebuilds
--tailwind-css   Custom Tailwind input CSS file
--target         JS target

Pipeline

Volt.Pipeline compiles individual files:

# TypeScript
{:ok, result} = Volt.Pipeline.compile("app.ts", source)
result.code       #=> "const x = 42;\n"
result.sourcemap  #=> "{\"version\":3, ...}"

# Vue SFC
{:ok, result} = Volt.Pipeline.compile("App.vue", source)
result.code    #=> compiled JavaScript
result.css     #=> scoped CSS (or nil)

# CSS Modules
{:ok, result} = Volt.Pipeline.compile("btn.module.css", source)
result.code    #=> export default {"btn":"ewq3O_btn"}
result.css     #=> .ewq3O_btn { color: red }

# JSON
{:ok, result} = Volt.Pipeline.compile("data.json", source)
result.code    #=> export default {"key":"value"}

Stack

volt
├── oxc       — JS/TS parse, transform, bundle, minify (Rust NIF)
├── vize      — Vue SFC compilation, CSS Modules, LightningCSS (Rust NIF)
├── oxide_ex  — Tailwind content scanning, candidate extraction (Rust NIF)
├── quickbeam — Tailwind compiler runtime (QuickJS on BEAM)
└── plug      — HTTP dev server

Demo

See the demo app for a full Phoenix app using Volt + PhoenixVapor — Vue templates rendered as native LiveView, Tailwind CSS, no JavaScript runtime for SSR.

License

MIT © 2026 Danila Poyarkov