Standalone app crashes on every route on Vercel/Netlify: circular import TDZ between @agent-native/core and @agent-native/creative-context

[Nate-Lassiter]

Summary

A standalone content template app (single app, not a workspace) crashes on every request when deployed to Vercel or Netlify with NITRO_PRESET=vercel / NITRO_PRESET=netlify:

ReferenceError: Cannot access 'Ml' before initialization
    at U (file:///var/task/_libs/@agent-native/core+[...].mjs:103:19158)
    at file:///var/task/_libs/@agent-native/creative-context+[...].mjs:2:305
    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:343:25)

(The mangled variable name changes per build/minify pass — e.g. Ml, Zpe, Dl — but the call path is identical every time: @agent-native/creative-context's bundled chunk imports @agent-native/core's bundled chunk, which throws a temporal-dead-zone ReferenceError at top-level evaluation.)

This reproduces on both Vercel and Netlify, so it isn't platform-specific — it's the shared standalone build path both presets go through.

Repro

npx @agent-native/core@latest create my-app --standalone --template content
cd my-app
pnpm install
NITRO_PRESET=vercel pnpm build   # or NITRO_PRESET=netlify
# deploy the output (vercel deploy --prebuilt, or netlify deploy --build)
# visit any route

Every route returns FUNCTION_INVOCATION_FAILED (Vercel) / "This function has crashed" (Netlify).

What I've ruled out

• Not a version issue. Reproduces identically on @agent-native/core@0.133.3 (pinned) and @agent-native/core@0.146.1 (latest at time of testing) — same call path, only the minified variable name differs.
• Not the known workspace-deploy bug (Workspace deploy --preset vercel: every route 500s (cachedHandler is not a function -> e.headers.get is not a function) #2324). That issue's fix (patchVercelFunctionEntry in workspace-deploy.ts) only applies to multi-app agent-native deploy --preset vercel workspace deploys. A standalone app built via agent-native build (which calls into build.ts, not workspace-deploy.ts) never goes through that code path, so the fix is irrelevant here.
• Not fixable by disabling minification. Patching build.ts's createNitro({ minify: true }) to false locally avoids the TDZ crash but trips a different guard: assertSingleTemplateNetlifyBuildOutput rejects the build with "Netlify server bundle leaves ingestion dependencies as runtime imports: officeparser" — so minification and the per-package chunk-splitting strategy are entangled, and turning one off breaks the other check.
• Not a missing documented step. Followed the deployment docs exactly: NITRO_PRESET=vercel npx @agent-native/core@latest build (or the Vite plugin nitro.preset option) is the sanctioned build-time preset switch, and that's what was used.

Suspected root cause

build.ts's nitroNoExternalsForPreset() sets noExternals: [] for the netlify, vercel, and aws-lambda presets, causing Nitro's Rolldown pipeline to bundle every npm dependency into its own combined per-package chunk file (_libs/@agent-native/core+[...].mjs, _libs/@agent-native/creative-context+[...].mjs, etc.) instead of leaving them as regular node_modules imports. @agent-native/core and @agent-native/creative-context appear to have a circular import between them at the module level; when each package is isolated into its own chunk file, the evaluation order Rolldown picks for that split violates the TDZ for a const/let binding, crashing at cold start on every single route (not just ones touching creative-context features directly — even the app root crashes).

This same noExternals: [] treatment is shared by netlify/vercel/aws-lambda, which is consistent with the crash reproducing on both Vercel and Netlify but (presumably) not on the default node preset, which uses a much smaller externals allowlist (NITRO_SERVER_RUNTIME_BUNDLED_DEPS) instead of bundling everything.

Environment

• @agent-native/core: reproduced on 0.133.3 and 0.146.1
• nitro: 3.0.260610-beta
• Template: content (standalone shape)
• Tested serverless targets: Vercel (Node runtime, vercel deploy --prebuilt), Netlify (Functions v2, netlify deploy --build)

[steve8708]

Thanks for the detailed report and reproduction steps. We can build the current standalone Content template for Vercel successfully, but we have not reproduced the deployed cold-start TDZ yet. Is this still reproducible with the current release? If so, could you share the deployment ID or URL, runtime versions, and first invocation logs? The generated _libs stack trace and lockfile would help us confirm whether this is still the Core/Creative Context chunk boundary you identified. Please redact any secrets. We are keeping the issue open while we investigate.