Webpack will compile client-side code in both development and production mode, then place the bundled files in the dist folder. To make these static files available on requests from the client side, we will add the following code in server.js to serve static files from the dist folder:

mern-simplesetup/server/server.js:

import path from 'path'
const CURRENT_WORKING_DIR = process.cwd()
app.use('/dist', express.static(path.join(CURRENT_WORKING_DIR, 'dist')))

This will configure the Express app to return static files from the dist folder when the requested route starts with /dist.