Remix start command vs dev command

Question

I started a Remix tutorial from this link

Basically just ran

npx create-remix@latest

And followed the instructions.

Now in my package.json I see:

 "scripts": {
 "build": "remix vite:build",
 "dev": "remix vite:dev",
 "lint": "eslint --ignore-path .gitignore --cache --cache-location 
 ./node_modules/.cache/eslint .",
 "start": "remix-serve ./build/server/index.js",
 "typecheck": "tsc"
 },

I know Vite well, so I understand the dev command, as starting a dev server.

I'd like to know as a Remix newbie (couldn't find a simple answer in the docs):

What is the purpose of the start command, and its relation to the dev command?

Answer 1

The start command starts serving your build from ./build directory using a built-in Remix App Server.

That build should be previously created with the build command.

So the purpose is to run a (production) build.

Remix encourages you to bring your own server, e.g. Express or whatever you prefer. Then you could modify the start command as follows:

"start": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production node ./build/server/index.js"