Recently, I ran into an issue while setting up esbuild and Tailwind CSS in my Rails 7 app. Despite following all the recommended steps, my stylesheets and JavaScript files simply wouldn't load in the browser. The Rails logs repeatedly showed:

ActionController::RoutingError (No route matches [GET] "/assets/application.css")
ActionController::RoutingError (No route matches [GET] "/assets/application.js")

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What I Tried

1. Correct Asset Tags in application.html.erb

<%= stylesheet_link_tag "application", "data-turbo-track": "reload" %>
<%= javascript_include_tag "application", "data-turbo-track": "reload", defer: true %>

1. Build Scripts in package.json

"scripts": {
  "build": "esbuild app/javascript/*.* --bundle --sourcemap --format=esm --outdir=app/assets/builds --public-path=/assets",
  "build:css": "tailwindcss -i ./app/assets/stylesheets/application.tailwind.css -o ./app/assets/builds/application.css --minify"
}

1. Assets Folder Configuration

I verified that the compiled files are being created correctly in app/assets/builds:

ls -l app/assets/builds
# Output:
# -rw-r--r--  application.css
# -rw-r--r--  application.js
# -rw-r--r--  application.js.map

1. Updated the Manifest

In app/assets/config/manifest.js, I ensured the builds folder is linked:

//= link_tree ../images
//= link_tree ../builds

1. Added Asset Path to config/application.rb

config.assets.paths << Rails.root.join("app/assets/builds")

1. Ensured Public File Server Is Enabled

In config/environments/development.rb:

config.public_file_server.enabled = true

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The Outcome

Even with all these changes, the browser still throws the same error:

No route matches [GET] "/assets/application.css"
No route matches [GET] "/assets/application.js"

I’ve verified the files are being built correctly, so the issue seems to lie in how Rails serves or routes these files. Restarting the server (bin/dev) and clearing the cache made no difference.

---

Conclusion

Everything is set up as it should be, yet the assets refuse to load. I know the files are being generated in app/assets/builds, but Rails still cannot find them. If anyone has run into this issue and found a solution, I’d love to hear from you!

Make sure you have the builds folder included in the asset pipeline:

# app/assets/config/manifest.js
//= link_tree ../builds

//= link_tree ../images
//= link_tree ../builds

closed

missed gem "sprockets-rails", "~> 3.4" -.-'