Vite dev server: proxy config normalization reorders glob keys, drops string `context` and misses URLs with a query string

[aminesbdev]

Command

serve

Is this a regression?

• Yes, this behavior used to work in the previous version

The previous version in which this bug was not present was

The webpack-based @angular-devkit/build-angular:dev-server

Description

normalizeProxyConfiguration in packages/angular/build/src/utils/load-proxy-config.ts turns the proxy file into the object Vite expects. Three things get lost along the way. In each case the request isn't proxied and falls through to the app (index.html), and nothing shows up in the ng serve output.

1. Glob entries lose their position. Each glob key is replaced with normalizedProxy[pattern] = …; delete normalizedProxy[key], which moves it to the end of the object. Vite uses the first entry that matches, so a specific glob written first loses to a broader plain key written after it.
2. A string context drops the whole entry. In the array form, an entry whose context isn't an array is skipped. webpack-dev-server passes context to http-proxy-middleware as pathFilter, which accepts a single string, so context: '/legacy' works there. The array form conversion was added after proxyConfig option is not working with esbuild dev server #25337 so that webpack-style configs keep working, and this case slipped through.
3. Globs are matched against the URL including its query string. The regex built by picomatch ends with $ and Vite tests it against req.url, so /search/** matches /search but not /search?q=angular. http-proxy-middleware matches both globs and plain keys against the pathname only.

Minimal Reproduction

A new app served by @angular/build:dev-server, plus a backend that echoes the port and URL it receives:

// backend.mjs
import http from 'node:http';
for (const port of [3998, 3999]) {
  http.createServer((req, res) => res.end(`${port} got ${req.url}\n`)).listen(port);
}

1. Order with ng serve --proxy-config proxy.conf.json:

{
  "/api/auth/**": {"target": "http://localhost:3998"},
  "/api/": {"target": "http://localhost:3999"}
}

curl localhost:4200/api/auth/login returns 3999 got /api/auth/login. I expected it to go to 3998.

2. String context with ng serve --proxy-config proxy.conf.mjs:

export default [{context: '/legacy', target: 'http://localhost:3999'}];

curl localhost:4200/legacy/users returns index.html. loadProxyConfiguration returns {} for this file.

3. Query string with ng serve --proxy-config proxy.conf.json:

{
  "/search/**": {"target": "http://localhost:3999"}
}

curl localhost:4200/search is proxied, but curl 'localhost:4200/search?q=angular' returns index.html.

Exception or Error

None. The requests are just not proxied.

Your Environment

Angular CLI       : 22.2.0
Angular           : 22.2.0
Node.js           : 24.21.0
Package Manager   : npm 11.19.0
Operating System  : darwin arm64

@angular/build    : 22.2.0
@angular/cli      : 22.2.0
vite              : 8.3.0

The code is the same on main.

Anything else relevant?

#34258 fixes the first two points. The third one isn't part of it: for a trailing /**, picomatch puts a $ inside the generated regex, so it takes more than appending an optional query string, and it changes which requests get proxied.