Ubuntu – Azure Static WebApp NuxtJS 3 not finding _nuxt folder

I am setting up build pipelines in Azure DevOps, but cannot get the NuxtJS 3 app to run when deploying via a Release Pipeline.

When deploying it straight from the DevOps Build Pipeline, it works. This isn’t ideal for us.

A new Build Pipeline was set up to create a build artifact, which works. Downloading the artifact and publishing it from swa works as expected too.

The issue is when I use a Release Pipeline in DevOps, which has a Deploy Azure Static Web App (Preview) task, it doesn’t work. In the developer tools’ network tab I can see a lot of 404 errors, all trying to access the _nuxt folder.

The Release Pipeline’s step in YAML (it’s extracted to the zip directory in previous step):

steps:
- task: AzureStaticWebApp@0
  displayName: 'Publishing Website'
  inputs:
    workingDirectory: zip
    app_location: .app/.output/public
    output_location: .app/.output/public
    api_location: .app/.output/server
    config_file_location: .app
    skip_app_build: true
    is_static_export: false
    verbose: true
    azure_static_web_apps_api_token: 'mytoken'
    deployment_environment: Dev
    production_branch: development

.app/swa-cli.config.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://aka.ms/azure/static-web-apps-cli/schema",
  "configurations": {
    ".app": {
      "appLocation": ".output/public",
      "apiLocation": ".output/server",
      "outputLocation": ".output/public",
      "apiLanguage": "node",
      "apiVersion": "18",
      "appName": "test123",
      "resourceGroup": "dev-resources"
    }
  }
}

I tried adding the empty .nojekyll file out of desperation, but that didn’t make a difference either.

EDIT

Build Definition:

trigger:
  - development

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

variables:
  - group: dev-variable-group
  - name: buildVersion
    value: $(Date:yyyyMMdd).$(Rev:r)
  - name: artifactName
    value: 'ui-artifact'

stages:
- stage: Build
  jobs:
  - job: BuildJob
    steps:
    - script: echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=buildVersion;]$(Build.BuildNumber)"
      displayName: 'Set Build Version Variable'

    - task: NodeTool@0
      inputs:
        versionSpec: '18.x'
      displayName: 'Install Node.js'

    - script: npm install -g pnpm
      displayName: 'Install pnpm'

    - script: |
        pnpm i
        pnpm build
      displayName: 'npm install and build'

    # Package the app into a zip file
    - script: zip -r $(buildVersion).zip .app
      displayName: 'Package app into ZIP'

    # Publish the zip as an artifact of the build
    - task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
      inputs:
        pathtoPublish: '$(buildVersion).zip'
        artifactName: $(artifactName)