It actually has a ton of magic. This is what's acting as the initial package.json: https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92dbfb1f53abfcce31

It actually has a ton of magic. This is what's acting as the initial package.json: https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92dbfb1f53abfcce31434258594/packages/core/lib/builder/installPackages.js https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92... Custom file watcher: https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92dbfb1f53abfcce31434258594/packages/core/lib/builder/cloneAndWatch.js https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92... Routing / workers: https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92dbfb1f53abfcce31434258594/packages/core/lib/router/index.js https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92... Dependencies for using the react renderer: https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92dbfb1f53abfcce31434258594/packages/handler-react/package.json https://github.com/remoteinterview/zero/blob/72ea1faaef51b92... And so on. The routing part is a bit funny - by spawning a new process per request this is actually very close to PHP/CGI :)