diff --git a/src/authenticate.ts b/server/authenticate.ts
similarity index 91%
rename from src/authenticate.ts
rename to server/authenticate.ts
index 0a4a5ec20..8c5273c7c 100644
--- a/src/authenticate.ts
+++ b/server/authenticate.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import jwt from './jwt.ts';
 import type { Request } from 'express';
-import type { User } from './user.ts';
+import type { User } from '../src/user.ts';
 
 export default ({ cookies, headers }: Request): User | undefined => {
     if (headers.authorization && headers.authorization.startsWith('Bearer ')) {
diff --git a/server/cleanupAccounts.js b/server/cleanupAccounts.js
index 816709ca5..43b950331 100644
--- a/server/cleanupAccounts.js
+++ b/server/cleanupAccounts.js
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import './setup.ts';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 
 import dbConnection from './db.ts';
-import mailer from '../src/mailer.ts';
+import mailer from './mailer.ts';
 
 const execute = process.env.EXECUTE === '1';
 console.log(execute ? 'WILL EXECUTE!' : 'Dry run');
diff --git a/src/crypto.ts b/server/crypto.ts
similarity index 83%
rename from src/crypto.ts
rename to server/crypto.ts
index c6571d2da..cf5b968d5 100644
--- a/src/crypto.ts
+++ b/server/crypto.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 import crypto from 'crypto';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import type { KeyObject, BinaryLike } from 'crypto';
-
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
 class Crypto {
     privateKey: KeyObject;
@@ -26,4 +25,4 @@ class Crypto {
     }
 }
 
-export default new Crypto(`${__dirname}/../keys/private.pem`, `${__dirname}/../keys/public.pem`);
+export default new Crypto(`${rootDir}/keys/private.pem`, `${rootDir}/keys/public.pem`);
diff --git a/server/db.ts b/server/db.ts
index b39e999f7..fff9e7531 100644
--- a/server/db.ts
+++ b/server/db.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import * as sqlite from 'sqlite';
 import sqlite3 from 'sqlite3';
-
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
 export type SQLQuery = sqlite.ISqlite.SqlType;
 export interface Database {
@@ -12,6 +11,6 @@ export interface Database {
 }
 
 export default (): Promise<sqlite.Database> => sqlite.open({
-    filename: `${__dirname}/../db.sqlite`,
+    filename: `${rootDir}/db.sqlite`,
     driver: sqlite3.Database,
 });
diff --git a/server/express/admin.ts b/server/express/admin.ts
index a00416c00..d530dc796 100644
--- a/server/express/admin.ts
+++ b/server/express/admin.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import type { LocaleDescription } from '../../locale/locales.ts';
 import allLocales from '../../locale/locales.ts';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import { caches } from '../../src/cache.ts';
-import mailer from '../../src/mailer.ts';
+import mailer from '../mailer.ts';
 import { profilesSnapshot } from './profile.ts';
 import { archiveBan, liftBan } from '../ban.ts';
 import markdownit from 'markdown-it';
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { encodeTime, decodeTime, ulid } from 'ulid';
 import Suml from 'suml';
 import buildLocaleList from '../../src/buildLocaleList.ts';
 import auditLog from '../audit.ts';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import type { UserRow } from './user.ts';
 import type { Database } from '../db.ts';
 import type { Config } from '../../locale/config.ts';
@@ -620,7 +621,7 @@ router.get('/admin/moderation', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res) => {
         return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorised' });
     }
 
-    const dir = `${__dirname}/../../moderation`;
+    const dir = `${rootDir}/moderation`;
 
     return res.json({
         susRegexes: fs.readFileSync(`${dir}/sus.txt`).toString('utf-8')
diff --git a/server/express/banner.ts b/server/express/banner.ts
index 802eb3ac7..e210f4aa4 100644
--- a/server/express/banner.ts
+++ b/server/express/banner.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { Router } from 'express';
 import SQL from 'sql-template-strings';
 import { createCanvas, loadImage } from 'canvas';
 import type { CanvasRenderingContext2D, Image } from 'canvas';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import { loadSuml, loadSumlFromBase } from '../loader.ts';
 import avatar from '../avatar.ts';
 import { buildPronoun, parsePronounGroups, parsePronouns } from '../../src/buildPronoun.ts';
@@ -19,8 +20,8 @@ const baseTranslations = loadSumlFromBase('locale/_base/translations') as Transl
 
 const translator = new Translator(translations, baseTranslations, global.config);
 
-const pronouns = parsePronouns(global.config, loadTsv(`${__dirname}/../../data/pronouns/pronouns.tsv`));
-const pronounGroups = parsePronounGroups(loadTsv(`${__dirname}/../../data/pronouns/pronounGroups.tsv`));
+const pronouns = parsePronouns(global.config, loadTsv(`${rootDir}/data/pronouns/pronouns.tsv`));
+const pronounGroups = parsePronounGroups(loadTsv(`${rootDir}/data/pronouns/pronounGroups.tsv`));
 const pronounLibrary = new PronounLibrary(global.config, pronounGroups, pronouns);
 
 const drawCircle = (context: CanvasRenderingContext2D, image: Image, x: number, y: number, size: number): void => {
diff --git a/server/express/blog.ts b/server/express/blog.ts
index 0a81c8d2f..44fde8b2a 100644
--- a/server/express/blog.ts
+++ b/server/express/blog.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { Router } from 'express';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import { handleErrorAsync } from '../../src/helpers.ts';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import { caches } from '../../src/cache.ts';
@@ -15,7 +16,7 @@ const router = Router();
 
 router.get('/blog', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res) => {
     const posts = await caches.blog.fetch(async () => {
-        const dir = `${__dirname}/../../data/blog`;
+        const dir = `${rootDir}/data/blog`;
         const posts: Post[] = [];
         fs.readdirSync(dir).forEach((file) => {
             if (!file.endsWith('.md')) {
diff --git a/server/express/home.ts b/server/express/home.ts
index 0220f6e85..d22885328 100644
--- a/server/express/home.ts
+++ b/server/express/home.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { Router } from 'express';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import { handleErrorAsync } from '../../src/helpers.ts';
 import buildLocaleList from '../../src/buildLocaleList.ts';
 import fs from 'fs';
@@ -14,7 +15,7 @@ router.get('/locales', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res) => {
 }));
 
 router.get('/version', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res) => {
-    const versionFile = `${__dirname}/../../cache/version`;
+    const versionFile = `${rootDir}/cache/version`;
     return res.json(fs.existsSync(versionFile) ? fs.readFileSync(versionFile).toString('utf-8') : null);
 }));
 
diff --git a/server/express/images.ts b/server/express/images.ts
index 03d7adca7..4c6ee5b7e 100644
--- a/server/express/images.ts
+++ b/server/express/images.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import sharp from 'sharp';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import SQL from 'sql-template-strings';
 import path from 'path';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import auditLog from '../audit.ts';
 
 import { awsConfig, awsParams } from '../aws.ts';
@@ -109,7 +110,7 @@ router.post('/images/upload', multer({ limits: { fileSize: 10 * 1024 * 1024 } })
 router.get('/download/:filename*', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res) => {
     const filename = req.params.filename + req.params[0];
 
-    const filepath = `${__dirname}/../../locale/${global.config.locale}/files/${filename}`;
+    const filepath = `${rootDir}/locale/${global.config.locale}/files/${filename}`;
 
     if (!fs.existsSync(filepath)) {
         return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Not found' });
diff --git a/server/express/profile.ts b/server/express/profile.ts
index 96de1286d..6e2b76115 100644
--- a/server/express/profile.ts
+++ b/server/express/profile.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import md5 from 'js-md5';
 import { ulid } from 'ulid';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 import type { ParsedQs } from 'qs';
+import { rootDir } from '../paths.ts';
 import avatar from '../avatar.ts';
 import { handleErrorAsync, now, isValidLink } from '../../src/helpers.ts';
 import { caches } from '../../src/cache.ts';
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ import { normaliseUrl } from '../../src/links.ts';
 import allLocales from '../../locale/locales.ts';
 import type { LocaleDescription } from '../../locale/locales.ts';
 import auditLog from '../audit.ts';
-import crypto from '../../src/crypto.ts';
+import crypto from '../crypto.ts';
 import { awsConfig, awsParams } from '../aws.ts';
 import { S3, NoSuchKey } from '@aws-sdk/client-s3';
 import zlib from 'zlib';
@@ -35,8 +36,6 @@ import type {
 } from '../../src/profile.ts';
 import type { Opinion } from '../../src/opinions.ts';
 
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
-
 interface LinkRow {
     url: string | null;
     expiresAt: number | null;
@@ -369,7 +368,7 @@ export const profilesSnapshot = async (
     return JSON.stringify(await fetchProfiles(db, username, true, opts), null, 4);
 };
 
-const susRegexes = fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../../moderation/sus.txt`).toString('utf-8')
+const susRegexes = fs.readFileSync(`${rootDir}/moderation/sus.txt`).toString('utf-8')
     .split('\n')
     .filter((x) => !!x);
 
diff --git a/server/express/user.ts b/server/express/user.ts
index edcf7d7a0..ee78bf1f1 100644
--- a/server/express/user.ts
+++ b/server/express/user.ts
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ import type { NextFunction, Request, Response } from 'express';
 import SQL from 'sql-template-strings';
 import { ulid } from 'ulid';
 import { buildDict, makeId, now, handleErrorAsync, obfuscateEmail } from '../../src/helpers.ts';
-import jwt from '../../src/jwt.ts';
-import mailer from '../../src/mailer.ts';
+import jwt from '../jwt.ts';
+import mailer from '../mailer.ts';
 import { loadSuml } from '../loader.ts';
 import avatar from '../avatar.ts';
 import type { SocialProfilePayload } from '../social.ts';
diff --git a/server/index.ts b/server/index.ts
index 567b93bdc..97f6959ab 100644
--- a/server/index.ts
+++ b/server/index.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { useBase } from 'h3';
 import { defineExpressHandler } from 'h3-express';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 import type { StartSpanOptions } from '@sentry/types';
-import authenticate from '../src/authenticate.ts';
+import authenticate from './authenticate.ts';
 import dbConnection from './db.ts';
 import type { Database, SQLQuery } from './db.ts';
 import grant from 'grant';
diff --git a/src/jwt.ts b/server/jwt.ts
similarity index 90%
rename from src/jwt.ts
rename to server/jwt.ts
index 355a9ef00..d51ad9eca 100644
--- a/src/jwt.ts
+++ b/server/jwt.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import jwt from 'jsonwebtoken';
 import fs from 'fs';
 import type { JwtPayload } from 'jsonwebtoken';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
 const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
 
@@ -36,4 +37,4 @@ class Jwt {
     }
 }
 
-export default new Jwt(`${__dirname}/../keys/private.pem`, `${__dirname}/../keys/public.pem`);
+export default new Jwt(`${rootDir}/keys/private.pem`, `${rootDir}/keys/public.pem`);
diff --git a/server/loader.ts b/server/loader.ts
index f45674841..008dd0999 100644
--- a/server/loader.ts
+++ b/server/loader.ts
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ import fs from 'fs';
 import Suml from 'suml';
 
 import { loadTsv as baseLoadTsv } from '../src/tsv.ts';
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
-export const loadSumlFromBase = (name: string): unknown => new Suml().parse(fs.readFileSync(`./${name}.suml`, 'utf-8'));
+export const loadSumlFromBase = (name: string): unknown => new Suml().parse(fs.readFileSync(`${rootDir}/${name}.suml`, 'utf-8'));
 export const loadSuml = (name: string): unknown => loadSumlFromBase(`data/${name}`);
 
-export const loadTsv = <T = unknown>(name: string): T[] => baseLoadTsv(`./data/${name}.tsv`);
+export const loadTsv = <T = unknown>(name: string): T[] => baseLoadTsv(`${rootDir}/data/${name}.tsv`);
diff --git a/server/localeFont.ts b/server/localeFont.ts
index 0c94c5b63..58cc18090 100644
--- a/server/localeFont.ts
+++ b/server/localeFont.ts
@@ -1,11 +1,10 @@
 import { registerFont } from 'canvas';
 import fs from 'fs';
-
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
 const vars: Record<string, string> = {};
 
-for (const [, name, value] of fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../data/variables.scss`).toString('utf-8')
+for (const [, name, value] of fs.readFileSync(`${rootDir}/data/variables.scss`).toString('utf-8')
     .matchAll(/^\$([^:]+): '([^']+)'(?:, '[^']+')*;$/gm)) {
     vars[name] = value;
 }
diff --git a/src/mailer.ts b/server/mailer.ts
similarity index 95%
rename from src/mailer.ts
rename to server/mailer.ts
index 38e731bdc..41f70c04d 100644
--- a/src/mailer.ts
+++ b/server/mailer.ts
@@ -1,23 +1,19 @@
 import nodemailer from 'nodemailer';
 import fs from 'fs';
-import Suml from 'suml';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 import type StreamTransport from 'nodemailer/lib/stream-transport/index.d.ts';
 import type { Readable } from 'stream';
+import { loadSuml, loadSumlFromBase } from './loader.ts';
+import { rootDir } from './paths.ts';
 
 import type { Translations } from '../locale/translations.ts';
 
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
-
 const color = '#C71585';
-const logo = fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../public/logo/logo-primary.svg`).toString('utf-8');
+const logo = fs.readFileSync(`${rootDir}/public/logo/logo-primary.svg`).toString('utf-8');
 const logoEncoded = `data:image/svg+xml,${encodeURIComponent(logo)}`;
 
-const loadSuml = (name: string): unknown => {
-    return new Suml().parse(fs.readFileSync(`${__dirname}/../${name}.suml`).toString());
-};
-const translations = loadSuml('data/translations') as Translations;
-const fallbackTranslations = loadSuml('locale/_base/translations') as Translations;
+const translations = loadSuml('translations') as Translations;
+const fallbackTranslations = loadSumlFromBase('locale/_base/translations') as Translations;
 
 let transport: string | StreamTransport.Options = process.env.MAILER_TRANSPORT!;
 if (!transport && process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
diff --git a/server/miastamaszerujace.ts b/server/miastamaszerujace.ts
index 9b3d912e9..b93842fc6 100644
--- a/server/miastamaszerujace.ts
+++ b/server/miastamaszerujace.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import { JSDOM } from 'jsdom';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 import { Day } from '../src/calendar/helpers.ts';
 import fs from 'fs';
-import mailer from '../src/mailer.ts';
+import mailer from './mailer.ts';
 import type { MiastamaszerujaceEvent } from '../src/calendar/helpers.ts';
 import { createEvents } from 'ics';
 
diff --git a/server/notify.js b/server/notify.js
index 3be6279e2..057688019 100644
--- a/server/notify.js
+++ b/server/notify.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import './setup.ts';
 
 import dbConnection from './db.ts';
-import mailer from '../src/mailer.ts';
+import mailer from './mailer.ts';
 import { isGrantedForUser } from '../src/helpers.ts';
 
 const shouldNotify = (frequency) => {
diff --git a/server/paths.ts b/server/paths.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6c374e8ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/paths.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+// Nitro is designed to be independent of the filesystem, but that requires migration in some express routes
+// in dev mode, import.meta.url references `.nuxt/dev/index.mjs` and not the file path of this file
+// in production mode, import.meta.url is not a directory, so by convention the working directory must be the repo root,
+// however, `nuxi preview` automatically changes into .output
+export const rootDir = process.cwd().replace(/\/\.output$/, '');
diff --git a/server/subscriptions.js b/server/subscriptions.js
index b579ccd9d..1c1b61e47 100644
--- a/server/subscriptions.js
+++ b/server/subscriptions.js
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import './setup.ts';
 import dbConnection from './db.ts';
 import SQL from 'sql-template-strings';
 import { ulid, decodeTime } from 'ulid';
-import mailer from '../src/mailer.ts';
+import mailer from './mailer.ts';
 
 const CAMPAIGNS = [
     {
diff --git a/src/cache.ts b/src/cache.ts
index e3c6a1ff9..a3f93ba8a 100644
--- a/src/cache.ts
+++ b/src/cache.ts
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 import fs from 'fs';
 
-const __dirname = new URL('.', import.meta.url).pathname;
+import { rootDir } from '../server/paths.ts';
 
 export class CacheObject {
     path: string;
     maxAgeMinutes: number;
 
     constructor(dir: string, filename: string, maxAgeMinutes: number) {
-        const cacheDir = `${__dirname}/../cache/${dir}`;
+        const cacheDir = `${rootDir}/cache/${dir}`;
         if (filename.includes('..')) {
             throw 'Insecure';
         }
diff --git a/src/stats.ts b/src/stats.ts
index f11ae92b4..37857adde 100644
--- a/src/stats.ts
+++ b/src/stats.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { decodeTime, ulid } from 'ulid';
-import mailer from './mailer.ts';
+import mailer from '../server/mailer.ts';
 import Plausible from 'plausible-api';
 import fetch from 'node-fetch';
 import { listMissingTranslations } from './missingTranslations.ts';