diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 4d3ba95..110bb1f 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "@uschuster/webapp-scaffold",
-  "version": "0.3.1",
+  "version": "0.3.6",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "@uschuster/webapp-scaffold",
-      "version": "0.3.1",
+      "version": "0.3.6",
       "license": "UNLICENSED",
       "bin": {
         "webapp-scaffold-fetch-openapi": "bin/fetch-openapi.sh",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 501265a..e2c77be 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@uschuster/webapp-scaffold",
-  "version": "0.3.5",
+  "version": "0.3.6",
   "description": "Shared build scripts + Vite config factories for webapp-template-derived projects.",
   "type": "module",
   "bin": {
diff --git a/src/vite-config.ts b/src/vite-config.ts
index f7a3a38..edf39c2 100644
--- a/src/vite-config.ts
+++ b/src/vite-config.ts
@@ -6,8 +6,15 @@
 // Both honour the same Apache-proxy-prefix baseUrl convention and keep
 // their outputs under a conventional path so the `StaticController` and
 // Apache vhost can serve them without per-project tweaks.
+//
+// VITE_BASE resolution: Vite does NOT populate `process.env.VITE_BASE` from
+// .env files at config-evaluation time (those go into `import.meta.env` for
+// the client bundle only). To pick up the value `new-project.sh` writes to
+// `frontend/.env.production`, we use Vite's own `loadEnv()` helper. A
+// `process.env.VITE_BASE` override still wins so CI invocations that
+// `export VITE_BASE=…` keep working.
 
-import type { UserConfig } from 'vite';
+import { defineConfig, loadEnv, type UserConfig } from 'vite';
 import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react';
 import path from 'path';
 
@@ -20,10 +27,15 @@ export interface AdminConfigOptions {
     outDir?: string;
 }
 
-export function defineAdminConfig(opts: AdminConfigOptions): UserConfig {
-    const base = process.env.VITE_BASE || '/';
-    return {
-        base,
+function resolveBase(mode: string, root: string): string {
+    if (process.env.VITE_BASE) return process.env.VITE_BASE;
+    const env = loadEnv(mode, root, '');
+    return env.VITE_BASE || '/';
+}
+
+export function defineAdminConfig(opts: AdminConfigOptions) {
+    return defineConfig(({ mode }): UserConfig => ({
+        base: resolveBase(mode, opts.root),
         plugins: [react()],
         build: {
             outDir: opts.outDir ?? path.resolve(opts.root, '../static/dist'),
@@ -33,7 +45,7 @@ export function defineAdminConfig(opts: AdminConfigOptions): UserConfig {
                 ? { output: { manualChunks: opts.vendorChunks } }
                 : undefined,
         },
-    };
+    }));
 }
 
 export interface GuestConfigOptions extends AdminConfigOptions {
@@ -41,10 +53,9 @@ export interface GuestConfigOptions extends AdminConfigOptions {
     entry?: string;
 }
 
-export function defineGuestConfig(opts: GuestConfigOptions): UserConfig {
-    const base = process.env.VITE_BASE || '/';
-    return {
-        base,
+export function defineGuestConfig(opts: GuestConfigOptions) {
+    return defineConfig(({ mode }): UserConfig => ({
+        base: resolveBase(mode, opts.root),
         plugins: [react()],
         build: {
             outDir: opts.outDir ?? path.resolve(opts.root, '../static/guest/dist'),
@@ -60,5 +71,5 @@ export function defineGuestConfig(opts: GuestConfigOptions): UserConfig {
                 },
             },
         },
-    };
+    }));
 }