From e7738383e9ae52a9785d6bb4eda129213acc6ec8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: leejet <leejet714@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:20:17 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] update server readme

---
 examples/server/README.md | 89 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+)

diff --git a/examples/server/README.md b/examples/server/README.md
index 38deff6..8aa2158 100644
--- a/examples/server/README.md
+++ b/examples/server/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,92 @@
+# Frontend
+
+## Build with Frontend
+
+The server can optionally build the web frontend and embed it into the binary as `gen_index_html.h`.
+
+### Requirements
+
+Install the following tools:
+
+* **Node.js** ≥ 22.18
+  https://nodejs.org/
+
+* **pnpm** ≥ 10
+  Install via npm:
+
+```bash
+npm install -g pnpm
+```
+
+Verify installation:
+
+```bash
+node -v
+pnpm -v
+```
+
+### Install frontend dependencies
+
+Go to the frontend directory and install dependencies:
+
+```bash
+cd examples/server/frontend
+pnpm install
+```
+
+### Build the server with CMake
+
+Enable the frontend build option when configuring CMake:
+
+```bash
+cmake -B build -DSD_SERVER_BUILD_FRONTEND=ON
+cmake --build build --config Release
+```
+
+If `pnpm` is available, the build system will automatically run:
+
+```
+pnpm run build
+pnpm run build:header
+```
+
+and embed the generated frontend into the server binary.
+
+## Frontend Repository
+
+The web frontend is maintained in a **separate repository**, https://github.com/leejet/stable-ui.
+
+If you want to modify the UI or frontend logic, please submit pull requests to the **frontend repository**.
+
+This repository (`stable-diffusion.cpp`) only vendors the frontend periodically. Changes from the frontend repo are synchronized:
+
+* approximately **every 1–2 weeks**, or
+* when there are **major frontend updates**
+
+Because of this, frontend changes will **not appear here immediately** after being merged upstream.
+
+## Using an external frontend
+
+By default, the server uses the **embedded frontend** generated during the build (`gen_index_html.h`).
+
+You can also serve a custom frontend file instead of the embedded one by using:
+
+```bash
+--serve-html-path <path-to-index.html>
+```
+
+For example:
+
+```bash
+sd-server --serve-html-path ./index.html
+```
+
+In this case, the server will load and serve the specified `index.html` file instead of the embedded frontend. This is useful when:
+
+* developing or testing frontend changes
+* using a custom UI
+* avoiding rebuilding the binary after frontend modifications
+
 # Run
 
 ```