diff --git a/.changeset/neat-olives-hope.md b/.changeset/neat-olives-hope.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..985b3debae05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/neat-olives-hope.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@sveltejs/kit': patch
+---
+
+Prevent Vite prebundling from crashing on startup
diff --git a/packages/kit/src/core/dev/index.js b/packages/kit/src/core/dev/index.js
index 16a224f5da5f..b3d838dacecf 100644
--- a/packages/kit/src/core/dev/index.js
+++ b/packages/kit/src/core/dev/index.js
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ class Watcher extends EventEmitter {
 			server: {
 				...user_config.server,
 				middlewareMode: true
+			},
+			optimizeDeps: {
+				...user_config.optimizeDeps,
+				entries: []
 			}
 		});