FeathersJS: Cannot add routes after initializing app - feathersjs

Question

Newbie FeathersJS user here. I'm obviously missing some key bit of understanding.
I'm trying to create a simple REST API using MySQL models. I'm attempting to follow the code structure referenced by the docs in this issue thread. Routes I define in my initial app.use() block work, but not those defined after it. Partial code here, rest in this gist
const app = feathers();
app.configure(configuration(path.join(__dirname, '..')));
app.use(compress())
.options('*', cors())
.use(cors())
.use(favicon(path.join(app.get('public'), 'favicon.ico')))
/* THIS ROUTE WORKS FINE */
.use('/', serveStatic(app.get('public')))
.use(bodyParser.json())
.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
extended: true
}))
.configure(hooks())
.configure(rest())
.configure(socketio())
.configure(models)
.configure(services)
.configure(middleware);
const appModels = app.get('models');
const beerOptions = {
Model: appModels.beer,
paginate: {
default: 15,
max: 50
}
};
/* NEITHER OF THESE ROUTES WORK */
app.use('/beer', service(beerOptions));
// IF YOU DELETE THE DEFINITION ABOVE AND UNCOMMENT
// THIS NEXT LINE, THE ROOT URL GIVES A 404
// app.use('/', serveStatic(app.get('public')));
I don't get any errors when npm starting the app. But, my /beer route just 404s as does any route defined there. I've been through the guides looking for the source of my misunderstanding. But I'm kinda stuck.

Answer 1

Just like in Express the order of middleware (and additionally for Feathers, configure calls) matters. In the case of the generated application, .configure(middleware); has to run last after everything else because it registers a notFound handler which will throw a 404 error. Any middleware after that (except the error handler) will never run.