diff --git a/docs/source/about/changelog.rst b/docs/source/about/changelog.rst
index 325481f9a..8768c5160 100644
--- a/docs/source/about/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/source/about/changelog.rst
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ Unreleased
 - :pull:`1200` - Fixed ``UnicodeDecodeError`` when using ``reactpy.web.export``
 - :pull:`1224` - Fixes needless unmounting of JavaScript components during each ReactPy render.
 - :pull:`1126` - Fixed missing ``event["target"]["checked"]`` on checkbox inputs
+- :pull:`1191` - Fixed missing static files on `sdist` Python distribution
 
 **Added**
 
diff --git a/src/js/app/vite.config.js b/src/js/app/vite.config.js
index c97fb6dac..64a015757 100644
--- a/src/js/app/vite.config.js
+++ b/src/js/app/vite.config.js
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
       react: "preact/compat",
       "react-dom": "preact/compat",
     },
+    preserveSymlinks: true,
   },
   base: "/_reactpy/",
 });
diff --git a/src/py/reactpy/.gitignore b/src/py/reactpy/.gitignore
index 0499d7590..b4362ae8c 100644
--- a/src/py/reactpy/.gitignore
+++ b/src/py/reactpy/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 
 # --- Build Artifacts ---
 reactpy/_static
+js
diff --git a/src/py/reactpy/pyproject.toml b/src/py/reactpy/pyproject.toml
index e5a2559b7..05d35c8e1 100644
--- a/src/py/reactpy/pyproject.toml
+++ b/src/py/reactpy/pyproject.toml
@@ -103,11 +103,20 @@ dependencies = [
 types = "mypy --strict reactpy"
 all = ["types"]
 
+[tool.hatch.build.targets.sdist]
+artifacts = ["_static"]
+
+[tool.hatch.build.targets.wheel]
+artifacts = ["_static"]
+
 [[tool.hatch.build.hooks.build-scripts.scripts]]
-work_dir = "../../js"
 out_dir = "reactpy/_static"
-commands = ["npm ci", "npm run build"]
-artifacts = ["app/dist/"]
+commands = [
+  # link the js directory if it doesn't exist - use Python to avoid platform differences
+  "python -c \"import pathlib as p;js=p.Path('js');js.unlink(missing_ok=True);js.symlink_to(p.Path('..','..','js').resolve(),target_is_directory=True);\"",
+  "cd js && npm ci && npm run build",
+]
+artifacts = ["js/app/dist/"]
 
 # --- Pytest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/src/py/reactpy/reactpy/backend/_common.py b/src/py/reactpy/reactpy/backend/_common.py
index b4d6af19c..77c9a7ae0 100644
--- a/src/py/reactpy/reactpy/backend/_common.py
+++ b/src/py/reactpy/reactpy/backend/_common.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 MODULES_PATH = PATH_PREFIX / "modules"
 ASSETS_PATH = PATH_PREFIX / "assets"
 STREAM_PATH = PATH_PREFIX / "stream"
-CLIENT_BUILD_DIR = Path(_reactpy_file_path).parent / "_static" / "app" / "dist"
+CLIENT_BUILD_DIR = Path(_reactpy_file_path).parent / "_static" / "js" / "app" / "dist"
 
 
 async def serve_with_uvicorn(
diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
index e11d291e3..5669025a4 100644
--- a/tasks.py
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -416,8 +416,9 @@ def prepare_py_release(
 
     def publish(dry_run: bool):
         with context.cd(package.path):
+            context.run("twine check dist/*")
+
             if dry_run:
-                context.run("twine check dist/*")
                 return
 
             context.run(