I am building a basic site using expressjs. All of my static assets are being loaded correctly - html, css, images, icons, fonts... all except javascript files. This is a complete mystery to me as the script tag is rendered with working href link, but console network tab is showing all files except javascript. Check screenshots:


I am setting the static assets correctly and have tried multiple variations to test all deliver the same result:
app.use(express.static('public'));
I suspect it has something to do with using render instead of sendFile but I could be mistaken.
app.get('/', (req, res)=>{ res.render('index') })
Anyone have any ideas to this mystery? Thanks