diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 691566be..4fa50492 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@
         <owasp.dependency-check.version>12.2.0</owasp.dependency-check.version>
         <checkstyle-plugin.version>3.6.0</checkstyle-plugin.version>
 
+        <!--
+          Toggle for the frontend-maven-plugin. Defaults to false so
+          `mvn package` still bundles the React SPA. Backend-only
+          contributors can bypass the npm build with:
+            mvn test -Dfrontend.skip=true
+        -->
+        <frontend.skip>false</frontend.skip>
+
         <!--
           Security override: Spring Boot 4.0.5 pulls tomcat-embed-core 11.0.20
           and jackson (tools.jackson.core) 3.1.0; both have CVEs fixed in the
@@ -235,6 +243,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <workingDirectory>src/main/frontend</workingDirectory>
                     <nodeVersion>v20.11.0</nodeVersion>
+                    <skip>${frontend.skip}</skip>
                 </configuration>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
diff --git a/src/main/frontend/tsconfig.json b/src/main/frontend/tsconfig.json
index b02f8c5e..aeca1c9a 100644
--- a/src/main/frontend/tsconfig.json
+++ b/src/main/frontend/tsconfig.json
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
     "noImplicitReturns": true,
     "noFallthroughCasesInSwitch": true,
     "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
-    "baseUrl": ".",
     "paths": {
       "@/*": ["./src/*"]
     }