diff --git a/packages/docusaurus/src/commands/serve/requestHandler.ts b/packages/docusaurus/src/commands/serve/requestHandler.ts
index 8437b0ccca2c..5ac45c8c26c1 100644
--- a/packages/docusaurus/src/commands/serve/requestHandler.ts
+++ b/packages/docusaurus/src/commands/serve/requestHandler.ts
@@ -24,38 +24,23 @@ export function createServeRequestHandler({
   'baseUrl' | 'trailingSlash'
 >): ServeRequestHandler {
   return async (req, res) => {
-    // Automatically redirect requests to /baseUrl/
-    if (!req.url?.startsWith(baseUrl)) {
-      redirect(res, baseUrl);
+    const redirectLocation = getRedirectLocation(req.url, {
+      baseUrl,
+      trailingSlash,
+    });
+    if (redirectLocation !== undefined) {
+      redirect(res, redirectLocation);
       return;
     }
 
-    // We do the redirect ourselves for a good reason
-    // server-handler is annoying and won't include /baseUrl/ in redirects
-    // See https://github.com/meta/docusaurus/issues/10078#issuecomment-2084932934
-    if (baseUrl !== '/') {
-      // Not super robust, but should be good enough for our use case
-      // See https://github.com/meta/docusaurus/pull/10090
-      const looksLikeAsset = !!req.url.match(/\.[a-z\d]{1,4}$/i);
-      if (!looksLikeAsset) {
-        const normalizedUrl = applyTrailingSlash(req.url, {
-          trailingSlash,
-          baseUrl,
-        });
-        if (req.url !== normalizedUrl) {
-          redirect(res, normalizedUrl);
-          return;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-
     // Remove baseUrl before calling serveHandler, because /baseUrl/ should
     // serve /build/index.html, not /build/baseUrl/index.html (does not exist)
     // Note server-handler is really annoying here:
     // - no easy way to do rewrites such as "/baseUrl/:path" => "/:path"
     // - no easy way to "reapply" the baseUrl to the redirect "Location" header
     // See also https://github.com/meta/docusaurus/pull/10090
-    req.url = req.url.replace(baseUrl, '/');
+    // Requests without url were redirected to the baseUrl
+    req.url = req.url!.replace(baseUrl, '/');
 
     await serveHandler(req, res, {
       cleanUrls: true,
@@ -66,6 +51,36 @@ export function createServeRequestHandler({
   };
 }
 
+function getRedirectLocation(
+  url: string | undefined,
+  {baseUrl, trailingSlash}: Pick<DocusaurusConfig, 'baseUrl' | 'trailingSlash'>,
+): string | undefined {
+  // Automatically redirect requests to /baseUrl/
+  if (!url?.startsWith(baseUrl)) {
+    return baseUrl;
+  }
+
+  // We do the redirect ourselves for a good reason
+  // server-handler is annoying and won't include /baseUrl/ in redirects
+  // See https://github.com/meta/docusaurus/issues/10078#issuecomment-2084932934
+  if (baseUrl !== '/') {
+    // Not super robust, but should be good enough for our use case
+    // See https://github.com/meta/docusaurus/pull/10090
+    const looksLikeAsset = !!url.match(/\.[a-z\d]{1,4}$/i);
+    if (!looksLikeAsset) {
+      const normalizedUrl = applyTrailingSlash(url, {
+        trailingSlash,
+        baseUrl,
+      });
+      if (url !== normalizedUrl) {
+        return normalizedUrl;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  return undefined;
+}
+
 function redirect(res: http.ServerResponse, location: string) {
   res.writeHead(302, {
     Location: location,