What is the preferred way to install 3/4 hardwood floor upto an exterior door frame?

Do I install it tight, or do I leave an expansion gap?

The threshold will cover a small expansion gap in front of the door itself. But my front door has sidelights, so something different would be needed in front of those.

https://files.spicysalsa.org/ForumPosts/House/Front_Door_interior_1.jpg

https://files.spicysalsa.org/ForumPosts/House/Front_Door_interior_2.jpg

If you are installing the flooring perpendicular to the door you do not need any expansion gap since the wood does not expand lengthwise if it gets damp. If you are going to go parallel to the door you can leave a quarter inch gap and cover the gap with base shoe, 1/2" x3/4", finished to match either the door color or the floor color. There is an oak threshold that is a stock one inch by 5 1/2", or use a 3/4 inch threshold and a door sweep.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm planning parallel to the door, so it sounds like I need around 1/4". I'm struggling with the molding given the door frame. The threshold extends inside and will cover the gap where the doorway is. But the area in front of the sidelights will need the gap hidden and the sill/sidelight contour complicates that.

What I really don't understand is how flooring installers can border the perimeter of a room, like a picture frame, then fill the entire center with no expansion gaps. (as Bollinger discusses in Taunton's Hardwood Floors book pg 64).

But a 1/4" is needed in front of exterior doors. Is this the power of facing tongues in opposite directions from the room's center??

On a wide room,which would be the case if you are laying parallel to the front door and the width the floor would be very wide, because the hall and rest of the house makes for a wide distance where all the boards are parallel, it is recommended to have some expansion gap. You can extend the same shape of the threshold where it extends toward the door light to over a small gap. You would most likely need to rip the tongue and part of the width of a board to fill in the last row as you work toward the door from the hall. A wider expanse of flooring may develop pressure if every board expands just a little, since there are so many boards. Good planning would have taken care of a potential expansion gap when installing the door by ending the door sill so the gap could be under some trim, like base shoe.