Routing

Next.js has a file-system based router built on the concept of pages.

When a file is added to the pages directory it's automatically available as a route.

The files inside the pages directory can be used to define most common patterns.

Index routes

The router will automatically route files named index to the root of the directory.

• pages/index.js → /
• pages/blog/index.js → /blog

Nested routes

The router supports nested files. If you create a nested folder structure files will be automatically routed in the same way still.

• pages/blog/first-post.js → /blog/first-post
• pages/dashboard/settings/username.js → /dashboard/settings/username

Dynamic route segments

To match a dynamic segment you can use the bracket syntax. This allows you to match named parameters.

• pages/blog/[slug].js → /blog/:slug (/blog/hello-world)
• pages/[username]/settings.js → /:username/settings (/foo/settings)
• pages/post/[...all].js → /post/* (/post/2020/id/title)

Linking between pages

The Next.js router allows you to do client-side route transitions between pages, similarly to a single-page application.

A React component called Link is provided to do this client-side route transition.

import Link from 'next/link'

function Home() {
  return (
    <ul>
      <li>
        <Link href="/">
          <a>Home</a>
        </Link>
      </li>
      <li>
        <Link href="/about">
          <a>About Us</a>
        </Link>
      </li>
    </ul>
  )
}

export default Home

When linking to a route with dynamic path segments you have to provide href and as to make sure the router knows which JavaScript file to load.

• href - The name of the page in the pages directory. For example /blog/[slug].
• as - The url that will be shown in the browser. For example /blog/hello-world.

import Link from 'next/link'

function Home() {
  return (
    <ul>
      <li>
        <Link href="/blog/[slug]" as="/blog/hello-world">
          <a>To Hello World Blog post</a>
        </Link>
      </li>
    </ul>
  )
}

export default Home

The as prop can also be generated dynamically. For example, to show a list of posts which have been passed to the page as a prop:

function Home({ posts }) {
  return (
    <ul>
      {posts.map(post => (
        <li key={post.id}>
          <Link href="/blog/[slug]" as={`/blog/${post.slug}`}>
            <a>{post.title}</a>
          </Link>
        </li>
      ))}
    </ul>
  )
}

Injecting the router

To access the router object in a React component you can use useRouter or withRouter.

In general we recommend using useRouter.

Learn more

The router is divided in multiple parts: