Next.js — The Full-Stack React Framework for the Web

What it is

Next.js is a React framework by Vercel that handles the full stack: server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), API routes, and React Server Components. It uses file-based routing where the directory structure under app/ defines your URL paths.

Next.js is the default choice for teams building React applications that need SEO, fast initial page loads, and a unified frontend-backend codebase. It powers sites from personal blogs to large-scale e-commerce platforms.

How it saves time or tokens

Next.js eliminates the need to configure Webpack, Babel, and SSR plumbing manually. React Server Components let you fetch data on the server without sending the fetch logic to the browser, reducing client-side JavaScript. The built-in image optimization, font loading, and code splitting mean fewer manual performance tweaks.

How to use

1. Create a new Next.js project with create-next-app.
2. Add pages by creating files in the app/ directory.
3. Deploy to Vercel or any Node.js hosting.

# Create a new project
npx create-next-app@latest my-app
cd my-app
npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:3000

Example

// app/page.tsx - A Server Component by default
export default async function Home() {
  const posts = await fetch('https://api.example.com/posts').then(r => r.json());

  return (
    <main>
      <h1>Blog</h1>
      {posts.map((post: any) => (
        <article key={post.id}>
          <h2>{post.title}</h2>
          <p>{post.excerpt}</p>
        </article>
      ))}
    </main>
  );
}

Related on TokRepo

• AI coding tools — AI assistants that understand Next.js project structure
• Featured workflows — Discover popular developer tool configurations

Common pitfalls

• Mixing client and server components incorrectly causes hydration errors. Mark interactive components with 'use client' and keep data-fetching in server components.
• The app/ router and pages/ router cannot coexist for the same route. Migrate incrementally but do not duplicate route paths.
• Large dependency bundles negate SSR performance gains. Use next/dynamic for lazy loading heavy client-side libraries.