The Next.js API surface, reimplemented on Vite.
Read the announcement: How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in one week
🚧 Experimental — under heavy development. This project is an experiment in AI-driven software development. The vast majority of the code, tests, and documentation were written by AI (Claude Code). Humans direct architecture, priorities, and design decisions, but have not reviewed most of the code line-by-line. Treat this accordingly — there will be bugs, rough edges, and things that don't work. Use at your own risk.
vinext includes an Agent Skill that handles migration for you. It works with Claude Code, OpenCode, Cursor, Codex, and dozens of other AI coding tools. Install it, open your Next.js project, and tell the AI to migrate:
npx skills add cloudflare/vinextThen open your Next.js project in any supported tool and say:
migrate this project to vinext
The skill handles compatibility checking, dependency installation, config generation, and dev server startup. It knows what vinext supports and will flag anything that needs manual attention.
npm install vinextReplace next with vinext in your scripts:
{
"scripts": {
"dev": "vinext dev",
"build": "vinext build",
"start": "vinext start"
}
}vinext dev # Development server with HMR
vinext build # Production build
vinext deploy # Build and deploy to Cloudflare Workersvinext auto-detects your app/ or pages/ directory, loads next.config.js, and configures Vite automatically. No vite.config.ts required for basic usage.
Your existing pages/, app/, next.config.js, and public/ directories work as-is. Run vinext check first to scan for known compatibility issues, or use vinext init to automate the full migration.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
vinext dev |
Start dev server with HMR |
vinext build |
Production build (multi-environment for App Router: RSC + SSR + client) |
vinext start |
Start local production server for testing |
vinext deploy |
Build and deploy to Cloudflare Workers |
vinext init |
Migrate a Next.js project to run under vinext |
vinext check |
Scan your Next.js app for compatibility issues before migrating |
vinext lint |
Delegate to eslint or oxlint |
Options: -p / --port <port>, -H / --hostname <host>, --turbopack (accepted, no-op).
vinext deploy options: --preview, --env <name>, --name <name>, --skip-build, --dry-run, --experimental-tpr.
vinext init options: --port <port> (default: 3001), --skip-check, --force.
vinext init automates the migration in one command:
npx vinext initThis will:
- Run
vinext checkto scan for compatibility issues - Install
vite(and@vitejs/plugin-rscfor App Router projects) as devDependencies - Rename CJS config files (e.g.
postcss.config.js->.cjs) to avoid ESM conflicts - Add
"type": "module"topackage.json - Add
dev:vinextandbuild:vinextscripts topackage.json - Generate a minimal
vite.config.ts
The migration is non-destructive -- your existing Next.js setup continues to work alongside vinext. It does not modify next.config, tsconfig.json, or any source files, and it does not remove Next.js dependencies.
npm run dev:vinext # Start the vinext dev server (port 3001)
npm run dev # Still runs Next.js as beforeUse --force to overwrite an existing vite.config.ts, or --skip-check to skip the compatibility report.
Vite has become the default build tool for modern web frameworks — fast HMR, a clean plugin API, native ESM, and a growing ecosystem. With @vitejs/plugin-rsc adding React Server Components support, it's now possible to build a full RSC framework on Vite.
vinext is an experiment: can we reimplement the Next.js API surface on Vite, so that existing Next.js applications can run on a completely different toolchain? The answer, so far, is mostly yes — about 94% of the API surface works.
The current deployment target is Cloudflare Workers — zero cold starts, global by default, integrated platform (KV, R2, D1, AI). The vinext deploy command handles the full build-and-deploy pipeline. Expanding to other deployment targets is something we'd like to explore.
Alternatives worth knowing about:
- OpenNext — adapts
next buildoutput for AWS, Cloudflare, and other platforms. More mature and battle-tested than vinext. - Next.js self-hosting — Next.js can be deployed to any Node.js server, Docker container, or as a static export.
- Start with Cloudflare, expand later. Workers is the current deployment target. Every feature is built and tested for Workers. We're interested in supporting other platforms and welcome contributions.
- Pragmatic compatibility, not bug-for-bug parity. Targets 95%+ of real-world Next.js apps. Edge cases that depend on undocumented Vercel behavior are intentionally not supported.
- Latest Next.js only. Targets Next.js 16.x. No support for deprecated APIs from older versions.
- Incremental adoption. Drop in the plugin, fix what breaks, deploy.
What is this?
vinext is a Vite plugin that reimplements the public Next.js API — routing, server rendering, next/* module imports, the CLI — so you can run Next.js applications on Vite instead of the Next.js compiler toolchain. Cloudflare Workers is the current deployment target.
Is this a fork of Next.js? No. vinext is an alternative implementation of the Next.js API surface built on Vite. It does import some Next.js types and utilities, but the core is written from scratch. The goal is not to create a competing framework or add features beyond what Next.js offers — it's an experiment in how far AI-driven development and Vite's toolchain can go in replicating an existing, well-defined API surface.
How is this different from OpenNext?
OpenNext adapts the output of a standard next build to run on various platforms. vinext replaces the build entirely — it reimplements the Next.js APIs on Vite from scratch. OpenNext is a great choice if you need production-ready Next.js on non-Vercel platforms today.
Can I use this in production? You can, with caution. This is experimental software with known bugs. It works well enough for demos and exploration, but it hasn't been battle-tested with real production traffic.
Can I just self-host Next.js? Yes. Next.js supports self-hosting on Node.js servers, Docker containers, and static exports. If you're happy with the Next.js toolchain and just want to run it somewhere other than Vercel, self-hosting is the simplest path.
How are you verifying this works?
The test suite has over 1,700 Vitest tests and 380 Playwright E2E tests. This includes tests ported directly from the Next.js test suite and OpenNext's Cloudflare conformance suite, covering routing, SSR, RSC, server actions, caching, metadata, middleware, streaming, and more. Vercel's App Router Playground also runs on vinext as an integration test. See the Tests section and tests/nextjs-compat/TRACKING.md for details.
Who is reviewing this code? Mostly nobody. This is an experiment in seeing how far AI-driven development can go. The test suite is the primary quality gate — not human code review. Contributions and code review are welcome.
Why Vite?
Vite is an excellent build tool with a rich plugin ecosystem, first-class ESM support, and fast HMR. The @vitejs/plugin-rsc plugin adds React Server Components support with multi-environment builds. This project is an experiment to see how much of the Next.js developer experience can be replicated on top of Vite's infrastructure.
Does this support the Pages Router, App Router, or both? Both. File-system routing, SSR, client hydration, and deployment to Cloudflare Workers work for both routers.
What version of Next.js does this target? Next.js 16.x. No support for deprecated APIs from older versions.
Can I deploy to AWS/Netlify/other platforms? Currently only Cloudflare Workers is supported and tested. We're interested in exploring other deployment targets in the future and welcome contributions in that direction.
What happens when Next.js releases a new feature? We track the public Next.js API surface and add support for new stable features. Experimental or unstable Next.js features are lower priority. The plan is to add commit-level tracking of the Next.js repo so we can stay current as new versions are released.
vinext deploy is the simplest path. It auto-generates the necessary configuration files (vite.config.ts, wrangler.jsonc, worker/index.ts) if they don't exist, builds the application, and deploys to Workers.
vinext deploy
vinext deploy --env stagingUse --env <name> to target wrangler.jsonc env.<name>. --preview is shorthand for --env preview.
The deploy command also auto-detects and fixes common migration issues:
- Adds
"type": "module"to package.json if missing - Resolves tsconfig.json path aliases automatically (via
vite-tsconfig-paths) - Detects MDX usage and configures
@mdx-js/rollup - Renames CJS config files (postcss.config.js, etc.) to
.cjswhen needed - Detects native Node.js modules (sharp, resvg, satori, lightningcss, @napi-rs/canvas) and auto-stubs them for Workers. If you encounter others that need stubbing, PRs are welcome.
Both App Router and Pages Router work on Workers with full client-side hydration — interactive components, client-side navigation, and React state all work.
TPR queries Cloudflare zone analytics at deploy time to find which pages actually get traffic, pre-renders only those, and uploads them to KV cache. The result is SSG-level latency for popular pages without pre-rendering your entire site.
vinext deploy --experimental-tpr # Pre-render pages covering 90% of traffic
vinext deploy --experimental-tpr --tpr-coverage 95 # More aggressive coverage
vinext deploy --experimental-tpr --tpr-limit 500 # Cap at 500 pages
vinext deploy --experimental-tpr --tpr-window 48 # Use 48h of analyticsRequires a custom domain (zone analytics are unavailable on *.workers.dev) and CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN with Zone.Analytics read permission.
For production caching (ISR), use the built-in Cloudflare KV cache handler:
import { KVCacheHandler } from "vinext/cloudflare";
import { setCacheHandler } from "next/cache";
setCacheHandler(new KVCacheHandler(env.MY_KV_NAMESPACE));If you need to customize the Vite config, create a vite.config.ts. vinext will merge its config with yours. This is required for Cloudflare Workers deployment with the App Router (RSC needs explicit plugin configuration):
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import vinext from "vinext";
import rsc from "@vitejs/plugin-rsc";
import { cloudflare } from "@cloudflare/vite-plugin";
export default defineConfig({
plugins: [
vinext(),
rsc({
entries: {
rsc: "virtual:vinext-rsc-entry",
ssr: "virtual:vinext-app-ssr-entry",
client: "virtual:vinext-app-browser-entry",
},
}),
cloudflare({
viteEnvironment: { name: "rsc", childEnvironments: ["ssr"] },
}),
],
});See the examples for complete working configurations.
These are deployed to Cloudflare Workers and updated on every push to main:
| Example | Description | URL |
|---|---|---|
| App Router Playground | Vercel's Next.js App Router Playground running on vinext | app-router-playground.vinext.workers.dev |
| Hacker News | HN clone (App Router, RSC) | hackernews.vinext.workers.dev |
| Nextra Docs | Nextra docs site (MDX, App Router) | nextra-docs-template.vinext.workers.dev |
| App Router (minimal) | Minimal App Router on Workers | app-router-cloudflare.vinext.workers.dev |
| Pages Router (minimal) | Minimal Pages Router on Workers | pages-router-cloudflare.vinext.workers.dev |
| RealWorld API | REST API routes example | realworld-api-rest.vinext.workers.dev |
| Benchmarks Dashboard | Build performance tracking over time (D1-backed) | benchmarks.vinext.workers.dev |
~94% of the Next.js 16 API surface has full or partial support. The remaining gaps are intentional stubs for deprecated features and Partial Prerendering (which Next.js 16 reworked into "use cache" — that directive is fully supported).
✅ = full implementation | 🟡 = partial (runtime behavior correct, some build-time optimizations missing) | ⬜ = intentional stub/no-op
Every next/* import is shimmed to a Vite-compatible implementation.
| Module | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
next/link |
✅ | All props including prefetch (IntersectionObserver), onNavigate, scroll restoration, basePath, locale |
next/image |
🟡 | Remote images via @unpic/react (28 CDNs). Local images via <img> + srcSet. No build-time optimization/resizing |
next/head |
✅ | SSR collection + client-side DOM manipulation |
next/router |
✅ | useRouter, Router singleton, events, client-side navigation, SSR context, i18n |
next/navigation |
✅ | usePathname, useSearchParams, useParams, useRouter, redirect, notFound, forbidden, unauthorized |
next/server |
✅ | NextRequest, NextResponse, NextURL, cookies, userAgent, after, connection, URLPattern |
next/headers |
✅ | Async headers(), cookies(), draftMode() |
next/dynamic |
✅ | ssr: true, ssr: false, loading component |
next/script |
✅ | All 4 strategies (beforeInteractive, afterInteractive, lazyOnload, worker) |
next/font/google |
🟡 | Runtime CDN loading. No self-hosting, font subsetting, or fallback metrics |
next/font/local |
🟡 | Runtime @font-face injection. Not extracted at build time |
next/og |
✅ | OG image generation via @vercel/og (Satori + resvg) |
next/cache |
✅ | revalidateTag, revalidatePath, unstable_cache, pluggable CacheHandler, "use cache" with cacheLife() and cacheTag() |
next/form |
✅ | GET form interception + POST server action delegation |
next/legacy/image |
✅ | Translates legacy props to modern Image |
next/error |
✅ | Default error page component |
next/config |
✅ | getConfig / setConfig |
next/document |
✅ | Html, Head, Main, NextScript |
next/constants |
✅ | All phase constants |
next/amp |
⬜ | No-op (AMP is deprecated) |
next/web-vitals |
⬜ | No-op (use the web-vitals library directly) |
| Feature | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
File-system routing (pages/) |
✅ | Automatic scanning with hot-reload on file changes |
File-system routing (app/) |
✅ | Pages, routes, layouts, templates, loading, error, not-found, forbidden, unauthorized |
Dynamic routes [param] |
✅ | Both routers |
Catch-all [...slug] |
✅ | Both routers |
Optional catch-all [[...slug]] |
✅ | Both routers |
Route groups (group) |
✅ | URL-transparent, layouts still apply |
Parallel routes @slot |
✅ | Discovery, layout props, default.tsx, inherited slots |
| Intercepting routes | ✅ | (.), (..), (..)(..), (...) conventions |
Route handlers (route.ts) |
✅ | Named HTTP methods, auto OPTIONS/HEAD, cookie attachment |
| Middleware | ✅ | middleware.ts and proxy.ts (Next.js 16). Matcher patterns (string, array, regex, :param, :path*, :path+) |
| i18n routing | 🟡 | Pages Router locale prefix, Accept-Language detection, NEXT_LOCALE cookie. No domain-based routing |
basePath |
✅ | Applied everywhere — URLs, Link, Router, navigation hooks |
trailingSlash |
✅ | 308 redirects to canonical form |
| Feature | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| SSR (Pages Router) | ✅ | Streaming, _app/_document, __NEXT_DATA__, hydration |
| SSR (App Router) | ✅ | RSC pipeline, nested layouts, streaming, nav context for client components |
getStaticProps |
✅ | Props, redirect, notFound, revalidate |
getStaticPaths |
✅ | fallback: false, true, "blocking" |
getServerSideProps |
✅ | Full context including locale |
| ISR | ✅ | Stale-while-revalidate, pluggable CacheHandler, background regeneration |
Server Actions ("use server") |
✅ | Action execution, FormData, re-render after mutation, redirect() in actions |
| React Server Components | ✅ | Via @vitejs/plugin-rsc. "use client" boundaries work correctly |
| Streaming SSR | ✅ | Both routers |
| Metadata API | ✅ | metadata, generateMetadata, viewport, generateViewport, title templates |
generateStaticParams |
✅ | With dynamicParams enforcement |
| Metadata file routes | ✅ | sitemap.xml, robots.txt, manifest, favicon, OG images (static + dynamic) |
Static export (output: 'export') |
✅ | Generates static HTML/JSON for all routes |
connection() |
✅ | Forces dynamic rendering |
"use cache" directive |
✅ | File-level and function-level. cacheLife() profiles, cacheTag(), stale-while-revalidate |
instrumentation.ts |
✅ | register() and onRequestError() callbacks |
| Route segment config | 🟡 | revalidate, dynamic, dynamicParams. runtime and preferredRegion are ignored |
| Feature | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
next.config.js / .ts / .mjs |
✅ | Function configs, phase argument |
rewrites / redirects / headers |
✅ | All phases, param interpolation |
Environment variables (.env*, NEXT_PUBLIC_*) |
✅ | Auto-loads Next.js-style dotenv files; only public vars are inlined |
images config |
🟡 | Parsed but not used for optimization |
vinext automatically loads dotenv files for dev, build, start, and deploy.
Load order matches Next.js (highest priority first):
- Existing
process.envvalues (shell/CI) .env.<mode>.local.env.local(skipped when mode istest).env.<mode>.env
Modes:
vinext devusesdevelopmentvinext build,vinext start, andvinext deployuseproduction
Variable expansion ($VAR / ${VAR}) is supported.
Client exposure remains explicit:
NEXT_PUBLIC_*variables are inlined for browser usagenext.config.jsenventries are also inlined- Other env vars stay server-only unless you explicitly expose them through Vite (for example
VITE_*+import.meta.env)
Override behavior:
- To override any
.env*value, set it in your shell/CI environment before running vinext. Existingprocess.envalways wins.
The cache is pluggable. The default MemoryCacheHandler works out of the box. Swap in your own backend for production:
import { setCacheHandler } from "next/cache";
setCacheHandler(new MyCacheHandler()); // Redis, DynamoDB, etc.The CacheHandler interface matches Next.js 16's shape, so community adapters should be compatible.
These are intentional exclusions:
- Vercel-specific features —
@vercel/ogedge runtime, Vercel Analytics integration, Vercel KV/Blob/Postgres bindings. Use platform equivalents. - AMP — Deprecated since Next.js 13.
useAmp()returnsfalse. next export(legacy) — Useoutput: 'export'in config instead.- Turbopack/webpack configuration — This runs on Vite. Use Vite plugins instead of webpack loaders/plugins.
next/jest— Use Vitest.create-next-appscaffolding — Not a goal.- Bug-for-bug parity with undocumented behavior — If it's not in the Next.js docs, we probably don't replicate it.
- Image optimization doesn't happen at build time. Remote images work via
@unpic/react(auto-detects 28 CDN providers). Local images are routed through a/_vinext/imageendpoint that can resize and transcode on Cloudflare Workers (via the Images binding) in production, but no build-time optimization or static resizing occurs. - Google Fonts are loaded from the CDN, not self-hosted. No
size-adjustfallback font metrics. Local fonts work but@font-faceCSS is injected at runtime, not extracted at build time. useSelectedLayoutSegment(s)derives segments from the pathname rather than being truly layout-aware. May differ from Next.js in edge cases with parallel routes.- Route segment config —
runtimeandpreferredRegionare ignored (everything runs in the same environment). - Node.js production server (
vinext start) works for testing but is less complete than Workers deployment. Cloudflare Workers is the primary target. - Native Node modules (sharp, resvg, satori, lightningcss, @napi-rs/canvas) crash Vite's RSC dev environment. Dynamic OG image/icon routes using these work in production builds but not in dev mode. These are auto-stubbed during
vinext deploy.
Caveat: Benchmarks are hard to get right and these are early results. Take them as directional, not definitive.
These benchmarks measure compilation and bundling speed, not production serving performance. Next.js and vinext have fundamentally different default approaches: Next.js statically pre-renders pages at build time (making builds slower but production serving faster for static content), while vinext server-renders all pages on each request. To make the comparison apples-to-apples, the benchmark app uses export const dynamic = "force-dynamic" to disable Next.js static pre-rendering — both frameworks are doing the same work: compiling, bundling, and preparing server-rendered routes.
The benchmark app is a shared 33-route App Router application (server components, client components, dynamic routes, nested layouts, API routes) built identically by both tools. We compare Next.js 16 (Turbopack) against vinext on both Vite 7 (Rollup) and Vite 8 (Rolldown). Turbopack and Rolldown both parallelize across cores, so results on machines with more cores may differ significantly.
We measure three things:
- Production build time — 5 runs, timed with
hyperfine. - Client bundle size — gzipped output of each build.
- Dev server cold start — 10 runs, randomized execution order. Vite's dependency optimizer cache is cleared before each run.
Benchmarks run on GitHub CI runners (2-core Ubuntu) on every merge to main. See the launch numbers in the announcement blog post and the latest results at benchmarks.vinext.workers.dev.
Why the bundle size difference?
Analysis of the build output shows two main factors:
- Tree-shaking: Vite/Rollup produces a smaller React+ReactDOM bundle than Next.js/Turbopack. Rollup's more aggressive dead-code elimination accounts for roughly half the overall difference.
- Framework overhead: Next.js ships more client-side infrastructure (router, Turbopack runtime loader, prefetching, error handling) than vinext's lighter client runtime.
Both frameworks ship the same app code and the same RSC client runtime (react-server-dom-webpack). The difference is in how much of React's internals survive tree-shaking and how much framework plumbing each tool adds.
Reproduce with node benchmarks/run.mjs --runs=5 --dev-runs=10. Exact framework versions are recorded in each result.
vinext is a Vite plugin that:
- Resolves all
next/*imports to local shim modules that reimplement the Next.js API using standard Web APIs and React primitives. - Scans your
pages/andapp/directories to build a file-system router matching Next.js conventions. - Generates virtual entry modules for the RSC, SSR, and browser environments that handle request routing, component rendering, and client hydration.
- Integrates with
@vitejs/plugin-rscfor React Server Components — handling"use client"/"use server"directives, RSC stream serialization, and multi-environment builds.
The result is a standard Vite application that happens to be API-compatible with Next.js.
Request → Vite dev server middleware → Route match → getServerSideProps/getStaticProps
→ renderToReadableStream(App + Page) → HTML with __NEXT_DATA__ → Client hydration
Request → RSC entry (Vite rsc environment) → Route match → Build layout/page tree
→ renderToReadableStream (RSC payload) → SSR entry (Vite ssr environment)
→ renderToReadableStream (HTML) → Client hydration from RSC stream
packages/vinext/
src/
index.ts # Main plugin — resolve aliases, config, virtual modules
cli.ts # vinext CLI (dev/build/start/deploy/init/check/lint)
check.ts # Compatibility scanner
deploy.ts # Cloudflare Workers deployment
init.ts # vinext init — one-command migration for Next.js apps
client/
entry.ts # Client-side hydration entry
routing/
pages-router.ts # Pages Router file-system scanner
app-router.ts # App Router file-system scanner
server/
dev-server.ts # Pages Router SSR request handler
app-dev-server.ts # App Router RSC entry generator
prod-server.ts # Production server with compression
api-handler.ts # Pages Router API routes
isr-cache.ts # ISR cache layer
middleware.ts # middleware.ts / proxy.ts runner
metadata-routes.ts # File-based metadata route scanner
instrumentation.ts # instrumentation.ts support
cloudflare/
kv-cache-handler.ts # Cloudflare KV-backed CacheHandler for ISR
shims/ # One file per next/* module (33 shims + 6 internal)
build/
static-export.ts # output: 'export' support
utils/
project.ts # Shared project utilities (ESM, CJS, package manager detection)
config/
next-config.ts # next.config.js loader
config-matchers.ts # Config matching utilities
tests/
*.test.ts # Vitest unit + integration tests
nextjs-compat/ # Tests ported from Next.js test suite
fixtures/ # Test apps (pages-basic, app-basic, ecosystem libs)
e2e/ # Playwright E2E tests (5 projects)
examples/ # Deployed demo apps (see Live Examples above)
pnpm test # Vitest unit + integration tests
pnpm run test:e2e # Playwright E2E tests (5 projects)
pnpm run typecheck # TypeScript checking (tsgo)
pnpm run lint # Linting (oxlint)E2E tests cover Pages Router (dev + production), App Router (dev), and both routers on Cloudflare Workers via wrangler dev.
The Vercel App Router Playground runs on vinext as an integration test — see it live at app-router-playground.vinext.workers.dev.
If you're working from the repo instead of installing from npm:
git clone https://github.com/cloudflare/vinext.git
cd vinext
pnpm install
pnpm run buildThis compiles the vinext package to packages/vinext/dist/. For active development, use pnpm --filter vinext run dev to run tsc --watch.
To use it against an external Next.js app, link the built package:
# From your Next.js project directory:
pnpm link /path/to/vinext/packages/vinextOr add it to your package.json as a file dependency:
{
"dependencies": {
"vinext": "file:/path/to/vinext/packages/vinext"
}
}vinext has peer dependencies on react ^19.2.4, react-dom ^19.2.4, and vite ^7.0.0. Then replace next with vinext in your scripts and run as normal.
This project is experimental and under active development. Issues and PRs are welcome.
If something doesn't work with your Next.js app, please file an issue — we want to hear about it.
Before you do, try pointing an AI agent at the problem. Open your project with Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, or whatever you use, and ask it to figure out why your app isn't working with vinext. In our experience, agents are very good at tracing through the vinext source, identifying the gap or bug, and often producing a fix or at least a clear diagnosis. An issue that includes "here's what the agent found" is significantly more actionable than "it doesn't work."
Even a partial diagnosis helps — stack traces, which next/* import is involved, whether it's a dev or production build issue, App Router vs Pages Router. The more context, the faster we can fix it.
MIT