Request to move API routes to a custom server folder instead of pages/api or app/api

[Labmem-00]

Goals

Allow Next.js to support custom directory paths for API routes. For example, an option to move API routes to a server directory.

Non-Goals

Background

I have been working with Next.js for a while, and I find that the current convention of placing API routes in the pages/api or app/api folder is fine for smaller projects. However, as the project grows, I would like to separate the API routes into a custom server directory to keep the project structure clean and maintainable.

Currently, in large-scale applications, it becomes a challenge to differentiate between client-side and server-side code when both are located in pages/api or app/api.

Proposal

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

[icyJoseph]

API routes in the pages/api or app/api

app/api is not necessary. In App Router, it is the file name that makes a file a router handler, route.ts, not its folder location. So, for App Router, your issue is already solved. It is not mandatory there.

In Pages Router, pages/api, was done because, it is a way to separate server logic, and keep a structure clean and maintainable, since in Pages Router, all files within pages are reachable by clients. So, to make it obvious which ones would serve React made pages, or be API's for your backend, the API Routes, were placed under pages/api. Note that, initially, these were supposed to be part of the backend for your frontend BFF, model.