[Feature] Full client side navigation

[lucasbasquerotto]

Goals

• Improve navigation speed in Next.js App Router by avoiding unnecessary server calls after the first page load
• Provide a smoother experience in development and production, closer to instant client-side transitions
• Reduce redundant re-renders and server load while keeping SEO and media previews intact

Non-Goals

No response

Background

I use Next.js primarily for SEO and media link presentation. With the App Router, the first load of a route works well since server-rendered data from the database is delivered and crawlers receive the full HTML.

The issue arises after the initial page load. Once the static assets are already fetched, I only want client-side navigation. Today, Next.js still forces round trips to the server on every navigation, even when the data has already been loaded.

This creates two problems:

• In development, navigation can take seconds to complete (even with Turbopack). Even when it is under a second, it still feels slow compared to instant client-side transitions.
• In production, server calls that are not needed add latency and waste resources, causing unnecessary re-renders and hurting overall performance.

Proposal

Introduce a new convention: client.js / client.tsx files that live alongside page.js / page.tsx.

• On the first request, Next.js serves page.tsx, ensuring proper server rendering for SEO and media previews.
• After that, during client-side navigations, if a client.tsx file exists for the route, it is used instead of re-fetching the server component tree.
• If no client.tsx file is found, Next.js falls back to the default page.tsx behavior.
• client.tsx can also replace page.tsx entirely for routes that do not require server rendering.

This gives developers explicit control:

• page.tsx handles SEO and first-load SSR.
• client.tsx handles fast, client-only navigations.

The result is faster development workflow, reduced server load, and smoother navigation in production without giving up the benefits of SSR for SEO and link previews.