react-pragmatic-router

Getting started:

npm i react-pragmatic-router

Usage:

<BrowserRouter>
	<Route pattern="/" element={() => <SamplePage />} />
	<Route pattern="/second" element={({ params }) => <SecondPage />} />
	<Route pattern="/second/third" element={() => <ThirdPage />} />
	<Route pattern="/data/:someId" element={({ params }) => <ParamsPage someId={params.someId} />} />
	<Route pattern="/data/:someId/more/:someOtherId" element={({ params }) => <NestedParamsPage
		someId={params.someId}
		someOtherId={params.someOtherId}
	/>} />
</BrowserRouter>

Or:

<Router location={"/"} setLocation={(newLocation: string) => {}}>
	<Route pattern="/" element={() => <SamplePage />} />
	<Route pattern="/second" element={({ params }) => <SecondPage />} />
	<Route pattern="/second/third" element={() => <ThirdPage />} />
	<Route pattern="/data/:someId" element={({ params }) => <ParamsPage someId={params.someId} />} />
	<Route pattern="/data/:someId/more/:someOtherId" element={({ params }) => <NestedParamsPage
		someId={params.someId}
		someOtherId={params.someOtherId}
	/>} />
</Router>

Params:

import { DOMRouter, Route } from 'react-pragmatic-router';

function Page(props: { someParam: string }) {
	return <div>
		<h1>Param: {props.someParam}</h1>
	</div>;
}


function App() {
	return <BrowserRouter>
		<Route pattern="/page/:someParam" element={({ params }) => <Page someParam={params.someParam} />} />
	</BrowserRouter>;
}

Links:

import { Link, NavLink } from 'react-pragmatic-router';

function Page(props: { someParam: string }) {
	return <div>
		<h1>Link</h1>
        
        <Link href="/some-other-page">To some other page</Link>
		<NavLink activeClass="active" exact href="/some-other-page">Navlink</NavLink>
	</div>;
}

Exact route:

Exact is the same as adding ^ before and $ after your route ^/posts$ and /posts with exact is the same

These two routes does the same thing

<BrowserRouter>
	<Route pattern="/posts" exact element={() => <PostsPage />} />
	<Route pattern="^/posts$" element={() => <PostsPage />} />
</BrowserRouter>;

SwitchRoute:

<BrowserRouter>
	<SwitchRoute
        exact
		patterns={{
			'/posts/create-post': () => <CreatePostPage />,
			'/posts/:postId': ({ params }) => <PostPage id={params.postId} />,
		}}
	/>
</BrowserRouter>;

Programmatic navigation:

import { Link, NavLink, useRouter } from 'react-pragmatic-router';

function Page(props: { someParam: string }) {
	const { setLocation } = useRouter();
	return <div>
		<h1>Programmatic navigation</h1>

		<button onClick={() => setLocation(`/some-new-location`)}>Trigger navigation</button>
	</div>;
}

Search params:

useRouter().location includes the query string, and a query-only navigation (e.g. /users/42 → /users/42?tab=activity) re-renders every component that reads the router context. useSearchParams() is a small convenience that returns a URLSearchParams keyed off the current location:

import { Link, useSearchParams } from 'react-pragmatic-router';

function UserDetail({ params }: { params: { id: string } }) {
	const search = useSearchParams();
	const tab = search.get('tab') ?? 'profile';

	return <div>
		<Link href={`/users/${params.id}`}>Profile</Link>
		<Link href={`/users/${params.id}?tab=activity`}>Activity</Link>
		<p>Current tab: {tab}</p>
	</div>;
}

Route params from patternMatcher always come from the pathname; the query is never merged into them.

Vite plugin (file-based routing):

Add the plugin to vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react';
import { reactPragmaticRouterPlugin } from 'react-pragmatic-router/vite';

export default defineConfig({
    plugins: [
        react(),
        reactPragmaticRouterPlugin({ path: './src/routes' }),
    ],
});

Add a reference in an ambient .d.ts (e.g. src/vite-env.d.ts) so TS knows the virtual module:

/// <reference types="react-pragmatic-router/client" />

Then in your app:

import { Suspense } from 'react';
import { BrowserRouter } from 'react-pragmatic-router';
import { Routes, ModalRoutes } from 'virtual:react-pragmatic-router/routes';

export function App() {
    return <BrowserRouter>
        <Suspense fallback={null}>
            <Routes />
        </Suspense>
        <Suspense fallback={null}>
            <ModalRoutes />
        </Suspense>
    </BrowserRouter>;
}

Use two separate <Suspense> boundaries — one per slot — so a loading modal chunk doesn't collapse the background page (and vice versa).

Conventions

File	Pattern
routes/index.tsx	/
routes/about.tsx	/about
routes/users/index.tsx	/users
routes/users/new.tsx	/users/new
routes/users/[id].tsx	/users/:id
routes/users/[id]/posts.tsx	/users/:id/posts
routes/docs/[...slug].tsx	/docs/*slug
routes/(marketing)/pricing.tsx	/pricing
routes/_layout.tsx	wraps every page
routes/users/_layout.tsx	wraps every /users/* page
routes/@modal/edit-thing/[id].tsx	/edit-thing/:id (overlay modal)

• Each route file must export default a component. It receives { params } as a prop.
• [id] → named param. [...slug] → catch-all, matches the rest of the path (including slashes), sorted after all other routes.
• Folders named (something) are route groups: they don't appear in the URL, but can contain their own _layout.tsx that applies only to pages inside the group.
• _layout.tsx at any depth wraps every descendant route. Layouts receive { children, params }. Nest freely — routes/_layout.tsx wraps everything, routes/users/_layout.tsx additionally wraps /users/*.
• Other files prefixed with _ are ignored (treat them as private). Folders prefixed with _ are also skipped entirely, so you can colocate non-route code — e.g. routes/_components/Button.tsx or routes/users/_hooks/useUser.ts — without it showing up as a URL.
• Files with a sub-extension (anything with a . in the base name, e.g. [id].trpc.tsx, users.server.ts, index.test.tsx) are treated as colocated files and are not routes. Only foo.tsx becomes a route, not foo.anything.tsx.
• Sorting: static segments beat dynamic ones beat catch-all. So /users/new wins over /users/:id, and /users/:id wins over /*rest.
• SwitchRoute with exact: true is used under the hood, so only one route renders at a time.
• Dev server does a full reload when route files are added, removed, or renamed.

Modals

Files inside any @modal/ folder are modal routes. The @modal segment is dropped from the URL (like a route group), so routes/@modal/edit-thing/[id].tsx becomes /edit-thing/:id. Modals don't inherit page layouts.

To open one as an overlay, pass the modal prop to <Link> / <NavLink>:

<Link href="/edit-thing/42" modal>Edit 42</Link>

This stashes the current URL in history.state as backgroundLocation. <Routes /> then renders against the background, so the page you were on stays mounted, and <ModalRoutes /> renders the modal on top. Browser back closes the modal; refresh shows the modal standalone (no background).

Inside a modal, read backgroundLocation and call setLocation to close:

const { backgroundLocation, setLocation } = useRouter();
const close = () => setLocation(backgroundLocation ?? '/');

Transitions (motion/react)

The virtual module also exports two hooks so you can drive animations from the matched pattern:

import {
    Routes,
    ModalRoutes,
    useMatchedRoute,
    useMatchedModal,
} from 'virtual:react-pragmatic-router/routes';

• useMatchedRoute() → the matched page pattern (matched against backgroundLocation ?? location), or null.
• useMatchedModal() → the matched modal pattern (matched against the live location), or null.

Use them as <AnimatePresence> keys.

Modals (always a top-level overlay):

function AnimatedModals() {
    const matched = useMatchedModal();
    return (
        <AnimatePresence>
            {matched && (
                <Suspense fallback={null}>
                    <motion.div
                        key={matched}
                        initial={{ opacity: 0, scale: 0.96 }}
                        animate={{ opacity: 1, scale: 1 }}
                        exit={{ opacity: 0, scale: 0.96 }}
                    >
                        <ModalRoutes />
                    </motion.div>
                </Suspense>
            )}
        </AnimatePresence>
    );
}

Put the <Suspense> inside the <AnimatePresence> conditional, so the <motion.div> only mounts once the modal chunk has loaded. Otherwise the enter animation starts on an empty wrapper and the content pops in mid-tween.

Pages — put the <AnimatePresence> inside each layout, not around <Routes />. The plugin already keys every layout by its file identity and every leaf page by its pattern, so each layout's children slot is a keyed child that AnimatePresence can track:

// routes/_layout.tsx
import { AnimatePresence } from 'motion/react';

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
    return (
        <>
            <Header />
            <main>
                <AnimatePresence mode="wait">{children}</AnimatePresence>
            </main>
        </>
    );
}

Then have each leaf page wrap its content in a motion.* element with initial/animate/exit. A shared wrapper keeps this tidy:

// routes/_components/Page.tsx
export function Page({ children }) {
    return (
        <motion.div
            initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 8 }}
            animate={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}
            exit={{ opacity: 0, y: -8 }}
            transition={{ duration: 0.2 }}
        >
            {children}
        </motion.div>
    );
}

Why this works:

• Layout keys are stable per layout file (layout:0, layout:1, …). An AnimatePresence inside routes/_layout.tsx sees its child key stay the same when you navigate between /users and /users/42 (both wrap a layout:1 element at that slot), so the root layout does not re-animate.
• The inner routes/users/_layout.tsx gets a keyed leaf as its child, so /users → /users/new triggers an exit/enter inside that layout only.
• /users/42 → /users/43 animates too: the leaf is keyed by the resolved pathname (not the pattern), so dynamic-param siblings swap cleanly. Revisiting the same URL keeps the key stable, so it won't re-animate unnecessarily.

See examples/vite-advanced for a complete setup demonstrating layouts, groups, dynamic params and catch-all routes.

Advanced (Animations etc):

import { ReactNode, useMemo } from 'react';
import { useRouter, patternMatcher, ParamsType } from 'react-pragmatic-router';
import { AnimatePresence, motion } from 'framer-motion';

function AnimatedRoute(props: {
	pattern: string;
	exact?: boolean;
	element: ({ params }: { params: ParamsType }) => ReactNode
}) {
	const { location } = useRouter();

	const matches = patternMatcher(props.pattern, location, props.exact);
	const cached = useMemo(() => {
		if (!matches) return null;
		return props.element({ params: matches?.groups || {} });
	}, [!!matches, JSON.stringify(matches?.groups)]);

	return <AnimatePresence mode="wait">{!!matches && cached}</AnimatePresence>;
}

function AnimatedPage() {
	return <motion.div
		initial={{ opacity: 0, y: '-20px' }}
		animate={{ opacity: 1, y: '0px' }}
		exit={{ opacity: 0, y: '-20px' }}
		transition={{ duration: 0.2 }}
		style={{
			position: 'fixed',
			top: '0',
			left: '0',
			width: '100vw',
			height: '100vh',
            background: "white"
		}}
	>
		<h1>Animated page!</h1>
	</motion.div>;
}

export function App() {
	return <BrowserRouter>
		<AnimatedRoute pattern="/" element={() => <AnimatedPage />} />
		<AnimatedRoute pattern="/some-other-page" element={() => <AnimatedPage />} />
	</BrowserRouter>;
}