Static Export

vinext supports full static site generation, creating HTML files at build time that can be deployed to any static hosting provider—no server required.

Overview

Static export renders all pages to HTML at build time, producing a directory of static files:

dist/
├── index.html
├── about.html
├── blog/
│   ├── post-1.html
│   └── post-2.html
├── 404.html
└── assets/
    ├── main.js
    └── main.css

Benefits:

Deploy to any static host (CDN, S3, GitHub Pages)
Maximum performance (no server rendering overhead)
Zero infrastructure requirements
Perfect for documentation sites, blogs, marketing pages

Limitations:

No server-side rendering (SSR)
No API routes
No dynamic routes without generateStaticParams() or getStaticPaths()
No Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR)

Enable Static Export

Add output: 'export' to your Next.js config:

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  output: 'export',
  trailingSlash: true, // Optional: add trailing slashes to URLs
};

Then build:

vinext build

vinext generates static HTML files in the dist/ directory.

Pages Router

Static Pages

Regular pages are rendered to HTML automatically:

// pages/index.tsx
export default function Home() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome</h1>
      <p>This will be static HTML</p>
    </div>
  );
}

Generates dist/index.html.

Pages with Data (getStaticProps)

Fetch data at build time:

// pages/about.tsx
interface Props {
  data: { title: string; content: string };
}

export default function About({ data }: Props) {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.title}</h1>
      <p>{data.content}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

export async function getStaticProps() {
  const data = await fetch('https://api.example.com/about').then(r => r.json());
  
  return {
    props: { data },
  };
}

getStaticProps runs at build time—the API is called once, and the result is baked into the HTML.

Dynamic Routes

Dynamic routes require getStaticPaths to specify which paths to generate:

// pages/blog/[slug].tsx
interface Props {
  post: { slug: string; title: string; content: string };
}

export default function BlogPost({ post }: Props) {
  return (
    <article>
      <h1>{post.title}</h1>
      <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: post.content }} />
    </article>
  );
}

export async function getStaticPaths() {
  const posts = await fetch('https://api.example.com/posts').then(r => r.json());
  
  return {
    paths: posts.map((post: any) => ({
      params: { slug: post.slug },
    })),
    fallback: false, // Must be false for static export
  };
}

export async function getStaticProps({ params }) {
  const post = await fetch(`https://api.example.com/posts/${params.slug}`).then(r => r.json());
  
  return {
    props: { post },
  };
}

Important: fallback must be false for static export. No dynamic fallback pages are generated.

Catch-All Routes

Catch-all routes work the same way:

// pages/docs/[...slug].tsx
export async function getStaticPaths() {
  return {
    paths: [
      { params: { slug: ['getting-started'] } },
      { params: { slug: ['api', 'reference'] } },
      { params: { slug: ['guides', 'deployment', 'cloudflare'] } },
    ],
    fallback: false,
  };
}

export async function getStaticProps({ params }) {
  const slug = params.slug.join('/');
  const doc = await fetchDoc(slug);
  
  return {
    props: { doc },
  };
}

Generates:

dist/docs/getting-started.html
dist/docs/api/reference.html
dist/docs/guides/deployment/cloudflare.html

Not Supported with Static Export

getServerSideProps

Error: getServerSideProps requires a server.

// ❌ This will cause a build error
export async function getServerSideProps() {
  return { props: {} };
}

Solution: Use getStaticProps instead.

API Routes

API routes are skipped with a warning:

// pages/api/hello.ts
// ⚠️ Skipped during static export
export default function handler(req, res) {
  res.json({ message: 'Hello' });
}

Alternative: Use external APIs or serverless functions.

App Router

Static Pages

Server Components are rendered at build time:

// app/page.tsx
export default function Home() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Welcome</h1>
      <p>This is static HTML</p>
    </div>
  );
}

Generates dist/index.html.

Pages with Data

Server Components can fetch data directly:

// app/about/page.tsx
async function getData() {
  const res = await fetch('https://api.example.com/about');
  return res.json();
}

export default async function About() {
  const data = await getData();
  
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>{data.title}</h1>
      <p>{data.content}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

The fetch runs at build time, and the result is baked into the HTML.

Dynamic Routes

Dynamic routes require generateStaticParams:

// app/blog/[slug]/page.tsx
interface Props {
  params: { slug: string };
}

export async function generateStaticParams() {
  const posts = await fetch('https://api.example.com/posts').then(r => r.json());
  
  return posts.map((post: any) => ({
    slug: post.slug,
  }));
}

export default async function BlogPost({ params }: Props) {
  const post = await fetch(`https://api.example.com/posts/${params.slug}`).then(r => r.json());
  
  return (
    <article>
      <h1>{post.title}</h1>
      <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: post.content }} />
    </article>
  );
}

Catch-All Routes

// app/docs/[...slug]/page.tsx
export async function generateStaticParams() {
  return [
    { slug: ['getting-started'] },
    { slug: ['api', 'reference'] },
    { slug: ['guides', 'deployment'] },
  ];
}

export default async function DocPage({ params }: { params: { slug: string[] } }) {
  const path = params.slug.join('/');
  const doc = await fetchDoc(path);
  
  return (
    <article>
      <h1>{doc.title}</h1>
      <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: doc.content }} />
    </article>
  );
}

Nested Dynamic Routes

For nested dynamic segments, use top-down params passing:

// app/[category]/[product]/page.tsx

// Parent generates categories
export async function generateStaticParams() {
  return [
    { category: 'electronics' },
    { category: 'clothing' },
  ];
}

// Child receives parent params and generates products
export async function generateStaticParams({ params }: { params: { category: string } }) {
  const products = await fetchProducts(params.category);
  return products.map(p => ({ product: p.slug }));
}

export default async function ProductPage({ params }: { params: { category: string; product: string } }) {
  const product = await fetchProduct(params.category, params.product);
  return <div>{product.name}</div>;
}

Route Handlers (API Routes)

Route handlers are skipped with a warning:

// app/api/hello/route.ts
// ⚠️ Skipped during static export
export async function GET() {
  return Response.json({ message: 'Hello' });
}

Static Metadata

Metadata is included in the generated HTML:

// app/blog/[slug]/page.tsx
import type { Metadata } from 'next';

export async function generateMetadata({ params }: { params: { slug: string } }): Promise<Metadata> {
  const post = await fetchPost(params.slug);
  
  return {
    title: post.title,
    description: post.excerpt,
    openGraph: {
      title: post.title,
      description: post.excerpt,
      images: [post.coverImage],
    },
  };
}

Build Process

vinext performs the following steps during static export:

Route Discovery

Scans your pages/ or app/ directory to find all routes.

Path Expansion

For dynamic routes, calls getStaticPaths() (Pages Router) or generateStaticParams() (App Router) to expand all possible paths.

Rendering

Renders each route to HTML:

Pages Router: Calls getStaticProps, renders with React SSR
App Router: Starts dev server, fetches each URL, saves HTML

Asset Copying

Copies static assets (JS, CSS, images) from public/ and Vite build output to dist/.

404 Page

Renders custom 404 page if present, otherwise uses default.

Deployment

Cloudflare Pages

Deploy the dist/ directory:

npx wrangler pages deploy dist

Or configure automatic deployments via GitHub integration in the Cloudflare dashboard.

Vercel

npm install -g vercel
vercel --prod

Vercel auto-detects the static output and deploys it.

Netlify

npm install -g netlify-cli
netlify deploy --prod --dir=dist

Or connect your GitHub repo for automatic deployments.

GitHub Pages

Add a workflow:

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      
      - name: Build
        run: npm run build
      
      - name: Deploy
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./dist

Configure GitHub Pages to serve from the gh-pages branch.

AWS S3 + CloudFront

# Upload to S3
aws s3 sync dist/ s3://my-bucket --delete

# Invalidate CloudFront cache
aws cloudfront create-invalidation --distribution-id EDFDVBD6EXAMPLE --paths "/*"

Nginx

Copy dist/ to your web server:

scp -r dist/* user@server:/var/www/html/

Configure Nginx:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;
  root /var/www/html;
  index index.html;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/ =404;
  }

  error_page 404 /404.html;
}

Advanced Configuration

Trailing Slash

Control URL format:

module.exports = {
  output: 'export',
  trailingSlash: true,
};

With trailingSlash: true:

/about → dist/about/index.html
Served as /about/

With trailingSlash: false (default):

/about → dist/about.html
Served as /about

Base Path

Deploy to a subdirectory:

module.exports = {
  output: 'export',
  basePath: '/docs',
};

All routes are prefixed with /docs:

/ → /docs/
/about → /docs/about

Links and asset paths are automatically adjusted.

Image Optimization

Images are not optimized in static export. Options:

Disable optimization:

module.exports = {
  output: 'export',
  images: {
    unoptimized: true,
  },
};

Use a CDN: Upload images to a CDN that handles optimization (Cloudflare Images, Imgix, Cloudinary)
Optimize at build time: Use an image optimization tool before deploying

Common Patterns

Documentation Site

// app/docs/[...slug]/page.tsx
import fs from 'fs';
import path from 'path';
import { marked } from 'marked';

export async function generateStaticParams() {
  const docsDir = path.join(process.cwd(), 'content/docs');
  const files = getAllMarkdownFiles(docsDir);
  
  return files.map(file => ({
    slug: file.replace('.md', '').split('/'),
  }));
}

export default async function DocPage({ params }: { params: { slug: string[] } }) {
  const filePath = path.join(process.cwd(), 'content/docs', ...params.slug) + '.md';
  const content = fs.readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
  const html = marked(content);
  
  return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: html }} />;
}

Blog with Pagination

// app/blog/page/[page]/page.tsx
const POSTS_PER_PAGE = 10;

export async function generateStaticParams() {
  const posts = await fetchAllPosts();
  const pageCount = Math.ceil(posts.length / POSTS_PER_PAGE);
  
  return Array.from({ length: pageCount }, (_, i) => ({
    page: String(i + 1),
  }));
}

export default async function BlogPage({ params }: { params: { page: string } }) {
  const page = parseInt(params.page);
  const posts = await fetchPosts(page, POSTS_PER_PAGE);
  
  return (
    <div>
      {posts.map(post => (
        <article key={post.id}>
          <h2>{post.title}</h2>
          <p>{post.excerpt}</p>
        </article>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Multi-Language Site

// app/[lang]/page.tsx
export async function generateStaticParams() {
  return [
    { lang: 'en' },
    { lang: 'fr' },
    { lang: 'de' },
  ];
}

export default async function HomePage({ params }: { params: { lang: string } }) {
  const content = await loadContent(params.lang);
  
  return <div>{content}</div>;
}

Troubleshooting

Build Error: getServerSideProps Not Supported

Error: Page uses getServerSideProps which is not supported with output: 'export' Solution: Replace getServerSideProps with getStaticProps. Server-side rendering requires a server.

Build Error: Dynamic Route Missing Paths

Error: Dynamic route requires getStaticPaths with output: 'export' Solution: Add getStaticPaths (Pages Router) or generateStaticParams (App Router):

export async function generateStaticParams() {
  return [{ slug: 'example' }];
}

404 on Dynamic Routes

Problem: Dynamic routes return 404 after deployment Solution: Most static hosts expect .html files. Configure your host to:

Append .html to paths without extensions
Use a rewrite rule: /blog/post-1 → /blog/post-1.html

Or enable trailing slashes:

module.exports = {
  trailingSlash: true,
};

This generates /blog/post-1/index.html which is served as /blog/post-1/ by default.

Large Build Time

Problem: Static export takes a long time Solution: You’re generating many pages. Options:

Reduce the number of pages generated
Use ISR instead (requires a server)
Deploy to Cloudflare Workers for on-demand rendering

Data Not Updating

Problem: Content changes don’t appear after deployment Solution: Static export bakes data at build time. To update:

Rebuild: vinext build
Redeploy the new dist/ directory

For frequently-changing data, use client-side fetching instead:

'use client';
import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

export default function Page() {
  const [data, setData] = useState(null);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    fetch('https://api.example.com/data')
      .then(r => r.json())
      .then(setData);
  }, []);
  
  return <div>{data?.message}</div>;
}

Next Steps

Deployment Guide

Deploy your static site to production

Configuration

Customize build and export settings

Cloudflare Pages

Deploy to Cloudflare Pages

Examples

Explore static export examples

Get Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Documentation Index

​Static Export

​Overview

​Enable Static Export

​Pages Router

​Static Pages

​Pages with Data (getStaticProps)

​Dynamic Routes

​Catch-All Routes

​Not Supported with Static Export

​getServerSideProps

​API Routes

​App Router

​Static Pages

​Pages with Data

​Dynamic Routes

​Catch-All Routes

​Nested Dynamic Routes

​Route Handlers (API Routes)

​Static Metadata

​Build Process

​Deployment

​Cloudflare Pages

​Vercel

​Netlify

​GitHub Pages

​AWS S3 + CloudFront

​Nginx

​Advanced Configuration

​Trailing Slash

​Base Path

​Image Optimization

​Common Patterns

​Documentation Site

​Blog with Pagination

​Multi-Language Site

​Troubleshooting

​Build Error: getServerSideProps Not Supported

​Build Error: Dynamic Route Missing Paths

​404 on Dynamic Routes

​Large Build Time

​Data Not Updating

​Next Steps

Deployment Guide

Configuration

Cloudflare Pages

Examples

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Static Export

Overview

Enable Static Export

Pages Router

Static Pages

Pages with Data (getStaticProps)

Dynamic Routes

Catch-All Routes

Not Supported with Static Export

getServerSideProps

API Routes

App Router

Static Pages

Pages with Data

Dynamic Routes

Catch-All Routes

Nested Dynamic Routes

Route Handlers (API Routes)

Static Metadata

Build Process

Deployment

Cloudflare Pages

Vercel

Netlify

GitHub Pages

AWS S3 + CloudFront

Nginx

Advanced Configuration

Trailing Slash

Base Path

Image Optimization

Common Patterns

Documentation Site

Blog with Pagination

Multi-Language Site

Troubleshooting

Build Error: getServerSideProps Not Supported

Build Error: Dynamic Route Missing Paths

404 on Dynamic Routes

Large Build Time

Data Not Updating

Next Steps