nextjs16-skills

---name: nextjs16-skillsdescription: Key facts and links for Next.js 16. Use for planning, writing, and troubleshooting Next.js 16 changes.---

Links

• Docs: https://nextjs.org/docs
• Upgrade guide (v16): https://nextjs.org/docs/app/guides/upgrading/version-16
• Release notes/blog: https://nextjs.org/blog/next-16

Upgrade

# Automated upgrade
npx @next/codemod@canary upgrade latest

# Manual upgrade
npm install next@latest react@latest react-dom@latest

# New project
npx create-next-app@latest

Codemod covers (high-level): moves Turbopack config, migrates next lint → ESLint CLI, migrates middleware → proxy, removes some unstable_ prefixes, removes route-level experimental_ppr.

TypeScript: also upgrade @types/react and @types/react-dom.

What’s New (v16)

• Cache Components: opt-in caching via the "use cache" directive; evolves/absorbs PPR.
• Next.js DevTools MCP: Model Context Protocol integration for AI-assisted debugging.
• proxy.ts: clearer network boundary; middleware.ts deprecated for most use.
• Better logs/metrics: more detailed next dev and build timing output.

Performance / DX

• Turbopack: stable; default bundler (opt out with next dev --webpack, next build --webpack).
• If you have a custom webpack config, next build may fail (to prevent misconfiguration). Fix by migrating config, using next build --webpack, or using Turbopack and removing/ignoring the webpack config.
• Turbopack config moved: experimental.turbopack → top-level turbopack in next.config.*.
• Turbopack migration gotchas:
  • Sass imports: remove the Webpack-only ~ prefix (e.g. @import 'bootstrap/...';).
  • Browser bundles must not import Node built-ins (e.g. fs). If unavoidable, use turbopack.resolveAlias as a stopgap.
• Turbopack filesystem cache (dev, beta): experimental.turbopackFileSystemCacheForDev: true.
• React Compiler support: stable opt-in via reactCompiler: true (expect higher build/compile cost).
• Build Adapters API: alpha (custom build adapters).
• Routing/prefetching rewrite: layout deduplication + incremental prefetching.

Caching APIs (key signatures)

• revalidateTag(tag, profile) now requires a cacheLife profile (or { expire }) for SWR behavior.
• updateTag(tag) (Server Actions only): read-your-writes semantics.
• refresh() (Server Actions only): refresh uncached data; does not mutate cache.
• cacheLife and cacheTag are stable (no unstable_ prefix).

Requirements (v16)

• Node.js: 20.9+ (Node 18 not supported)
• TypeScript: 5.1+
• Browsers: Chrome/Edge/Firefox 111+, Safari 16.4+

Breaking / Behavior Changes (high-impact)

• Async Request APIs: sync access removed. Use await params, await searchParams, await cookies(), await headers(), await draftMode().
• Tip (TypeScript): npx next typegen can generate helpers like PageProps, LayoutProps, RouteContext to migrate params/searchParams types safely.
• Metadata images: opengraph-image, twitter-image, icon, apple-icon now receive params (and id) as Promises in the image function.
• Sitemaps: sitemap({ id }) now receives id as a Promise when using generateSitemaps.
• Parallel routes: slots require explicit default.js.
• next/image defaults changed (cache TTL, sizes/qualities); local src with query strings requires images.localPatterns.

Other notable behavior changes:

• next dev and next build use separate output dirs (next dev → .next/dev) and a lockfile prevents concurrent instances.
• Scroll behavior: Next.js no longer overrides global scroll-behavior: smooth during navigations; add data-scroll-behavior="smooth" on <html> to restore the previous override behavior.
• ESLint: @next/eslint-plugin-next defaults to ESLint Flat Config; legacy .eslintrc projects may need migration.

Removed / Deprecated (high-level)

• Removed: AMP support; next lint (use ESLint/Biome directly); eslint option in next.config.*; serverRuntimeConfig/publicRuntimeConfig (use env vars); experimental.ppr + route-level experimental_ppr; unstable_rootParams.
• Deprecated: middleware.ts filename (prefer proxy.ts); next/legacy/image; images.domains (prefer images.remotePatterns); revalidateTag(tag) single-arg form.
• proxy.ts note: proxy runs on nodejs only; Edge runtime is not supported in proxy. Keep middleware.ts if you must stay on Edge.
• Config rename example: skipMiddlewareUrlNormalize → skipProxyUrlNormalize.