Understanding App Directory Architecture In Next.js — Smashing Magazine

Since Next.js 13 release, there’s been some debate about how stable the shiny new features packed in the announcement are. On “What’s New in Next.js 13?” we have covered the release announced and established that though carrying some interesting experiments, Next.js 13 is definitely stable. And since then, most of us have seen a very clear landscape when it comes to the new <Link> and <Image> components, and even the (still beta) @next/font; these are all good to go, instant profit. Turbopack, as clearly stated in the announcement, is still alpha: aimed strictly for development builds and still heavily under development. Whether you can or can’t use it in your daily routine depends on your stack, as there are integrations and optimizations still somewhere on the way. This article’s scope is strictly about the main character of the announcement: the new App Directory architecture (AppDir, for short).

Because the App directory is the one that keeps bringing questions due to it being partnered with an important evolution in the React ecosystem — React Server Components — and with edge runtimes. It clearly is the shape of the future of our Next.js apps. It is experimental...