Quick Start

If you're feeling impatient and prefer to skip all of our wonderful documentation, here is the bare minimum to get going with TanStack Router using both file-based route generation and code-based route configuration:

Using File-Based Route Generation

File based route generation (through Vite, and other supported bundlers) is the recommended way to use TanStack Router as it provides the best experience, performance, and ergonomics for the least amount of effort.

Install the Vite Plugin and the Router Devtools

bash

npm install --save-dev @tanstack/router-plugin @tanstack/router-devtools

npm install --save-dev @tanstack/router-plugin @tanstack/router-devtools

Configure the Vite Plugin

tsx

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import { TanStackRouterVite } from '@tanstack/router-plugin/vite'

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    TanStackRouterVite(),
    viteReact(),
    // ...,
  ],
})

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import viteReact from '@vitejs/plugin-react'
import { TanStackRouterVite } from '@tanstack/router-plugin/vite'

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    TanStackRouterVite(),
    viteReact(),
    // ...,
  ],
})

Tip

If you are not using Vite, or any supported bundler, you can check out the File-Based Routing guide for more info.

Create the following files:

src/routes/__root.tsx
src/routes/index.lazy.tsx
src/routes/about.lazy.tsx
src/main.tsx

🧠 Route files with the .lazy.tsx extension are lazy loaded via separate bundles to keep the main bundle size as lean as possible.

src/routes/__root.tsx

tsx

import { createRootRoute, Link, Outlet } from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { TanStackRouterDevtools } from '@tanstack/router-devtools'

export const Route = createRootRoute({
  component: () => (
    <>
      <div className="p-2 flex gap-2">
        <Link to="/" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          Home
        </Link>{' '}
        <Link to="/about" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          About
        </Link>
      </div>
      <hr />
      <Outlet />
      <TanStackRouterDevtools />
    </>
  ),
})

import { createRootRoute, Link, Outlet } from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { TanStackRouterDevtools } from '@tanstack/router-devtools'

export const Route = createRootRoute({
  component: () => (
    <>
      <div className="p-2 flex gap-2">
        <Link to="/" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          Home
        </Link>{' '}
        <Link to="/about" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          About
        </Link>
      </div>
      <hr />
      <Outlet />
      <TanStackRouterDevtools />
    </>
  ),
})

src/routes/index.lazy.tsx

tsx

import { createLazyFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createLazyFileRoute('/')({
  component: Index,
})

function Index() {
  return (
    <div className="p-2">
      <h3>Welcome Home!</h3>
    </div>
  )
}

import { createLazyFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createLazyFileRoute('/')({
  component: Index,
})

function Index() {
  return (
    <div className="p-2">
      <h3>Welcome Home!</h3>
    </div>
  )
}

src/routes/about.lazy.tsx

tsx

import { createLazyFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createLazyFileRoute('/about')({
  component: About,
})

function About() {
  return <div className="p-2">Hello from About!</div>
}

import { createLazyFileRoute } from '@tanstack/react-router'

export const Route = createLazyFileRoute('/about')({
  component: About,
})

function About() {
  return <div className="p-2">Hello from About!</div>
}

src/main.tsx

Regardless if you are using the @tanstack/router-plugin package or manually running the tsr watch/tsr generate commands from your package scripts, the following file will be generated for you at src/routeTree.gen.ts.

Import the generated route tree and create a new router instance:

tsx

import React, { StrictMode } from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'
import { RouterProvider, createRouter } from '@tanstack/react-router'

// Import the generated route tree
import { routeTree } from './routeTree.gen'

// Create a new router instance
const router = createRouter({ routeTree })

// Register the router instance for type safety
declare module '@tanstack/react-router' {
  interface Register {
    router: typeof router
  }
}

// Render the app
const rootElement = document.getElementById('root')!
if (!rootElement.innerHTML) {
  const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(rootElement)
  root.render(
    <StrictMode>
      <RouterProvider router={router} />
    </StrictMode>,
  )
}

import React, { StrictMode } from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'
import { RouterProvider, createRouter } from '@tanstack/react-router'

// Import the generated route tree
import { routeTree } from './routeTree.gen'

// Create a new router instance
const router = createRouter({ routeTree })

// Register the router instance for type safety
declare module '@tanstack/react-router' {
  interface Register {
    router: typeof router
  }
}

// Render the app
const rootElement = document.getElementById('root')!
if (!rootElement.innerHTML) {
  const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(rootElement)
  root.render(
    <StrictMode>
      <RouterProvider router={router} />
    </StrictMode>,
  )
}

If you are working with this pattern you should change the id of the root <div> on your index.html file to <div id='root'></div>

Using Code-Based Route Configuration

Important

The following example shows how to configure routes using code, and for simplicity's sake is in a single file for this demo. While code-based generation allows you to declare many routes and even the router instance in a single file, we recommend splitting your routes into separate files for better organization and performance as your application grows.

tsx

import React, { StrictMode } from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'
import {
  Outlet,
  RouterProvider,
  Link,
  createRouter,
  createRoute,
  createRootRoute,
} from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { TanStackRouterDevtools } from '@tanstack/router-devtools'

const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
  component: () => (
    <>
      <div className="p-2 flex gap-2">
        <Link to="/" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          Home
        </Link>{' '}
        <Link to="/about" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          About
        </Link>
      </div>
      <hr />
      <Outlet />
      <TanStackRouterDevtools />
    </>
  ),
})

const indexRoute = createRoute({
  getParentRoute: () => rootRoute,
  path: '/',
  component: function Index() {
    return (
      <div className="p-2">
        <h3>Welcome Home!</h3>
      </div>
    )
  },
})

const aboutRoute = createRoute({
  getParentRoute: () => rootRoute,
  path: '/about',
  component: function About() {
    return <div className="p-2">Hello from About!</div>
  },
})

const routeTree = rootRoute.addChildren([indexRoute, aboutRoute])

const router = createRouter({ routeTree })

declare module '@tanstack/react-router' {
  interface Register {
    router: typeof router
  }
}

const rootElement = document.getElementById('app')!
if (!rootElement.innerHTML) {
  const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(rootElement)
  root.render(
    <StrictMode>
      <RouterProvider router={router} />
    </StrictMode>,
  )
}

import React, { StrictMode } from 'react'
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom/client'
import {
  Outlet,
  RouterProvider,
  Link,
  createRouter,
  createRoute,
  createRootRoute,
} from '@tanstack/react-router'
import { TanStackRouterDevtools } from '@tanstack/router-devtools'

const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
  component: () => (
    <>
      <div className="p-2 flex gap-2">
        <Link to="/" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          Home
        </Link>{' '}
        <Link to="/about" className="[&.active]:font-bold">
          About
        </Link>
      </div>
      <hr />
      <Outlet />
      <TanStackRouterDevtools />
    </>
  ),
})

const indexRoute = createRoute({
  getParentRoute: () => rootRoute,
  path: '/',
  component: function Index() {
    return (
      <div className="p-2">
        <h3>Welcome Home!</h3>
      </div>
    )
  },
})

const aboutRoute = createRoute({
  getParentRoute: () => rootRoute,
  path: '/about',
  component: function About() {
    return <div className="p-2">Hello from About!</div>
  },
})

const routeTree = rootRoute.addChildren([indexRoute, aboutRoute])

const router = createRouter({ routeTree })

declare module '@tanstack/react-router' {
  interface Register {
    router: typeof router
  }
}

const rootElement = document.getElementById('app')!
if (!rootElement.innerHTML) {
  const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(rootElement)
  root.render(
    <StrictMode>
      <RouterProvider router={router} />
    </StrictMode>,
  )
}

If you glossed over these examples or didn't understand something, we don't blame you, because there's so much more to learn to really take advantage of TanStack Router! Let's move on.