The map
- Not started
- In progress
- Done
- Builds on
- 01The routerFolders, layouts, the boundary0/2
- 02Rendering and cachingShells, holes, lifetimes, invalidation0/3
- 03The server sideActions, handlers, Proxy0/3
- 04Shipping itAssets, targets, pitfalls0/3
- 05Next: system designSame ideas, at service scale
- CDN and edge cachingLibrary ↗A prerendered static shell is meant to be served from a CDN. This is how the edge stores, revalidates and purges what Next.js produces.
- Backend for frontendLibrary ↗Route Handlers, Server Components and Server Actions together make Next.js a backend for one frontend. The library topic is that idea as a service of its own.
- Cache-asideLibrary ↗`use cache` on a data function is the same move as cache-aside: look up by key, otherwise compute and store. The difference is that the framework builds the key for you.
- Graceful degradationLibrary ↗A Suspense fallback and an error boundary decide what the user sees while part of a page is slow or broken. Graceful degradation is that decision for a whole system.
Everything here is about Next.js 16 (16.4 at the time of writing) with the App Router and Cache Components, which create-next-app now turns on by default. Where the older caching model (route segment options, fetch cache options, unstable_cache) still applies to apps that have not opted in, the topic says so. The React topics on Server Components and Suspense are prerequisites and share their progress with the React path.
Where this path leads
- Frontend engineer: from JavaScript to a fast, accessible page →What a frontend engineer needs underneath the framework: how JavaScript runs, how the browser turns your code into pixels and events, what makes a page accessible, fast and safe, and how to test the journeys that matter.
- Fast reads →Serve the same answer cheaply, close to the reader, without serving it wrong.