Rendering Strategies (App Router)

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Choose rendering strategy based on data freshness and scaling needs. See Strategy Matrix.

Workflow: Choose a Rendering Strategy

1. Determine data freshness — Static content? Use SSG. Periodic updates? Use ISR. Personalized? Use SSR.
2. Configure fetch — force-cache for SSG, revalidate: N for ISR, no-store for SSR.
3. Add Suspense for streaming — Wrap slow components in <Suspense> with a fallback.
4. Enable PPR if hybrid — Set ppr: true in next.config.js for static shell + dynamic regions.

ISR with generateStaticParams Example

See implementation examples

Implementation Guidelines

• SSG (Static Site Generation): Default for App Router. Use generateStaticParams to pre-render routes at build time. Triggered by fetch with cache: 'force-cache'.
• SSR (Server-Side Rendering): Triggered by cookies(), headers(), or fetch with cache: 'no-store'. Use for personalized or high-freshness data.
• ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration): Update static content after build. Use revalidate (time-based) or revalidatePath / revalidateTag (on-demand).
• Streaming: Use Suspense to wrap slow async components and prevent them from blocking the initial page load. Use loading.tsx for route-level skeletons.
• PPR (Partial Prerendering): Combine static shell with dynamic regions in a single HTTP request. Enable ppr: true in next.config.js.
• Strategies: Choose rendering based on SEO (SSG/ISR) vs Interactivity (Client) vs Personalization (SSR). Utilize dynamicParams to control fallback behavior for uncached routes.
• Hydration: Avoid Hydration Errors by not using browser-only values (window.innerWidth, Date.now()) in the initial render. Use the mounted useEffect pattern.
• Edge Runtime: Use runtime: 'edge' for low-latency globally distributed execution where full Node.js APIs are not required.

Anti-Patterns

• No root awaits in page.tsx: Wrap slow components in <Suspense> to stream.
• No SSR for static content: Use SSG or ISR; reserve SSR for truly dynamic data.
• No typeof window in initial render: Use useEffect to avoid hydration errors.

References

• Strategy Selection Matrix
• Implementation Details
• Scaling Patterns