NextJs Codebase Analysis (2) - manifests

Terminology App Router → New routing system using /app ( Next.js 13+ ) Pages Router → Legacy routing using /pages SSR → Server-Side Rendering SSG → Static Site Generation ISR → Incremental Static Regeneration CSR → Client-Side Rendering RSC → React Server Components SPA → Single Page Application What's the function of these manifest? Next.js manifest files are runtime metadata maps generated at build time. They tell Next.js exactly which files, module IDs, and extra metadata belong to each page or component . This allows the runtime to quickly resolve dependencies without re-scanning the project source during execution . More specifically, these manifests allow the server and client runtimes to locate: Correct JS/CSS chunks RSC (React Server Components) client references SRI hashes Server Action metadata Page/component dependency mappings In short: manifests act as lookup tables that power the Next.js runtime. They ensure that the framework can efficiently load the correct resources fo