nuxt-production

Nuxt 4 Production Guide

Hydration, performance, testing, deployment, and migration patterns.

What's New in Nuxt 4

v4.2 Features (Latest)

1. Abort Control for Data Fetching

const controller = ref<AbortController>()

const { data } = await useAsyncData(
  'users',
  () => $fetch('/api/users', { signal: controller.value?.signal })
)

const abortRequest = () => {
  controller.value?.abort()
  controller.value = new AbortController()
}

2. Async Data Handler Extraction

• 39% smaller client bundles
• Data fetching logic extracted to server chunks
• Automatic optimization (no config needed)

3. Enhanced Error Handling

• Dual error display: custom error page + technical overlay
• Better error messages in development

v4.1 Features

1. Enhanced Chunk Stability

• Import maps prevent cascading hash changes
• Better long-term caching

2. Lazy Hydration

<script setup>
const LazyComponent = defineLazyHydrationComponent(() =>
  import('./HeavyComponent.vue')
)
</script>

Breaking Changes from v3

| Change | v3 | v4 | |--------|----|----| | Source directory | Root | app/ | | Data reactivity | Deep | Shallow (default) | | Default values | null | undefined | | Route middleware | Client | Server | | App manifest | Opt-in | Default |

When to Load References

Load references/hydration.md when:

• Debugging "Hydration node mismatch" errors
• Implementing ClientOnly components
• Fixing non-deterministic rendering issues
• Understanding SSR vs client rendering

Load references/performance.md when:

• Optimizing Core Web Vitals scores
• Implementing lazy loading and code splitting
• Configuring caching strategies
• Reducing bundle size

Load references/testing-vitest.md when:

• Writing component tests with @nuxt/test-utils
• Testing composables with Nuxt context
• Mocking Nuxt APIs (useFetch, useRoute)
• Setting up Vitest configuration

Load references/deployment-cloudflare.md when:

• Deploying to Cloudflare Pages or Workers
• Configuring wrangler.toml
• Setting up NuxtHub integration
• Working with D1, KV, R2 bindings

Hydration Best Practices

What Causes Hydration Mismatches

| Cause | Example | Fix | |-------|---------|-----| | Non-deterministic values | Math.random() | Use useState | | Browser APIs on server | window.innerWidth | Use onMounted | | Date/time on server | new Date() | Use useState or ClientOnly | | Third-party scripts | Analytics | Use ClientOnly |

Fix Patterns

Non-deterministic Values:

<!-- WRONG -->
<script setup>
const id = Math.random()
</script>

<!-- CORRECT -->
<script setup>
const id = useState('random-id', () => Math.random())
</script>

Browser APIs:

<!-- WRONG -->
<script setup>
const width = window.innerWidth  // Crashes on server!
</script>

<!-- CORRECT -->
<script setup>
const width = ref(0)
onMounted(() => {
  width.value = window.innerWidth
})
</script>

ClientOnly Component:

<template>
  <!-- Wrap client-only content -->
  <ClientOnly>
    <MyMapComponent />
    <template #fallback>
      <div class="skeleton">Loading map...</div>
    </template>
  </ClientOnly>
</template>

Conditional Rendering:

<script setup>
const showWidget = ref(false)

onMounted(() => {
  // Only show after hydration
  showWidget.value = true
})
</script>

<template>
  <AnalyticsWidget v-if="showWidget" />
</template>

Performance Optimization

Lazy Loading Components

<script setup>
// Lazy load heavy components
const HeavyChart = defineAsyncComponent(() =>
  import('~/components/HeavyChart.vue')
)

// With loading/error states
const HeavyChart = defineAsyncComponent({
  loader: () => import('~/components/HeavyChart.vue'),
  loadingComponent: LoadingSpinner,
  errorComponent: ErrorFallback,
  delay: 200,
  timeout: 10000
})
</script>

<template>
  <Suspense>
    <HeavyChart :data="chartData" />
    <template #fallback>
      <LoadingSpinner />
    </template>
  </Suspense>
</template>

Lazy Hydration

<script setup>
// Hydrate when visible in viewport
const LazyComponent = defineLazyHydrationComponent(
  () => import('./HeavyComponent.vue'),
  { hydrate: 'visible' }
)

// Hydrate on user interaction
const InteractiveComponent = defineLazyHydrationComponent(
  () => import('./InteractiveComponent.vue'),
  { hydrate: 'interaction' }
)

// Hydrate when browser is idle
const IdleComponent = defineLazyHydrationComponent(
  () => import('./IdleComponent.vue'),
  { hydrate: 'idle' }
)
</script>

Route Caching

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  routeRules: {
    // Static pages (prerendered at build)
    '/': { prerender: true },
    '/about': { prerender: true },

    // SWR caching (1 hour)
    '/blog/**': { swr: 3600 },

    // ISR (regenerate every hour)
    '/products/**': { isr: 3600 },

    // SPA mode (no SSR)
    '/dashboard/**': { ssr: false },

    // Static with CDN caching
    '/static/**': {
      headers: { 'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=31536000' }
    }
  }
})

Image Optimization

<template>
  <!-- Automatic optimization with NuxtImg -->
  <NuxtImg
    src="/images/hero.jpg"
    alt="Hero image"
    width="800"
    height="400"
    loading="lazy"
    placeholder
    format="webp"
  />

  <!-- Responsive images -->
  <NuxtPicture
    src="/images/product.jpg"
    alt="Product"
    sizes="sm:100vw md:50vw lg:400px"
    :modifiers="{ quality: 80 }"
  />
</template>

Testing with Vitest

Setup

bun add -d @nuxt/test-utils vitest @vue/test-utils happy-dom

// vitest.config.ts
import { defineVitestConfig } from '@nuxt/test-utils/config'

export default defineVitestConfig({
  test: {
    environment: 'nuxt',
    environmentOptions: {
      nuxt: {
        domEnvironment: 'happy-dom'
      }
    }
  }
})

Component Testing

// tests/components/UserCard.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
import { mountSuspended } from '@nuxt/test-utils/runtime'
import UserCard from '~/components/UserCard.vue'

describe('UserCard', () => {
  it('renders user name', async () => {
    const wrapper = await mountSuspended(UserCard, {
      props: {
        user: { id: 1, name: 'John Doe', email: 'john@example.com' }
      }
    })

    expect(wrapper.text()).toContain('John Doe')
    expect(wrapper.text()).toContain('john@example.com')
  })

  it('emits delete event', async () => {
    const wrapper = await mountSuspended(UserCard, {
      props: { user: { id: 1, name: 'John' } }
    })

    await wrapper.find('[data-test="delete-btn"]').trigger('click')

    expect(wrapper.emitted('delete')).toHaveLength(1)
    expect(wrapper.emitted('delete')[0]).toEqual([1])
  })
})

Mocking Composables

// tests/components/Dashboard.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect, vi } from 'vitest'
import { mountSuspended, mockNuxtImport } from '@nuxt/test-utils/runtime'
import Dashboard from '~/pages/dashboard.vue'

// Mock useFetch
mockNuxtImport('useFetch', () => {
  return () => ({
    data: ref({ users: [{ id: 1, name: 'John' }] }),
    pending: ref(false),
    error: ref(null)
  })
})

describe('Dashboard', () => {
  it('displays users from API', async () => {
    const wrapper = await mountSuspended(Dashboard)

    expect(wrapper.text()).toContain('John')
  })
})

Testing Server Routes

// tests/api/users.test.ts
import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
import { $fetch, setup } from '@nuxt/test-utils/e2e'

describe('API: /api/users', async () => {
  await setup({ server: true })

  it('returns users list', async () => {
    const users = await $fetch('/api/users')

    expect(users).toHaveProperty('users')
    expect(Array.isArray(users.users)).toBe(true)
  })

  it('creates a new user', async () => {
    const result = await $fetch('/api/users', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: { name: 'Jane',