Nextjs Locale Monorepo

Next.js locale routing — monorepo (shared package)

The same locale-routing behaviour as nextjs-locale-standalone, but the engine lives in one workspace package (i18n-routing) that every app imports, so detection, the cookie name, and the provider/hooks stay identical across apps. Read that sibling skill for the behaviour spec; this skill is about the package + wiring. Copy-paste files are in templates/.

The behaviour (shared with the standalone skill)

Unprefixed requests 307-redirect to /<locale>/…, locale chosen by priority: NEXT_LOCALE cookie (toggle's last choice) → Accept-Language (browser) → default. The redirect carries Vary: Accept-Language, Cookie (its locale was negotiated from them); prefixed paths pass through with x-locale + the NEXT_LOCALE cookie stamped but no such Vary (their locale is fixed by the URL, so it'd only fragment the cache). The LocaleToggle navigates to /<newLocale>/…; the middleware is the single writer of the cookie, so the choice persists. The NEXT_LOCALE cookie defaults to httpOnly: true — it's read server-side (request.cookies) only, never from client JS, so keep it out of reach of injected scripts. Set httpOnly: false only if client JS genuinely must read it. It also defaults to a 1-year maxAge (defaultCookieOptions in templates/package/src/config.ts) so the toggle's choice survives a browser restart — without it the cookie is session-only and the "choice persists" promise breaks. Full explanation + a toggle template: see nextjs-locale-standalone.

Architecture

packages/
  i18n-routing/          # the engine — detection, middleware factory, provider/hooks
    src/{config,utils,middleware,provider,hooks,client,index}.ts(x)
    package.json         # exports: "." (server) + "./client" (provider/hooks)
    tsup.config.ts       # dual CJS/ESM, dts, preserves "use client"
  configs/               # shared supportedLanguages (one source of truth)
apps/
  web/  marketing/  …    # each: a thin middleware.ts + app/[locale]/layout.tsx

Two packages, deliberately:

• i18n-routing — the logic. Ships two entry points: the default export is server-safe (config + utils + middleware factory); i18n-routing/client is the 'use client' provider + hooks. Keeping them separate stops the 'use client' boundary from poisoning middleware/server imports.
• configs (or any shared package) — exports supportedLanguages ({ id, title, isDefault? }[]). Apps and the middleware read locales from here, so adding a language is a one-line change in one place.

Building the package (the parts that bite)

Use the templates/package/ files as-is. What matters:

• Dual build with tsup, two entries (index, client), format: ['cjs','esm'], dts: true, external: ['react','react-dom','next'], and crucially treeshake: false — tree-shaking strips the 'use client' directive and the provider breaks at runtime. (templates/package/tsup.config.ts.)
• exports map with . and ./client, each pointing at types + import (esm) + require (cjs). (templates/package/package.json.)
• Peer deps next, react, react-dom — never bundle them.
• The middleware factory createI18nMiddleware(config) is pure logic — it returns NextResponse | undefined and imports nothing app-specific, so it is unit-testable without a running app.

Wiring each app

1. Depend on both packages in the app's package.json: "i18n-routing": "workspace:^", "configs": "workspace:^".

2. Thin middleware.ts (templates/app-middleware.ts): build the config from the shared languages and delegate. This is also where you compose app-specific middleware (auth, an anon_id cookie, feature-flag gating) around the i18n redirect.

   import { supportedLanguages } from 'configs/locale';
   import { createI18nMiddleware, i18nConfig } from 'i18n-routing';
   
   const i18n = createI18nMiddleware(i18nConfig(supportedLanguages));
   export function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
     return i18n(req) ?? NextResponse.next();
   }
   export const config = { matcher: ['/((?!_next(?:/|$)|api(?:/|$)|.*\\..*).*)'] };
   

   Next 16: name this thin app file proxy.ts and the export proxy (export function proxy(req)) — the body and the shared createI18nMiddleware factory are unchanged; only the app-level file/function names follow the new convention (npx @next/codemod middleware-to-proxy . automates it). One real caveat: proxy is Node.js-only (the runtime config throws), whereas middleware could run on the edge — locale redirects don't need edge, but if any app's request layer does, keep middleware.ts there. The shared factory is runtime-agnostic, so apps can mix conventions.

3. app/[locale]/layout.tsx (templates/app-locale-layout.tsx): validate the locale, generateStaticParams from supportedLanguages, and wrap children in LocaleProvider from i18n-routing/client (not the root import). This is the root layout — render <html lang={locale}>/<body> here and keep no app/layout.tsx (every page lives under [locale]).

4. components/LocaleToggle.tsx (templates/LocaleToggle.tsx): a 'use client' switcher that swaps the first path segment (or prepends one) and router.pushes — the middleware rewrites NEXT_LOCALE on that navigation, so the choice sticks. It reads the current locale from i18n-routing/client and the language list from configs/locale; it's a11y-wired (aria-current, 44×44 touch target, visible focus ring).

5. configs/src/locale.ts (templates/configs-locale.ts): the shared supportedLanguages source of truth every app + the middleware read from.

The matcher's .*\..* excludes any path containing a dot from middleware (so unprefixed dot-bearing routes like /blog/v1.2 never get locale-redirected), while shouldSkipMiddleware only skips a known-extension allowlist. If you have real dotted routes, narrow the matcher to known extensions instead of .*\..*.

Turbo / pnpm specifics

• Build order: apps depend on the built package. Add the dependency in turbo.json so the lib is built first:

  "your-app#build": { "dependsOn": ["i18n-routing#build", "configs#build"], "outputs": [".next/**"] },
  "your-app#dev":   { "dependsOn": ["i18n-routing#build", "configs#build"], "persistent": true }
  

  Run the package in watch mode (tsup --watch) during development so app HMR picks up engine edits.

• Type skew across pnpm-hoisted next versions: if an app pins a different next than the package's peer range, NextRequest types can mismatch and TS complains at the i18n(req) call. The pragmatic fix used in production is a localized cast — i18n(req as any) — with a comment; it's a types-only skew, the runtime shape is identical. Prefer aligning next versions when you can.

• Don't re-export 'use client' code from the root entry. Importing the provider via the default entry drags a client boundary into server/middleware graphs. Always import hooks/provider from i18n-routing/client.

Adding a locale (the payoff)

Add one { id, title } to supportedLanguages in configs. Every app's middleware, generateStaticParams, toggle, and detection pick it up — no per-app change. That single source of truth is the whole reason to use a package over copy-paste.

Verify (per app)

• curl -sI localhost:3000/ → 307 to /<default> (no trailing slash — matches createLocalizedUrl).
• curl -sI -H 'Accept-Language: zh-HK' localhost:3000/x → 307 to /zh-hk/x.
• curl -sI --cookie 'NEXT_LOCALE=zh-hk' localhost:3000/ → 307 to /zh-hk (cookie beats Accept-Language).
• pnpm --filter i18n-routing build succeeds and dist/client.* keeps its "use client" banner.