@keenmate/svelte-spa-router

A modern router for Svelte 5 SPAs, built from the ground up on the runes API ($props, $state, $effect, $derived). Supports dual-mode routing (hash and history) with comprehensive permission management.

MIT licensed.

Main features

• Dual-mode routing — hash (#/path) or history API (/path)
• Built on Svelte 5 runes — no stores, no $: declarations
• Type-safe routes — defineRoutes() gives IDE autocomplete on route names and params
• TypeScript-first — generics on routeParams(), query(), filters()
• Flexible navigation — multi-parameter signatures, named routes, navigation context, referrer tracking
• Hierarchical routes — optional parent→child inheritance of breadcrumbs, permissions, and guards
• Permissions — role-based AND resource-based access control, with live reactivity via setCurrentUser()
• Querystring & filter helpers — reactive, type-safe, with auto-detection of array formats
• Global error handler — production-ready, with restart-loop prevention
• 404 tracking — onNotFound callback for analytics/monitoring
• Tiny — uses regexparam for route matching, distributed as source (no build step)

What's new

v5.3.0

• BREAKING: NavTreeNode.isHidden renamed to hidden — aligns with the KeenMate web-components convention of bare HTML attribute names (hidden, disabled, selected) for data-model boolean fields. Same shape, same getter reactivity. Migration: find-and-replace isHidden: → hidden: in your nav-tree definitions. The helper predicate isNodeHidden(node) keeps its is* prefix.
• helpers/nav-tree — permission-aware filtering for auto-generated sidebars — filterByPermissions(navTree, { mode }) drops or marks-as-disabled nodes the current user can't reach. Two modes (hide / disable), cascading parent hiding, ancestor permission inheritance, and a polymorphic hidden: boolean | () => boolean per node for static or reactive overrides. Reactive end-to-end — $derived(filterByPermissions(navTree)) re-runs when setCurrentUser() fires or any hidden getter reads mutating $state. No subscription wiring. Ships with walkTree / findNodeByPath and a /nav-tree-demo reference implementation where one tree drives both routes AND sidebar.
• subtree: true + subtreeClassName on use:active — sidebar parents stay highlighted on their own index page AND every nested URL from a single action call, no regex required. subtreeClassName adds a distinct class on "parent of an active child" vs "really active" links (e.g. link-active / sublink-active) in one call instead of two stacked actions.
• NavTreeNode.disabled now renders as forbidden in BOTH filter modes — disabled is a product-level placeholder signal ("coming soon"), not a user-permission concern, so it stays visible regardless of hide/disable mode. New FilterOptions.disabledClassName styles these distinctly from permission-denied items (e.g. amber "Unavailable" vs. red "Access restricted"); when both apply, disabledClassName wins. Default falls back to forbiddenClassName, fully backward compatible.
• Stacked use:active actions on the same node now cooperate — class management rewritten from per-entry remove-then-conditionally-add to a per-node aggregate sync. Fixes a silent bug where the common "parent + descendants" pattern (use:active use:active={'/foo/*'}) failed on the bare path.
• ai/link-actions.txt rewritten — corrected the PREFIX MATCHING claim that /foo/* matched bare /foo (it doesn't), with new BRANCH MATCHING, SIDEBAR WITH SUBMENU, TWO-CLASS PARENT/CHILD, GENERATING NAV FROM ROUTE TREE, and FILTERING BY PERMISSIONS sections.

Full details in CHANGELOG.md.

Installation

npm install @keenmate/svelte-spa-router

⚠️ Important: This package requires Node.js 22 or higher for production builds. Node.js 20 has compatibility issues with Svelte 5 that may cause runtime errors like "link is not defined" in production builds. Make sure your build environment (CI/CD, Docker, etc.) uses Node 22+.

Quick start

1. Define your routes:

// routes.js
import Home from './routes/Home.svelte'
import About from './routes/About.svelte'
import User from './routes/User.svelte'
import NotFound from './routes/NotFound.svelte'

export default {
    '/': Home,
    '/about': About,
    '/user/:id': User,
    '*': NotFound,        // Catch-all (must be last)
}

2. Mount the router:

<!-- App.svelte -->
<script>
import Router from '@keenmate/svelte-spa-router'
import routes from './routes'
</script>

<Router {routes} />

3. Add links and navigate:

<script>
import { link, push } from '@keenmate/svelte-spa-router'
</script>

<nav>
    <a href="/" use:link>Home</a>
    <a href="/about" use:link>About</a>
    <a href="/user/42" use:link>User 42</a>
</nav>

<button onclick={() => push('/user/99')}>Go to User 99</button>

4. Read route params inside a route component:

<!-- User.svelte -->
<script>
let { routeParams = {} } = $props()
</script>

<p>User ID: {routeParams.id}</p>

That's it. By default the router uses hash mode (#/path) so no server config is needed. For clean URLs, switch to history mode — see Routing modes.

For type-safe routes with autocomplete on names and params, see defineRoutes().

Documentation

• Imports & exports — which path to import from, plus the /stores gotcha
• Routing modes — hash vs history, server config, base path
• Defining routes — basic routes, defineRoutes(), createRoute(), wrap(), code-splitting
• Navigation — push / replace / pop / goBack, named routes, navigation context, referrer tracking
• Route params, location & querystring — accessing route data, TypeScript generics
• Querystring & filter helpers — reactive URL-driven UIs, flat & OData-style filters
• Loading states & metadata — three loading patterns, dynamic title & breadcrumbs
• Route guards (pre-conditions) — wrap({ conditions }) and the failure flow
• Permissions — createProtectedRoute(), hasPermission(), role + resource auth, conditions vs permissions
• Navigation guards (beforeLeave) — unsaved-changes confirmations, dirty checks, browser back/close
• Hierarchical routes — tree structure with createHierarchy(), flat-mode inheritance
• Error handling & 404 tracking — global error handler, recovery strategies, onNotFound
• Debug logging — 12 categorized loggers, runtime control from the browser console
• Advanced topics — pipeline architecture, scroll restoration, nested routers, event payloads, full import reference

Other guides in the repo root:

• CHANGELOG.md — full release history
• MIGRATION.md — migration guide from other routers
• DEVELOPMENT.md — development workflow

Examples

This repository includes three complete example applications:

• example/ — hash mode routing with basic features
• example-history/ — history mode with clean URLs, querystring demos, filter demos
• example-permissions/ — permission-based routing with role management

Run an example:

cd example-history
npm install
npm run dev

License

MIT — see LICENSE.md for details.