Nextane

The Next.js Pages Router, rebuilt on Octane.

Next.js without React.

Live kitchen sink · Compatibility · Benchmarks · Migration prompt

[!IMPORTANT] Nextane is a fun experiment, not a serious framework. I made it in a couple of hours, entirely by voice-prompting an AI agent from my phone.

The cost of making software like this is approaching zero. You can have an idea, talk to an agent for a few hours, and end up with something real enough to test.

If you need a Next.js alternative, start with Vinext. It passes more than 97% of the supported Next.js deploy test suite, supports substantial Next.js applications today, and is much more mature. Nextane is newer, narrower, and built on alpha software.

Vinext reimplements the Next.js API on Vite. It began as a slop fork of Next.js. Nextane is me doing it again, this time without React.

Nextane keeps the familiar parts of the Pages Router—filesystem routes, data functions, API routes, Link, Head, and client navigation—but runs them on Octane, Vite, and a smaller runtime.

Benchmarks

On the same small hydrated getServerSideProps page, the current production builds ship:

| Runtime | Client JavaScript (gzip) | Compared with Next.js | | --- | ---: | ---: | | Next.js 16.2.12 | 110.0 KiB | — | | Vinext 1.0.0-beta.4 | 77.8 KiB | 29.2% less | | Nextane + Octane 0.1.21 | 43.0 KiB | 60.9% less |

Nextane ships 44.7% less client JavaScript than Vinext in this fixture. Its production build is slower than Vinext's, and its measured SSR throughput trails both Vinext and Next.js. See the full methodology and results.

Should I use this?

Probably not.

Start with Vinext if you need a more mature alternative to Next.js. Try Nextane if:

• you have an existing Pages Router application;
• you want to see how far Octane can replace React while keeping the same APIs;
• you are comfortable having an AI agent migrate it and debugging what breaks.

Octane describes itself as alpha software. Nextane is even more experimental.

What works

• pages/ filesystem routing, including dynamic and catch-all routes
• Octane-native .tsrx components, SSR, and hydration
• getStaticProps, getStaticPaths, getServerSideProps, and basic page getInitialProps
• fallback: false, true, and "blocking" behavior for dynamic static pages
• ISR with stale-while-revalidate behavior
• callback-style pages/api routes and Web Request/Response handlers
• nextane/head, nextane/document, nextane/link, nextane/router, useRouter, and withRouter
• custom _app, _document, _error, 404, and 500 pages
• Next-style /_next/data/:buildId/*.json client navigation
• local Vite development and production deployment

The live kitchen sink exercises static props, server props, dynamic routes, client state, soft navigation, API routes, custom errors, and ISR without pulling React into the runtime.

What doesn't work

• App Router. Octane does not support React Server Components, so Nextane probably never will.
• most React ecosystem packages. Octane has its own library bindings, but React packages are not drop-in compatible.
• class components or React's synthetic event system
• the complete Next.js configuration and middleware surface
• every Node-specific request, response, or streaming behavior
• Preview and Draft Mode. setPreviewData() fails closed until preview cookies can be signed and validated
• deployment targets other than Cloudflare Workers today. This is a shortcut in Nextane, not an Octane limitation.

See the compatibility ledger for details.

Migrate a Pages Router app

Give your coding agent this repository and your application, then paste:

Migrate this Next.js Pages Router application to Nextane. Preserve its behavior,
not just its ability to build. Follow MIGRATION_PROMPT.md in the Nextane
repository, run the app, test direct loads and client navigation, and report
every unsupported API or React-only dependency instead of hiding it behind a
compatibility shim.

The full migration prompt covers the framework changes, Vite and Workers setup, and verification.

Run this repository

Use Node 26.5.1 or newer. This repository pins npm 11.17.0 and tracks current major releases rather than maintaining compatibility with older toolchains.

npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://127.0.0.1:5173.

npm run check

The check runs typechecking, 56 unit and security tests, release-workflow checks, six real-browser Pages Router flows, and a production build.

See architecture for implementation details. Nextane is not affiliated with Vercel, Next.js, Vinext, Cloudflare, or Octane.

License

MIT. Octane, Vinext, and Next.js are also MIT licensed; copied or adapted source retains its provenance and license notices.