rari Roadmap 2026

[skiniks]

Overview

rari is a React Server Components framework with a Rust runtime that delivers exceptional performance (67.4x higher throughput than Next.js) while maintaining a familiar developer experience. This roadmap outlines what we've built and what we're working on for Next.js parity.

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✅ Completed Features (v0.14.x)

Core Framework

• ✅ Rust Runtime - HTTP server, RSC renderer, and router with embedded V8
• ✅ React Server Components - Full RSC implementation with server components by default
• ✅ Streaming SSR - Progressive rendering with Suspense boundaries
• ✅ Hot Module Reloading - Instant feedback during development
• ✅ TypeScript-First - Complete type safety across server/client boundary
• ✅ Cross-Platform - macOS, Linux, and Windows support with pre-built binaries
• ✅ Zero-Config Setup - create-rari-app scaffolding tool

Routing & Navigation

• ✅ App Router - File-based routing with layouts, loading states, and error boundaries
• ✅ Dynamic Routes - Support for [param], [...slug], and [[...slug]] patterns
• ✅ Nested Layouts - Hierarchical layout composition
• ✅ Loading States - loading.tsx files for automatic loading skeletons
• ✅ Error Boundaries - error.tsx files for error handling
• ✅ Not Found Pages - not-found.tsx support
• ✅ Template Files - template.tsx for re-mounting on navigation
• ✅ Client-Side Navigation - Fast navigation with state preservation
• ✅ Automatic Code Splitting - Per-route code splitting
• ✅ Route Groups - (folder) syntax for organization without affecting URL

Data Fetching & Caching

• ✅ Server Actions - Form-based and programmatic server actions
• ✅ Fetch Cache - Built-in fetch caching with revalidate option
• ✅ Time-Based Revalidation - revalidate option for time-based cache invalidation
• ✅ On-Demand Revalidation - Programmatic cache invalidation by path or tag
• ✅ No-Store Option - revalidate: false to opt out of caching

Image Optimization

• ✅ Image Component - Responsive image component with automatic optimization
• ✅ Multiple Formats - AVIF, WebP, JPEG, PNG, GIF support
• ✅ Responsive Images - Automatic srcset generation
• ✅ Blur Placeholders - Low-quality image placeholders
• ✅ Lazy Loading - Intersection observer-based lazy loading
• ✅ Custom Loaders - Support for custom image CDNs

API Routes

• ✅ RESTful Handlers - GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, OPTIONS
• ✅ Route Handlers - route.ts files for API endpoints
• ✅ Route Context - Access to dynamic route parameters
• ✅ JSON Responses - ApiResponse.json() utility
• ✅ Redirects - ApiResponse.redirect() utility

Middleware & Proxying

• ✅ Proxy File - proxy.ts for request/response interception
• ✅ Matcher Configuration - Pattern matching with has/missing conditions
• ✅ Header Manipulation - Request and response header modification
• ✅ Rewrites & Redirects - URL rewriting and redirection
• ✅ Conditional Routing - Based on headers, query params, cookies, hosts
• ✅ Cookie Management - Request and response cookie handling
• ✅ Geolocation Data - Access to city, country, region, latitude, longitude
• ✅ waitUntil Support - Background work execution

Security

• ✅ Content Security Policy - Configurable CSP headers
• ✅ Secure Cookies - httpOnly, secure, sameSite options

Metadata & SEO

• ✅ Static Metadata - Export metadata objects from pages/layouts
• ✅ Dynamic Metadata - generateMetadata() function
• ✅ Open Graph Images - Dynamic OG image generation with ImageResponse
• ✅ Robots.txt - Dynamic robots.txt generation
• ✅ Sitemap - Dynamic sitemap.xml generation

Developer Experience

• ✅ MDX Support - First-class MDX component support
• ✅ Vite Integration - Rolldown-Vite bundling
• ✅ Fast Builds - 2.5x faster than Next.js (1.75s vs 4.42s)
• ✅ Small Bundles - 55% smaller than Next.js (285 KB vs 634 KB)
• ✅ Node.js Compatibility - Standard npm package resolution

Performance

• ✅ 18.1x Faster Response Times - 0.12ms vs 2.17ms average
• ✅ 67.4x Higher Throughput - 97,826 req/sec vs 1,452 req/sec
• ✅ Zstandard Compression - Modern compression for smaller payloads
• ✅ Efficient RSC Rendering - Native Rust RSC-to-HTML conversion

Benchmarks last updated: May 25, 2026 (rari v0.13.11)

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🎯 2026 Goals: Next.js Parity

Ongoing Priorities (Throughout 2026)

Foundation

• 📚 Documentation - Comprehensive guides, API references, and examples
• 🧪 Testing & Stability - Extensive test coverage and production hardening
• 🎨 Per-Route CSS Splitting - Automatic CSS code splitting and critical CSS inlining per route

These are our top priorities and will be worked on continuously throughout the year, alongside feature development.

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Not Planned

The following Next.js features are not on the roadmap and won't be supported:

• 🚫 Parallel Routes - @folder syntax for parallel route rendering
• 🚫 Intercepting Routes - (.)folder syntax for modal-like patterns

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High Priority (Q3 2026)

Data Fetching

• ⏳ Persistent Function Caching - Cache async functions across requests (similar to Next.js use cache directive)

Note: React's cache() for per-request memoization is available via import { cache } from 'react'

Metadata

• ⏳ Dynamic App Icons - icon.tsx, apple-icon.tsx for programmatically generated icons
• ⏳ Dynamic Manifest - manifest.ts for programmatically generated PWA manifest

Note: Static icons and manifest URLs can already be set via the metadata API

Optimizations

• ⏳ Font Optimization - Automatic font loading optimization
• ⏳ Script Optimization - next/script equivalent for third-party scripts

Medium Priority (Q3-Q4 2026)

Internationalization

• ⏳ i18n Routing - Built-in internationalization support
• ⏳ Locale Detection - Automatic locale detection from headers

Developer Tools

• ⏳ Build Analyzer - Bundle size analysis and optimization suggestions
• ⏳ Instrumentation - instrumentation.ts for observability

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📊 Feature Comparison: rari vs Next.js

Feature	rari	Next.js
Runtime	Rust + V8	Node.js
App Router	✅	✅
Server Components	✅	✅
Server Actions	✅	✅
Streaming SSR	✅	✅
File-based Routing	✅	✅
Dynamic Routes	✅	✅
Nested Layouts	✅	✅
Loading States	✅	✅
Error Boundaries	✅	✅
Template Files	✅	✅
Parallel Routes	❌ Not planned	✅
Intercepting Routes	❌ Not planned	✅
Route Groups	✅	✅
Middleware	✅	✅
Image Optimization	✅	✅
Font Optimization	⏳ Q3 2026	✅
Script Optimization	⏳ Q3 2026	✅
Metadata API	✅	✅
OG Image Generation	✅	✅
API Routes	✅	✅
Fetch Caching	✅	✅
i18n	⏳ Q3-Q4 2026	✅
MDX	✅	✅
Hot Reload	✅	✅
Zstandard Compression	✅	❌
Response Time	0.12ms	2.17ms
Throughput	97,826 req/s	1,452 req/s
Bundle Size	285 KB	634 KB
Build Time	1.75s	4.42s

🤝 How You Can Help

Provide Feedback

• Share your use cases and pain points
• Vote on features you need most
• Report bugs and edge cases

Contribute

• Submit PRs for features on the roadmap
• Improve documentation
• Create examples and tutorials
• Build plugins and integrations

Spread the Word

• Write blog posts about your experience
• Share benchmarks and comparisons
• Present at meetups and conferences

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📝 Notes & Recommendations

When to Use rari

• Performance is critical - High-traffic applications, APIs, real-time apps
• You want simplicity - Zero-config setup, excellent DX
• You're building new projects - Modern stack without legacy constraints

When to Use Next.js

• You need mature ecosystem - Extensive plugins, examples, community support
• You require static site generation - If you specifically need pre-built static files
• You have existing Next.js experience - Team familiarity and existing knowledge

Migration Path from Next.js

Most Next.js apps can migrate to rari with minimal changes:

1. File structure is identical
2. Server components work the same way
3. Server actions have the same API
4. Metadata API is compatible
5. Image component has similar props

Main differences to be aware of:

• Parallel/intercepting routes are not currently planned
• No static export - rari is designed for dynamic rendering (fast enough to not need it)

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🗓️ Release Schedule

• August 2026 - Font optimization, dynamic app icons
• September 2026 - Persistent function caching, dynamic manifest, script optimization
• October 2026 - i18n routing, locale detection
• November 2026 - Build analyzer, instrumentation
• Late 2026 onwards - Production-ready, stable API, ongoing refinements

We'll reach production stability by end of 2026 but will stay pre-1.0 to allow for API refinements based on real-world usage.

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💬 Discussion

We'd love to hear from you:

• What features are most important for your use case?
• Are there any blockers preventing you from using rari?
• What would you like to see beyond Next.js parity?
• How can we improve this roadmap?

Join the conversation on Discord or comment below!

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Last Updated: June 8, 2026
Version: 0.14.8
Status: Active Development

[jarick]

I think the most important missing feature — and potentially the real killer feature for rari — is Module Federation support out of the box.

For most teams, moving away from Next.js only makes sense when there is a very strong business reason. In my opinion, that reason is most compelling in large enterprise projects, where rari’s performance and infrastructure cost savings can become a decisive argument.

And enterprise projects are exactly where micro-frontends are often a hard requirement: independent teams, independent deployments, gradual migration, shared design systems, and multiple product areas evolving in parallel.

Right now, this is still one of the biggest gaps in the Next.js ecosystem. Many teams want proper micro-frontend support, but there is no truly first-class, built-in solution there yet.

If rari could provide Module Federation / micro-frontends as a first-class feature — especially with RSC, routing, shared dependencies, and deployment story solved — it would give enterprise teams a very strong reason to choose rari instead of just waiting for Next.js parity.

[jarick]

IMHO, Rari doesn't need these:

⏳ Parallel Routes — @folder syntax for parallel route rendering
⏳ Intercepting Routes — (.)folder syntax for modal-like patterns

Almost impossible to implement in Rari without killing performance.

[skiniks]

Good call. The caching architecture is fundamentally at odds with these features, they're Suspense-heavy by design, which would push pages onto the streaming path and erode the performance advantage. And in practice they solve one niche pattern that most apps handle fine with query params anyway. Removing them from the roadmap.