Using `redirect` function on frontend results in JS error

[KieranP]

Describe the bug

Using sveltekit redirect does not work on client side. Results in JS error:

Uncaught 
Object { status: 303, location: "/clients/new" }
​
location: "/clients/new"
​
status: 303
​
<prototype>: Object { … }
[events.js:276:3](http://localhost:5173/node_modules/svelte/src/internal/client/dom/elements/events.js)
    handle_event_propagation events.js:276
    (Async: EventListener.handleEvent)
    event_handle render.js:186
    _mount render.js:201
    hydrate render.js:123
    Svelte4Component legacy-client.js:113
    <anonymous> legacy-client.js:52
    initialize client.js:480
    _hydrate client.js:2663
    InterpretGeneratorResume self-hosted:1425
    AsyncFunctionNext self-hosted:800
    (Async: async)
    start client.js:325
    AsyncFunctionNext self-hosted:800
    (Async: async)
    <anonymous> (index):13460
    (Async: promise callback)
    <anonymous>

Would be nice if I could use redirect over window.location, so that it is consistent throughout codebase. For now, I'll fallback to window.location instead.

Reproduction

<script type="ts">
  import { redirect } from '@sveltejs/kit'

  function onclick() {
    redirect(303, '/clients/new')
  }
</script>

<button
  {onclick}
  type="button"
>
  Redirect Me
</button>

Logs

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 15.5
    CPU: (12) arm64 Apple M3 Pro
    Memory: 92.17 MB / 18.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /opt/homebrew/bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 23.10.0 - ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/23.10.0/bin/node
    Yarn: 4.9.2 - ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/23.10.0/bin/yarn
    npm: 10.9.2 - ~/.asdf/plugins/nodejs/shims/npm
    bun: 1.2.16 - /opt/homebrew/bin/bun
  Browsers:
    Safari: 18.5
  npmPackages:
    svelte: ^5.34.1 => 5.34.1

Severity

annoyance

[paoloricciuti]

This is working as expected, redirect is to redirect inside load functions and it needs to throw an error...you can (and actually should) use goto on the client to navigate (but even better just use an a tag).

Thanks for reporting, but I'm gonna close this.

[KieranP]

@paoloricciuti Would it be better to show a warning instead of just blow up with a JS error? e.g.

Using `redirect` in browser context is a noop. Use `goto` instead

For comparison, calling goto on the server throws a helpful message:

https://github.com/sveltejs/kit/blob/8e27c7167d016842cc8bbb3780021f2a65179110/packages/kit/src/runtime/client/client.js#L1919-L1921

(note: the onclick does a bit more than just redirect, so wouldn't work, but I slimmed it down for this ticket)

Also sorry, I just realized I filed this in svelte instead of kit repo.

[paoloricciuti]

Redirect throws an error because it needs to be catched by the sveltekit server to redirect. And I think the error would be more evident, considering that the code still doesn't work