[🐞] v2: `rewriteRoutes` root paths behavior change in v2 beta 30

[schoero]

Which component is affected?

Qwik Runtime

Describe the bug

Continuation of: #8471 (comment)

Up until v2.0.0-beta.28, rewriteRoutes did not just rewrite the routes inside the defined paths, but also the root path of the prefix.

Take this simple configuration for example:

{
  rewriteRoutes: [{
    prefix: "en",
    "paths": {
      "contact": "contact"
    }
  }, {
    prefix: "de",
    "paths": {
      "contact": "kontakt"
    }
  }]
}

This previously not only created the explicit rewrites of the defined pages:

• /en/contact/ -> routes/contact/index.tsx
• /de/kontakt/ -> routes/contact/index.tsx

but also implicitly rewrote the root path of the prefix:

• /en/ -> routes/index.tsx
• /de/ -> routes/index.tsx

With v2.0.0-beta.30, the implicit rewrite of the root path of the prefix was removed.

The intended way forward seems to be to use dynamic routes. I could not get simple dynamic routes like [lang] to work (reproduction in the "dynamic" branch) but I could get them to work with a "catchAll" route like [...lang].

Either way I see a few issues with that approach:

• It requires special handling for only the root paths via a dynamic route. All other localized paths are handled via the rewriteRoutes configuration and do not belong in the dynamic route.

  routes/
+  ├─ [...lang]/
+  │  └─ index.tsx
   ├─ contact/
   │  └─ index.tsx
-  └─ index.tsx

• It also catches other paths like /doesnotexist/, forcing the user to manually return a 404 for actually non-existing paths.
• If the simple dynamic route [lang] would work, it would require the user to either still keep a duplicate routes/index.tsx file to catch the / route and a dynamic [lang] route for the localized root paths.

As I understand, the whole point of the rewriteRoutes feature is to avoid having to duplicate routes for different locales and not having to use dynamic routes for that. The new behavior defeats that purpose.

Proposed solution

While I agree that the previous implicit (and I think undocumented) behavior may not be ideal, I think it would still be worth it to have an option to rewrite the root path of the prefix as well, without having to use a dynamic route for that.
Maybe a new option in the rewriteRoutes configuration like rewriteRoot or the ability to rewrite the "" route.

{
  rewriteRoutes: [{
    prefix: "en",
    // new option
    rewriteRoot: true,
    "paths": {
      // ability to rewrite the "" route
      "": "",
      // alternatively with "/"
      "/": "/",
      "contact": "contact"
    }
  }]
}

Reproduction

https://github.com/schoero/qwik-rewrite-routes-repro

Steps to reproduce

Reproduction repository: https://github.com/schoero/qwik-rewrite-routes-repro

This contains two branches:

• The dynamic branch shows the non-working setup with a dynamic [lang] route.
• The catchAll branch shows the working, but complicated setup with a catchAll [...lang] route.

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 26.4
    CPU: (18) arm64 Apple M5 Pro
    Memory: 2.59 GB / 64.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 25.8.1 - /Users/schoero/.volta/tools/image/node/25.8.1/bin/node
    npm: 11.11.0 - /Users/schoero/.volta/tools/image/node/25.8.1/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 147.0.7727.24
    Firefox: 148.0.2
    Safari: 26.4
  npmPackages:
    typescript: 5.9.3 => 5.9.3 
    vite: 7.3.1 => 7.3.1

Additional Information

No response

[wmertens]

ok thanks for the issue. Now that I read this, I think implicitly doing a rewrite of the prefix to / makes the most sense

[schoero]

Thank you 👍 Honestly I also think the implicit rewrite is the best solution. Maybe it just should be documented.

[wmertens]

will be fixed in beta 32