Next.js App Router support lands

HeadstartWP @headstartwp/[email protected] is a major step forward for headless WordPress on Next.js: this release introduces first-class App Router support alongside compatibility with Next.js 15. If you’ve been holding off on migrating from the Pages Router, this is the version that makes App Router a viable target for HeadstartWP projects.

App Router support

The headline of this release is comprehensive App Router coverage across the framework. The initial App Router foundation is now backed by dedicated Route Handlers, SEO helpers, link handling, and internationalized routing so you can build a full headless site using the modern Next.js architecture.

• previewRouteHandler — Handle WordPress preview requests directly inside App Router Route Handlers.
• revalidateRouteHandler — Process on-demand revalidation requests in Route Handlers, with an optional callback to run extra logic after a path is revalidated.
• SEO handling — Generate metadata for App Router routes, including a prepareSeoMetadata helper.
• i18n routing — Support for internationalized routing in the App Router.
• Multisite support — App Router now works with multisite setups, including site aliases and slugs.
• withHeadstartWPConfig — Configuration now understands the App Router context.

Blocks and rendering improvements

The block rendering pipeline picked up several meaningful additions. There’s a new RSC-compatible image block for Next.js, plus the ability to load block library styles and dynamic inline styles generated by the block editor — closing a common gap in headless block fidelity.

• forwardBlockProps — BlocksRenderer can now automatically forward block props down to child components.
• blockContext — A new prop on BlocksRenderer for passing contextual data through the render tree.
• handleError — Query functions now accept an error-handling callback.
• loadHeadstartWpConfig() — A new helper for loading your HeadstartWP configuration.

Other changes and fixes

This release also cleans up a number of edge cases across routing, configuration, and data fetching. Notably, a fix for issue #861 restores custom images.remotePatterns that the config wrapper was previously stripping out.

• Windows support — Fixed compatibility issues affecting Windows environments.
• Middleware — Query strings are now correctly appended to URL rewrites and redirects.
• Locale validation — isValidLocale now validates against your actual configuration.
• Fetch strategy — You can now override the fetch strategy, and fetch cache and settings handling were fixed.
• Draft mode — Corrected how enable() from draftMode is invoked.
• SEO — Fixed SEO behaviour when Yoast is disabled.
• remotePatterns — Now opts into image.remotePatterns on Next.js versions that support it.
• Pages Router — Added support for wyw-in-js and the latest version of Linaria.

On the developer-experience side, this version removes reliance on defaultProps in favour of attaching a default test function directly to the component — worth noting if you rely on component defaults in custom setups. This release also bumps @headstartwp/core to 1.5.0, so update both packages together.