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Route Groups

Last updated June 16, 2025

Route Groups are a folder convention that let you organize routes by category or team.

Convention

A route group can be created by wrapping a folder's name in parenthesis: (folderName).

This convention indicates the folder is for organizational purposes and should not be included in the route's URL path.

An example folder structure using route groups

Use cases

Organizing routes by team, concern, or feature.
Defining multiple root layouts.
Opting specific route segments into sharing a layout, while keeping others out.

Caveats

Full page load: If you navigate between routes that use different root layouts, it'll trigger a full page reload. For example, navigating from /cart that uses app/(shop)/layout.js to /blog that uses app/(marketing)/layout.js. This only applies to multiple root layouts.
Conflicting paths: Routes in different groups should not resolve to the same URL path. For example, (marketing)/about/page.js and (shop)/about/page.js would both resolve to /about and cause an error.
Top-level root layout: If you use multiple root layouts without a top-level layout.js file, make sure your home route (/) is defined within one of the route groups, e.g. app/(marketing)/page.js.