# Custom Routing

> In Nuxt, your routing is defined by the structure of your files inside the pages directory. However, since it uses vue-router under the hood, Nuxt offers you several ways to add custom routes in your project.

## Adding custom routes

In Nuxt, your routing is defined by the structure of your files inside the [app/pages directory](/docs/4.x/directory-structure/app/pages). However, since it uses [vue-router](https://router.vuejs.org) under the hood, Nuxt offers you several ways to add custom routes in your project.

### Router Config

Using [router options](/docs/4.x/guide/recipes/custom-routing#router-options), you can optionally override or extend your routes using a function that accepts the scanned routes and returns customized routes.

If it returns `null` or `undefined`, Nuxt will fall back to the default routes (useful to modify input array).

```ts [router.options.ts]
import type { RouterConfig } from '@nuxt/schema'

export default {
  // https://router.vuejs.org/api/interfaces/routeroptions#routes
  routes: _routes => [
    {
      name: 'home',
      path: '/',
      component: () => import('~/pages/home.vue'),
    },
  ],
} satisfies RouterConfig
```

<note>

Nuxt will not augment any new routes you return from the `routes` function with metadata defined in `definePageMeta` of the component you provide. If you want that to happen, you should use the `pages:extend` hook which is [called at build-time](/docs/4.x/api/advanced/hooks#nuxt-hooks-build-time).

</note>

### Pages Hook

You can add, change or remove pages from the scanned routes with the `pages:extend` nuxt hook.

For example, to prevent creating routes for any `.ts` files:

```ts [nuxt.config.ts]
import type { NuxtPage } from '@nuxt/schema'

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  hooks: {
    'pages:extend' (pages) {
      // add a route
      pages.push({
        name: 'profile',
        path: '/profile',
        file: '~/extra-pages/profile.vue',
      })

      // remove routes
      function removePagesMatching (pattern: RegExp, pages: NuxtPage[] = []) {
        const pagesToRemove: NuxtPage[] = []
        for (const page of pages) {
          if (page.file && pattern.test(page.file)) {
            pagesToRemove.push(page)
          } else {
            removePagesMatching(pattern, page.children)
          }
        }
        for (const page of pagesToRemove) {
          pages.splice(pages.indexOf(page), 1)
        }
      }
      removePagesMatching(/\.ts$/, pages)
    },
  },
})
```

### Nuxt Module

If you plan to add a whole set of pages related with a specific functionality, you might want to use a [Nuxt module](/modules).

The [Nuxt kit](/docs/4.x/guide/going-further/kit) provides a few ways [to add routes](/docs/4.x/api/kit/pages):

- [`extendPages`](/docs/4.x/api/kit/pages#extendpages) (callback: pages => void)
- [`extendRouteRules`](/docs/4.x/api/kit/pages#extendrouterules) (route: string, rule: NitroRouteConfig, options: ExtendRouteRulesOptions)

## Router Options

On top of customizing options for [`vue-router`](https://router.vuejs.org/api/interfaces/routeroptions), Nuxt offers [additional options](/docs/4.x/api/nuxt-config#router) to customize the router.

### Using `router.options`

This is the recommended way to specify [router options](/docs/4.x/api/nuxt-config#router).

```ts [app/router.options.ts]
import type { RouterConfig } from '@nuxt/schema'

export default {
} satisfies RouterConfig
```

It is possible to add more router options files by adding files within the `pages:routerOptions` hook. Later items in the array override earlier ones.

<callout>

Adding a router options file in this hook will switch on page-based routing, unless `optional` is set, in which case it will only apply when page-based routing is already enabled.

</callout>

```ts [nuxt.config.ts]
import { createResolver } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  hooks: {
    'pages:routerOptions' ({ files }) {
      const resolver = createResolver(import.meta.url)
      // add a route
      files.push({
        path: resolver.resolve('./runtime/router-options'),
        optional: true,
      })
    },
  },
})
```

### Using `nuxt.config`

**Note:** Only JSON serializable [options](/docs/4.x/api/nuxt-config#router) are configurable:

- `linkActiveClass`
- `linkExactActiveClass`
- `end`
- `sensitive`
- `strict`
- `hashMode`
- `scrollBehaviorType`

```ts [nuxt.config]
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  router: {
    options: {},
  },
})
```

### Hash Mode (SPA)

You can enable hash history in SPA mode using the `hashMode` [config](/docs/4.x/api/nuxt-config#router). In this mode, router uses a hash character (#) before the actual URL that is internally passed. When enabled, the **URL is never sent to the server** and **SSR is not supported**.

```ts [nuxt.config.ts]
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  ssr: false,
  router: {
    options: {
      hashMode: true,
    },
  },
})
```

### Scroll Behavior for hash links

You can optionally customize the scroll behavior for hash links. When you set the [config](/docs/4.x/api/nuxt-config#router) to be `smooth` and you load a page with a hash link (e.g. `https://example.com/blog/my-article#comments`), you will see that the browser smoothly scrolls to this anchor.

```ts [nuxt.config.ts]
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  router: {
    options: {
      scrollBehaviorType: 'smooth',
    },
  },
})
```

#### Custom History (advanced)

You can optionally override history mode using a function that accepts the base URL and returns the history mode. If it returns `null` or `undefined`, Nuxt will fallback to the default history.

```ts [router.options.ts]
import type { RouterConfig } from '@nuxt/schema'
import { createMemoryHistory } from 'vue-router'

export default {
  // https://router.vuejs.org/api/interfaces/routeroptions
  history: base => import.meta.client ? createMemoryHistory(base) : null, /* default */
} satisfies RouterConfig
```