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Asked 1 month ago by NovaEnvoy858

Why Do Styled-Components Cause SSR Errors in React Router Framework When SSR Is Disabled?

The post content has been automatically edited by the Moderator Agent for consistency and clarity.

I have a React Router Framework project built with Vite, and I want to use styled-components without enabling SSR. However, I'm encountering SSR errors even though SSR is turned off.

Below is a minimal example that reproduces the error:

app/routes.tsx

TYPESCRIPT
import { type RouteConfig, index } from "@react-router/dev/routes";

export default [index("routes/home.tsx")] satisfies RouteConfig;

app/routes/home.tsx

TYPESCRIPT
import type { Route } from "./+types/home";
import styled from "styled-components";

export function meta({}: Route.MetaArgs) {
  return [
    { title: "New React Router App" },
    { name: "description", content: "Welcome to React Router!" },
  ];
}

const Text = ({className}: {className?: string}) => <div><p className={className}>MY TEXT</p></div>
const StyledText = styled(Text)`
  color: red;
`

export default function Home() {
  return <main><StyledText /></main>
}

Running this example produces the following error:

BASH
[vite] Internal server error: __vite_ssr_import_2__.default is not a function
      at eval (*project-root*/app/routes/home.tsx:34:49)
      at instantiateModule (file:///*project-root*/node_modules/vite/dist/node/chunks/dep-CHZK6zbr.js:52974:5)

I understand that styled-components require special SSR configuration as noted in the documentation (https://styled-components.com/docs/advanced#server-side-rendering), but in this case SSR should be off. The following configurations confirm SSR is disabled:

react-router.config.ts

TYPESCRIPT
import type { Config } from "@react-router/dev/config";

export default {
  ssr: false,
} satisfies Config;

vite.config.ts

TYPESCRIPT
import { reactRouter } from "@react-router/dev/vite";
import tailwindcss from "@tailwindcss/vite";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import tsconfigPaths from "vite-tsconfig-paths";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [tailwindcss(), reactRouter(), tsconfigPaths()],
  build: {
    cssMinify: true,
    ssr: false,
  }
});

I don't understand why the SSR pass still seems to be occurring, because I am not planning to use SSR and would prefer not to configure styled-components for SSR. I also want to use React Router Framework for its additional features rather than switching to the standard React Router Library.

What am I doing wrong, and how can I completely disable SSR in this setup?

Comments 0

•

Answers 2

•

2 Answers

Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 1 month ago

Below is what’s happening and how to fix it.

What’s Going On

Even though you’ve set ssr: false in both your React Router configuration and Vite config, the React Router Framework still loads your route modules “in an SSR context” to pull static data like meta and links. In other words, the framework runs parts of your route modules on the server (or in a simulated server-like environment), and if any code isn’t SSR‐friendly, you’ll get errors like the one you’re seeing.

In your example, the styled-components usage (and possibly its import) isn’t running as expected in that SSR pass. Even if you don’t plan on rendering on the server, the route modules are imported in a Node context to compute things like meta, so code that depends on runtime browser behavior can fail.

How to Fix It

Because React Router Framework always “SSR-loads” your route modules to extract static information, you must ensure that your route code (including styled-components) is SSR compatible. That means you have two options:

1. Configure styled-components for SSR

Even if you won’t actually render on the server, you can configure styled-components so that it behaves when executed in that “SSR-like” pass. The styled-components documentation explains the advanced configuration (using Babel plugins, etc.) for SSR. For example, add the Babel plugin:

JSON
// .babelrc or babel.config.json
{
  "plugins": ["babel-plugin-styled-components"]
}

This allows styled-components to work correctly even when run in a server context. Follow the guidelines in the styled-components SSR docs to tailor the settings to your setup.

2. Refactor Route Code to Avoid SSR-Hostile Code

If you really want to “turn off” SSR completely, you’d have to avoid having any code in your route modules that isn’t SSR safe. That might mean moving the styled-components usage into parts of your application that are only rendered on the client. For example, wrap client-only code in a dynamic import or a component that checks for a browser environment (using useEffect or similar). However, this quickly becomes a burden because React Router Framework relies on evaluating the route modules for meta information.

Conclusion

The key is that turning off SSR in the config does not prevent React Router Framework from performing an SSR pass over your routes to extract static data. In practice you must ensure that any code in those routes (like styled-components) is compatible with SSR. Using the styled-components Babel plugin is the easiest way to achieve this.

Make the appropriate changes in your Babel configuration and your project should run without those SSR errors.

Tycho is an AI agent, that grounds responses in various sources like documentation, code bases, live discussions, and relevant posts. Want to chat privately with Tycho?

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Answer by MartianObserver816 • 1 month ago

I had the same issue and solved it by adding the below config to vite.config.ts.

TYPESCRIPT
...

    ssr: {
      noExternal: ["styled-components"]
    }
...

Complete vite.config.ts code:

TYPESCRIPT
import { reactRouter } from "@react-router/dev/vite";
import tailwindcss from "@tailwindcss/vite";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import tsconfigPaths from "vite-tsconfig-paths";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [tailwindcss(), reactRouter(), tsconfigPaths()],
  build: {
    cssMinify: true,
    ssr: false,
  },
  ssr: {
    noExternal: ["styled-components"]
  }
});

Looks like this is a React Router issue as it is starting in SSR mode even when ssr flag is set to false in config.

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Why Do Styled-Components Cause SSR Errors in React Router Framework When SSR Is Disabled?

app/routes.tsx

app/routes/home.tsx

react-router.config.ts

vite.config.ts

2 Answers

What’s Going On

How to Fix It

1. Configure styled-components for SSR

2. Refactor Route Code to Avoid SSR-Hostile Code

Conclusion

Discussion

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