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Free MIT template · Day 6 of 365

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# Quickstart

This is the shortest path to a routekit app. By the end you’ll have a single-page app that routes between three pages, lazy-loads each, and is fully typed.

1. Install the package.

   Terminal window

       npm install routekit

2. Define your routes. A route is a `path` and a `handler`. The handler is any async function — typically `() => import(...)` for code-splitting.

   src/routes.ts

       export const routes = [  { path: '/',           handler: () => import('./pages/home') },  { path: '/posts',      handler: () => import('./pages/posts') },  { path: '/posts/:id',  handler: () => import('./pages/post') },] as const;

   The `as const` is what gives you type-safe params — see TypeScript usage.

3. Mount the router.

   src/main.ts

       import { createRouter } from 'routekit';import { routes } from './routes';
       const router = createRouter(routes);
       router.on('navigate', async ({ match }) => {  const { default: render } = await match.handler();  render(document.querySelector('#app')!, match.params);});
       router.start();

4. Build a page handler. Each route module exports a default `render` function. routekit doesn’t care what’s inside — it only calls the function.

   src/pages/post.ts

       export default function render(root: HTMLElement, params: { id: string }) {  root.innerHTML = `<h1>Post #${params.id}</h1>`;}

5. Run it. Use any dev server (Vite, esbuild, Bun, plain `http-server`). Navigate to `/posts/42` and the post page will render.

Note

routekit doesn’t ship a build step or a dev server. Use what you already use. The library is ~3 KB and works with any toolchain that bundles ESM.

## What just happened

The first time you visit `/posts/42`:

1. The browser fires a navigation event when `router.start()` reads `window.location`.
2. routekit matches `/posts/42` against the route table → finds `/posts/:id` → extracts `{ id: '42' }`.
3. The match is delivered to your `'navigate'` handler.
4. Your handler calls `match.handler()` — which lazy-imports `./pages/post` — and renders into `#app`.

Everything after this is just iterating: more routes, nested layouts (see navigation), code-split chunks (see code splitting).

## Next: your first route

Walk through building a real route from scratch, with type-safe params and an active-link styling helper.