React Router v8 (and the Remix merge) — current state

As of: 2026-10

Versions

• Latest: react-router 8.4.0 (2026-09-15). v8.0.0 was released 2026-06-17.
• The 7.x line still gets patches (7.18.4, 2026-09-15), and so does 6.x (6.30.6, 2026-08-18).
• React Router plans one major release per year. v9 is expected around May/June 2027, aligned with Node 22 end-of-life.
• v8 minimums: Node 22.22.0+, React/React DOM 19.2.7+, Vite 7+ (framework mode). Packages are ESM-only, and the tsconfig target/lib is ES2022.

Remix merge

• Remix v2's successor was released as React Router v7 (merger announced 2024-05-15).
• Rename the packages: @remix-run/react and @remix-run/server-runtime → react-router; @remix-run/node, @remix-run/dev and @remix-run/serve → @react-router/node, @react-router/dev and @react-router/serve.
• The codemod is npx codemod remix/2/react-router/upgrade.
• In vite.config, use reactRouter() from @react-router/dev/vite. Add app/routes.ts and react-router.config.ts.
• Do not generate new @remix-run/* v2 code. Go Remix v2 → RR v7 → RR v8.

v8 breaking changes

• react-router-dom is removed. Import RouterProvider and HydratedRouter from react-router/dom, and everything else from react-router:

import { Link, useNavigate, createBrowserRouter } from "react-router";
import { RouterProvider } from "react-router/dom";

• All future.v8_* flags are removed and their behavior is now the default. Remove them from react-router.config.ts.
  • Middleware is always on. The context passed to loaders, actions and middleware is always a RouterContextProvider. A custom server's getLoadContext must return a RouterContextProvider, not a plain object. UNSAFE_MiddlewareEnabled and the interface Future { v8_middleware } augmentation are gone.
  • Pass-through requests: request is the raw incoming request. Use the new url argument for the normalized URL, without the .data suffix or the index/_routes params:

export async function loader({ request, url }: Route.LoaderArgs) {
  if (url.pathname === "/path") { /* ... */ }
}

• Data requests are trailing-slash-aware (/_.data).
• v8_splitRouteModules became the top-level splitRouteModules option, which defaults to true (accepts false or "enforce").
• The Vite Environment API is always used. Prerendering now runs through the Vite preview server.
• meta: the data field is removed. Use loaderData, including on matches[i].loaderData.
• @react-router/dev/vite/cloudflare is removed. Use cloudflare() from @cloudflare/vite-plugin. wrangler@3 is no longer supported.
• hasErrorBoundary is no longer accepted on route objects.
• @react-router/serve now uses Express 5.

8.x additions

• 8.4.0:
  • The internal contexts were split up. A component that only calls useLocation no longer re-renders on navigation-state changes.
  • Opt-in (unstable) faster matcher via unstable_preloadRoutePattern() from react-router/route-pattern.
  • unstable_validateParams on routes.

What to do now

1. Upgrade to the latest 7.x.
2. Turn on each future.v8_* flag and fix what breaks.
3. Replace react-router-dom imports and meta data usage.
4. Bump Node, React and Vite, then install react-router@latest and the matching @react-router/* packages.

Sources

• https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#v800
• https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#v840
• https://github.com/remix-run/react-router/releases/tag/react-router%408.4.0
• https://reactrouter.com/upgrading/v7
• https://reactrouter.com/upgrading/remix
• https://remix.run/blog/merging-remix-and-react-router