Absolute Imports and Module Path Aliases

Next.js has in-built support for the "paths" and "baseUrl" options of tsconfig.json and jsconfig.json files.

These options allow you to alias project directories to absolute paths, making it easier to import modules. For example:

// before
import { Button } from '../../../components/button'

// after
import { Button } from '@/components/button'

Good to know: create-next-app will prompt to configure these options for you.

Absolute Imports

The baseUrl configuration option allows you to import directly from the root of the project.

An example of this configuration:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "."
  }
}

export default function Button() {
  return <button>Click me</button>
}

export default function Button() {
  return <button>Click me</button>
}

import Button from 'components/button'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </>
  )
}

import Button from 'components/button'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </>
  )
}

Module Aliases

In addition to configuring the baseUrl path, you can use the "paths" option to "alias" module paths.

For example, the following configuration maps @/components/* to components/*:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "@/components/*": ["components/*"]
    }
  }
}

export default function Button() {
  return <button>Click me</button>
}

export default function Button() {
  return <button>Click me</button>
}

import Button from '@/components/button'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </>
  )
}

import Button from '@/components/button'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </>
  )
}

Each of the "paths" are relative to the baseUrl location. For example:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "src/",
    "paths": {
      "@/styles/*": ["styles/*"],
      "@/components/*": ["components/*"]
    }
  }
}

import Button from '@/components/button'
import '@/styles/styles.css'
import Helper from 'utils/helper'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <Helper>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </Helper>
  )
}

import Button from '@/components/button'
import '@/styles/styles.css'
import Helper from 'utils/helper'

export default function HomePage() {
  return (
    <Helper>
      <h1>Hello World</h1>
      <Button />
    </Helper>
  )
}