Redirects and rewrites

Redirects and rewrites are defined in your framework's configuration, such as redirects() and rewrites() in next.config.js or Nuxt route rules. Easel reads them from the build output and applies them at the edge. Where they run relative to middleware and static files is covered in Routing.

To send every request on one hostname to another domain, such as example.com → www.example.com, use a domain redirect instead.

Redirects

A redirect returns a 3xx response with a Location header, and the client requests the new URL. Easel returns it before any route or function runs.

Use permanent redirects (301, 308) only for moves you intend to keep. Browsers and search engines cache them.

Rewrites

A rewrite serves a different destination while the visitor's URL stays the same. Use rewrites to map a public path to an internal route, serve a single-page app's index.html for client-side routes, or proxy an external origin where the framework supports it.

A rewritten response is cached by the policy on the final response. See Caching.

Rule order

Rules match in order. Put specific rules before broad catch-alls:

/account/settings  → /settings/profile
/account/:path*    → /new-account/:path*
/:path*            → /index.html

Keep catch-all rewrites away from asset paths, so a missing file returns 404 instead of HTML.

Verify

Inspect a redirect without following it:

curl -I https://example.com/old-path

A rewrite doesn't show in response headers. Open the request in Requests to see the route that handled it. Redirect loops and failing external rewrites are covered in CDN troubleshooting.