fix(router-core): treat null return from beforeLoad as no-op for route context by sleitor · Pull Request #7114 · TanStack/router

sleitor · 2026-04-07T02:50:54Z

Summary

When beforeLoad returns null, it is now treated the same as undefined (no-op) instead of being stored as __beforeLoadContext: null.

Problem

When a route's beforeLoad function returns null (e.g. from a server function), useRouteContext() returns an empty object {} instead of preserving the parent context. This happens because:

null is stored as __beforeLoadContext: null
When building context via Object.assign(context, ..., null) or {...parentContext, ...null}, null is silently ignored
The resulting context loses any parent-contributed values

Meanwhile, the context route option already handles this correctly with route.options.context(contextFnContext) ?? undefined.

Fix

In updateContext within load-matches.ts, treat null the same as undefined — skip storing it as __beforeLoadContext. This makes beforeLoad consistent with the context option behavior.

Tests

Added two tests to routeContext.test.tsx:

route context preserved when beforeLoad returns null (sync)
route context preserved when async beforeLoad returns null (async)

Both verify that parent context ({ foo: 'bar' }) is preserved when beforeLoad returns null.

Closes #7110

Summary by CodeRabbit

Bug Fixes
- Fixed route context handling when the beforeLoad hook returns null. Null values are now treated as no-op, aligning with standard context behavior.

…e context When beforeLoad returns null, treat it the same as undefined (no-op) instead of storing it as __beforeLoadContext: null. This is consistent with how the context route option already handles null returns via ?? undefined, and prevents null from silently interfering with context accumulation. Closes TanStack#7110

coderabbitai · 2026-04-07T02:51:13Z

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 57bcc6e5-684a-4123-b7ae-cb489b78c048

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5a81726 and ee99b33.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

.changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md
packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This pull request fixes route context handling in TanStack Router by treating null returns from beforeLoad as no-ops, preventing unintended null values from being stored in the route context. The fix aligns beforeLoad behavior with the existing context route option.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Changesets Documentation `.changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md`	Added Changesets entry documenting the patch fix that treats `null` returns from `beforeLoad` as `undefined` (no-op), preventing null from being stored in route context.
Core Logic `packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts`	Modified `executeBeforeLoad`'s `updateContext` to treat `null` the same as `undefined`, causing early return without updating `__beforeLoadContext` when `beforeLoadContext` is `null` or `undefined`.
Test Coverage `packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx`	Added two new tests verifying that route context remains unchanged when root route's `beforeLoad` returns `null` (both sync and async cases).

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Poem

🐰 A null return once caused quite the fright,
Making context objects when there should be none in sight!
But now we've fixed this tricky case,
Treating null like undefined—keeping context clean and bright! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: treating null return from beforeLoad as a no-op for route context, which directly addresses the problem in issue `#7110`.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR fully addresses issue `#7110` by fixing beforeLoad null handling, adding tests to verify context preservation, and making behavior consistent with loader/context handling.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly related to fixing the null handling in beforeLoad: the changesets entry, test cases for context preservation, and the load-matches.ts modification.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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nx-cloud · 2026-04-07T02:51:28Z

View your CI Pipeline Execution ↗ for commit ee99b33

Command	Status	Duration	Result
`nx affected --targets=test:eslint,test:unit,tes...`	⛔ Cancelled	1h 8m 59s	View ↗
`nx run-many --target=build --exclude=examples/*...`	✅ Succeeded	1m 34s	View ↗

☁️ Nx Cloud last updated this comment at 2026-04-07 04:03:42 UTC

github-actions · 2026-04-07T02:55:11Z

Bundle Size Benchmarks

Commit: 5a81726f0a2f
Measured at: 2026-04-07T02:54:32.365Z
Baseline source: history:796406da66cf
Dashboard: bundle-size history

Scenario	Current (gzip)	Delta vs baseline	Raw	Brotli	Trend
`react-router.minimal`	87.48 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	275.76 KiB	76.05 KiB	████▁▁▁▁▁▂▃
`react-router.full`	90.78 KiB	+4 B (+0.00%)	286.94 KiB	78.80 KiB	▆▆▆█▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▃
`solid-router.minimal`	35.56 KiB	-2 B (-0.01%)	107.25 KiB	31.90 KiB	████▁▁▁▁▁▂█▇
`solid-router.full`	40.03 KiB	-3 B (-0.01%)	120.79 KiB	35.93 KiB	████▁▁▁▁▁▂▆▆
`vue-router.minimal`	53.38 KiB	-2 B (-0.00%)	153.07 KiB	47.96 KiB	████▁▁▁▁▁▂▄▃
`vue-router.full`	58.25 KiB	+4 B (+0.01%)	168.53 KiB	52.15 KiB	████▁▁▁▁▁▂▄▄
`react-start.minimal`	102.01 KiB	-2 B (-0.00%)	324.00 KiB	88.16 KiB	▅▅▅█▁▂▂▂▂▃▃▃
`react-start.full`	105.38 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	334.35 KiB	90.94 KiB	▆▆▆█▁▁▁▂▂▃▃
`solid-start.minimal`	49.66 KiB	-3 B (-0.01%)	153.50 KiB	43.71 KiB	▇▇▇▇▁▁▁▂▂▂██
`solid-start.full`	55.17 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	169.74 KiB	48.57 KiB	▇▇▇▇▁▂▂▂▂▃█

Trend sparkline is historical gzip bytes ending with this PR measurement; lower is better.

pkg-pr-new · 2026-04-07T02:56:01Z

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commit: ee99b33

codspeed-hq · 2026-04-07T03:10:04Z

Merging this PR will not alter performance

✅ 6 untouched benchmarks

_{Comparing sleitor:fix-7110 (ee99b33) with main (796406d)¹}

No successful run was found on main (5a81726) during the generation of this report, so 796406d was used instead as the comparison base. There might be some changes unrelated to this pull request in this report. ↩

github-actions bot added package: react-router package: router-core labels Apr 7, 2026

ci: apply automated fixes

ee99b33

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fix(router-core): treat null return from beforeLoad as no-op for route context#7114

fix(router-core): treat null return from beforeLoad as no-op for route context#7114
sleitor wants to merge 2 commits intoTanStack:mainfrom
sleitor:fix-7110

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