Route Groups (...)
Organizing folders and layouts without changing URLs.
The invisible folders
In the App Router, every folder you create normally becomes a segment in the URL.
But sometimes you just want to organize your code visually, or group files together. If you wrap a folder name in parentheses—like (marketing) or (shop)—Next.js treats it as a **Route Group**. The folder becomes completely invisible to the URL.
Multiple layouts
The most powerful feature of Route Groups is layout scoping.
If you want your /about page to have a clean, marketing-focused layout, but your /dashboard page to have a complex sidebar layout, you can create app/(marketing)/layout.tsx and app/(app)/layout.tsx. Both layouts exist at the root URL level, but they only apply to the routes inside their respective groups.
Stripping the path
If you create the file app/(marketing)/about/page.tsx, the resulting URL is simply /about.
If you create app/(shop)/checkout/page.tsx, the URL is /checkout. The grouping folders are entirely stripped away during routing.
The Invisible Folder
Watch the auto-demo strip the parenthesis folders away. Notice how (marketing) and (shop) both contribute to the same root URL level, while maintaining their own isolated layouts.
App Router Build Process
Folders wrapped in parentheses—like (marketing)—are completely stripped from the final URL path by the Next.js router. They act as "invisible" folders that allow you to group related routes and apply specific layout.tsx files without forcing the user to visit /marketing/about.
Check yourself
Pick an answer to lock it in, then read why. Getting one wrong is part of how it sticks.
Remember this
- Wrap a folder in parentheses
(folderName)to create a Route Group. - Route Groups are completely ignored by the Next.js router when building the URL.
- They are primarily used to organize code and scope layouts to specific sets of pages.
- You can use Route Groups to create multiple distinct Root Layouts.
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