Sitemap & robots.txt

`sitemap.ts` and `robots.ts` files export an object that Next converts to the right XML or text response.

4 min read Level 2/5 #nextjs#sitemap#robots

What you'll learn

Add `app/sitemap.ts` returning a list of URLs
Add `app/robots.ts`
Pair both with the Metadata API for full SEO coverage

Static sitemap.xml and robots.txt files are awkward when your site grows past a few URLs. Next replaces them with TypeScript files that generate the same output at request time — including dynamic URLs from your DB.

Sitemap

// app/sitemap.ts
import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'
import { db } from '@/lib/db'

const BASE = 'https://example.com'

export default async function sitemap(): Promise<MetadataRoute.Sitemap> {
  const posts = await db.post.findMany({ select: { slug: true, updatedAt: true } })

  return [
    { url: BASE, lastModified: new Date(), priority: 1 },
    { url: `${BASE}/about`, priority: 0.7 },
    ...posts.map((p) => ({
      url: `${BASE}/posts/${p.slug}`,
      lastModified: p.updatedAt,
      priority: 0.5,
    })),
  ]
}

Visit /sitemap.xml and Next serves valid XML produced from the array.

robots.txt

// app/robots.ts
import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function robots(): MetadataRoute.Robots {
  return {
    rules: [
      { userAgent: '*', allow: '/' },
      { userAgent: '*', disallow: '/admin' },
    ],
    sitemap: 'https://example.com/sitemap.xml',
  }
}

Reachable at /robots.txt. Linking the sitemap from robots.txt is what crawlers expect.

SEO Together

These two files plus the Metadata API cover the SEO basics: discoverable URLs, descriptions, social previews. The rest is content.

Internationalization →