Nuxt/docs/3.api/1.components/4.nuxt-link.md

title	description	links
<NuxtLink>	Nuxt provides <NuxtLink> component to handle any kind of links within your application.	label icon to size Source i-simple-icons-github https://github.com/nuxt/nuxt/blob/main/packages/nuxt/src/app/components/nuxt-link.ts xs

::callout <NuxtLink> is a drop-in replacement for both Vue Router's <RouterLink> component and HTML's <a> tag. It intelligently determines whether the link is internal or external and renders it accordingly with available optimizations (prefetching, default attributes, etc.) ::

Internal Routing

In this example, we use <NuxtLink> component to link to another page of the application.

<template>
  <NuxtLink to="/about">
    About page
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="/about">...</a> (+Vue Router & prefetching) -->
</template>

Handling 404s

When using <NuxtLink> for /public directory files or when pointing to a different app on the same domain, you should use the external prop.

Using external forces the link to be rendered as an a tag instead of a Vue Router RouterLink.

<template>
  <NuxtLink to="/the-important-report.pdf" external>
    Download Report
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="/the-important-report.pdf"></a> -->
</template>

The external logic is applied by default when using absolute URLs and when providing a target prop.

External Routing

In this example, we use <NuxtLink> component to link to a website.

<template>
  <NuxtLink to="https://nuxtjs.org">
    Nuxt website
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="https://nuxtjs.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">...</a> -->
</template>

target and rel Attributes

A rel attribute of noopener noreferrer is applied by default to absolute links and links that open in new tabs.

• noopener solves a security bug in older browsers.
• noreferrer improves privacy for your users by not sending the Referer header to the linked site.

These defaults have no negative impact on SEO and are considered best practice.

When you need to overwrite this behavior you can use the rel and noRel props.

<template>
  <NuxtLink to="https://twitter.com/nuxt_js" target="_blank">
    Nuxt Twitter
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="https://twitter.com/nuxt_js" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">...</a> -->

  <NuxtLink to="https://discord.nuxtjs.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
    Nuxt Discord
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="https://discord.nuxtjs.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">...</a> -->

  <NuxtLink to="https://github.com/nuxt" no-rel>
    Nuxt GitHub
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="https://github.com/nuxt">...</a> -->

  <NuxtLink to="/contact" target="_blank">
    Contact page opens in another tab
  </NuxtLink>
  <!-- <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">...</a> -->
</template>

Props

RouterLink

When not using external, <NuxtLink> supports all Vue Router's RouterLink props

• to: Any URL or a route location object from Vue Router
• custom: Whether <NuxtLink> should wrap its content in an <a> element. It allows taking full control of how a link is rendered and how navigation works when it is clicked. Works the same as Vue Router's custom prop
• exactActiveClass: A class to apply on exact active links. Works the same as Vue Router's exact-active-class prop on internal links. Defaults to Vue Router's default "router-link-exact-active")
• replace: Works the same as Vue Router's replace prop on internal links
• ariaCurrentValue: An aria-current attribute value to apply on exact active links. Works the same as Vue Router's aria-current-value prop on internal links
• activeClass: A class to apply on active links. Works the same as Vue Router's active-class prop on internal links. Defaults to Vue Router's default ("router-link-active")

NuxtLink

• href: An alias for to. If used with to, href will be ignored
• noRel: If set to true, no rel attribute will be added to the link
• external: Forces the link to be rendered as an a tag instead of a Vue Router RouterLink.
• prefetch: When enabled will prefetch middleware, layouts and payloads (when using payloadExtraction) of links in the viewport. Used by the experimental crossOriginPrefetch config.
• noPrefetch: Disables prefetching.
• prefetchedClass: A class to apply to links that have been prefetched.

Anchor

• target: A target attribute value to apply on the link
• rel: A rel attribute value to apply on the link. Defaults to "noopener noreferrer" for external links.

::callout Defaults can be overwritten, see overwriting defaults if you want to change them. ::

Overwriting Defaults

In Nuxt Config

You can overwrite some <NuxtLink> defaults in your nuxt.config

::callout{color="amber" icon="i-ph-warning-duotone"} These options will likely be moved elsewhere in the future, such as into app.config or into the app/ directory. ::

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  experimental: {
    defaults: {
      nuxtLink: {
        // default values
        componentName: 'NuxtLink',
        externalRelAttribute: 'noopener noreferrer',
        activeClass: 'router-link-active',
        exactActiveClass: 'router-link-exact-active',
        prefetchedClass: undefined, // can be any valid string class name
        trailingSlash: undefined // can be 'append' or 'remove'
      }
    }
  }
})

Custom Link Component

You can overwrite <NuxtLink> defaults by creating your own link component using defineNuxtLink.

export default defineNuxtLink({
  componentName: 'MyNuxtLink',
  /* see signature below for more */
})

You can then use <MyNuxtLink /> component as usual with your new defaults.

defineNuxtLink Signature

interface NuxtLinkOptions {
  componentName?: string;
  externalRelAttribute?: string;
  activeClass?: string;
  exactActiveClass?: string;
  prefetchedClass?: string;
  trailingSlash?: 'append' | 'remove'
}
function defineNuxtLink(options: NuxtLinkOptions): Component {}

• componentName: A name for the component. Default is NuxtLink.
• externalRelAttribute: A default rel attribute value applied on external links. Defaults to "noopener noreferrer". Set it to "" to disable
• activeClass: A default class to apply on active links. Works the same as Vue Router's linkActiveClass option. Defaults to Vue Router's default ("router-link-active")
• exactActiveClass: A default class to apply on exact active links. Works the same as Vue Router's linkExactActiveClass option. Defaults to Vue Router's default ("router-link-exact-active")
• prefetchedClass: A default class to apply to links that have been prefetched.
• trailingSlash: An option to either add or remove trailing slashes in the href. If unset or not matching the valid values append or remove, it will be ignored.

:link-example{to="/docs/examples/routing/pages"}