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Building Your ApplicationRoutingCustom Document

Custom Document

Last updated May 27, 2025

A custom Document can update the <html> and <body> tags used to render a Page.

To override the default Document, create the file pages/_document as shown below:

pages/_document.tsx
import { Html, Head, Main, NextScript } from 'next/document'   export default function Document() {  return (  <Html lang="en">  <Head />  <body>  <Main />  <NextScript />  </body>  </Html>  ) }

Good to know:

  • _document is only rendered on the server, so event handlers like onClick cannot be used in this file.
  • <Html>, <Head />, <Main /> and <NextScript /> are required for the page to be properly rendered.

Caveats

  • The <Head /> component used in _document is not the same as next/head. The <Head /> component used here should only be used for any <head> code that is common for all pages. For all other cases, such as <title> tags, we recommend using next/head in your pages or components.
  • React components outside of <Main /> will not be initialized by the browser. Do not add application logic here or custom CSS (like styled-jsx). If you need shared components in all your pages (like a menu or a toolbar), read Layouts instead.
  • Document currently does not support Next.js Data Fetching methods like getStaticProps or getServerSideProps.

Customizing renderPage

Customizing renderPage is advanced and only needed for libraries like CSS-in-JS to support server-side rendering. This is not needed for built-in styled-jsx support.

We do not recommend using this pattern. Instead, consider incrementally adopting the App Router, which allows you to more easily fetch data for pages and layouts.

pages/_document.tsx
import Document, {  Html,  Head,  Main,  NextScript,  DocumentContext,  DocumentInitialProps, } from 'next/document'   class MyDocument extends Document {  static async getInitialProps(  ctx: DocumentContext  ): Promise<DocumentInitialProps> {  const originalRenderPage = ctx.renderPage    // Run the React rendering logic synchronously  ctx.renderPage = () =>  originalRenderPage({  // Useful for wrapping the whole react tree  enhanceApp: (App) => App,  // Useful for wrapping in a per-page basis  enhanceComponent: (Component) => Component,  })    // Run the parent `getInitialProps`, it now includes the custom `renderPage`  const initialProps = await Document.getInitialProps(ctx)    return initialProps  }    render() {  return (  <Html lang="en">  <Head />  <body>  <Main />  <NextScript />  </body>  </Html>  )  } }   export default MyDocument

Good to know:

  • getInitialProps in _document is not called during client-side transitions.
  • The ctx object for _document is equivalent to the one received in getInitialProps, with the addition of renderPage.

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