Introduction

CreatedJun 1, 2026Takeshi Takatsudo

What zfb is, who it is for, and how it compares to Astro and Next.js.

zfb is a Rust-built static-site engine for people who already know Astro or Next.js and want millisecond rebuilds, a single-binary toolchain, and an opt-in island model.

If you can read a pages/ directory tree and write a TSX component, you already know 90 percent of what zfb requires.

What zfb provides

For the “why this shape” answer — narrow scope, recipes-over-plugins, no middleware layer — see Design philosophy.

Embedded V8 worker — pages render through a Rust-embedded V8 runtime. No separate Node process is required at build time.
Atomic writes — the build never leaves the output directory in a partially-written state. Each zfb build run either completes fully or leaves dist/ unchanged.
Per-page incremental rebuild — changing a shared layout touches only the pages that import it, not the whole site. Dev-loop latency stays in the tens of milliseconds even on large sites.
Opt-in islands — components are server-rendered by default. Add "use client" to a component file to opt into client-side hydration. Pages with no islands ship zero JavaScript.
Frontmatter and content collections — Markdown, MDX, and TypeScript data files in a named directory become a typed collection, queryable from pages via getCollection().
Dynamic routes — pages/blog/[slug].tsx exports a paths() function; zfb evaluates it at build time to expand the route into one HTML file per slug.
MDX components — import any TSX component into .mdx content and use it as JSX.
Non-HTML pages — a page file can export a contentType to produce JSON, XML, RSS, or any other text format instead of HTML.
Content-query bridge — getCollection() is available inside MDX files and inside paths(), not only in page components.
Single-binary distribution — zfb ships as one Rust binary. No node_modules for the framework itself, no plugin registry to audit.

Familiar from Astro

Astro concept	zfb equivalent
`src/pages/` file-system routing	`pages/` directory, same naming conventions
`.astro` components with a frontmatter fence	TSX page files with a `getStaticProps` export
Content Collections with typed schemas	`getCollection()` + schema declared in `zfb.config.ts`
`<slot />` in layouts	React `children` prop — plain TSX composition
`client:load` directive	`"use client"` directive at the top of a component file
`public/` for static assets	`public/` — same semantics
`astro.config.mjs`	`zfb.config.ts` (TypeScript, loaded directly)

What is different: zfb has no component syntax of its own — everything is TSX. There is no .astro file format to learn. The trade-off is that you lose Astro’s per-component fence syntax and gain a single consistent authoring surface for pages, layouts, and components.

Familiar from Next.js

Next.js concept	zfb equivalent
`pages/` directory routing (Pages Router)	`pages/` — same file naming and nesting rules
`getStaticProps` / `getStaticPaths`	`getStaticProps` + `paths()` export, same two-function pattern
Dynamic routes `[slug].tsx`	`[slug].tsx` — identical syntax
Catch-all routes `[...slug].tsx`	`[...slug].tsx` — identical syntax
`public/` for static assets	`public/` — same semantics
Layout components wrapping pages	Layout components wrapping pages — plain TSX composition

What is different: zfb is SSG by default — every page is computed at build time into static HTML. Routes that genuinely need request-time behavior opt out with prerender = false and are served by a configured adapter (e.g. Cloudflare Pages via <code>@takazudo/zfb-adapter-cloudflare</code>). What zfb does not aim to be is a full app framework — there is no App Router, no React Server Components, no middleware layer, and no per-page automatic ISR. The runtime story is “SSG plus an adapter-shaped escape hatch,” not “Next.js with output: export only.”

Client router and view transitions

The @takazudo/zfb-runtime package ships a <ClientRouter /> component that intercepts same-origin navigations and replaces page content without a full reload, with optional View Transitions API support. Opt in by mounting it in your root layout — pages that do not mount it get normal link behavior.

Migration guides

Migrating from Astro — concept-by-concept map for moving an existing Astro static site to zfb.

What to read next

Installation covers building and installing the CLI. Your first site walks through scaffolding a project and running a build end to end.