Migration Overview

Migrate your Nuxt 2 app to Nuxt 3 with this comprehensive guide covering Vue 3, Vite, and Nitro.

Nuxt 3 is a complete rewrite of Nuxt 2, based on a new set of underlying technologies. There are significant changes when migrating a Nuxt 2 app to Nuxt 3, although you can expect migration to become more straightforward as we move toward a stable release.

This migration guide is under progress to align with the development of Nuxt 3.

Major Changes

Some of these significant changes include:

1. Moving from Vue 2 to Vue 3 - Including defaulting to the Composition API and script setup.
2. Moving from webpack 4 and Babel to Vite or webpack 5 and esbuild - Faster builds and improved developer experience.
3. Moving from a runtime Nuxt dependency to a minimal, standalone server - Compiled with nitropack.

If you need to remain on Nuxt 2, but want to benefit from Nuxt 3 features in Nuxt 2, you can alternatively check out how to get started with Bridge.

What to Expect

The migration process involves updating your:

• Configuration files and module setup
• Component structure and syntax
• Auto-imports and composables
• Pages, layouts, and routing
• Runtime configuration and environment variables
• Meta tags and SEO setup
• Plugins and middleware

Next Steps

Start your migration journey by learning about the differences in:

• Configuration - Update your nuxt.config file
• Auto-imports - Understand automatic component and composable imports
• Pages and Layouts - Migrate your routing and layout structure
• Runtime Config - Handle environment variables properly
• Meta Tags - Update your SEO and meta tag management
• Plugins and Middleware - Modernize your plugins and route middleware