Represent "virtual" segments like route groups (#82422)

acdlite · web-flow · commit 0a42be97b0b8 · 2025-08-06T19:39:46.000Z
Small update to #82383. Instead of using a special symbol to represent the "virtual" segments that get inserted into the loader tree for parallel routes, we can represent them like route groups, since they serve the same purpose. That will allow us to remove a special case in the param parsing logic, since we have to skip groups regardless; both will be skipped by the same check.
diff --git a/crates/next-core/src/app_structure.rs b/crates/next-core/src/app_structure.rs
@@ -1054,7 +1054,7 @@ async fn directory_tree_to_loader_tree_internal(
     let current_level_is_parallel_route = is_parallel_route(&directory_name);
 
     if current_level_is_parallel_route {
-        tree.segment = rcstr!("__virtual_segment__");
+        tree.segment = rcstr!("(slot)");
     }
 
     if let Some(page) = (app_path == for_app_path || app_path.is_catchall())
diff --git a/packages/next/src/build/webpack/loaders/next-app-loader/index.ts b/packages/next/src/build/webpack/loaders/next-app-loader/index.ts
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ async function createTreeCodeFromPath(
       // should instead be the corresponding segment keys (ie `__PAGE__`) or the `children` parallel route.
       parallelSegmentKey =
         parallelSegmentKey === PARALLEL_VIRTUAL_SEGMENT
-          ? '__virtual_segment__'
+          ? '(slot)'
           : parallelSegmentKey === PAGE_SEGMENT
             ? PAGE_SEGMENT_KEY
             : parallelSegmentKey

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -1054,7 +1054,7 @@ async fn directory_tree_to_loader_tree_internal(`
`1054`	`1054`	`let current_level_is_parallel_route = is_parallel_route(&directory_name);`
`1055`	`1055`
`1056`	`1056`	`if current_level_is_parallel_route {`
`1057`		`- tree.segment = rcstr!("__virtual_segment__");`
	`1057`	`+ tree.segment = rcstr!("(slot)");`
`1058`	`1058`	`}`
`1059`	`1059`
`1060`	`1060`	`if let Some(page) = (app_path == for_app_path \|\| app_path.is_catchall())`