Colocate Your API Layer: A Next.js App Router Pattern That Scales

Short summary

Co-locating API functions with feature modules in Next.js eliminates the chaos of sprawling centralized services/ folders. Each feature owns its own data-fetching logic, reducing cognitive load while scaling cleanly to 30+ modules. This production pattern from a retail POS system maintains full TypeScript inference and shared HTTP behavior without function proliferation.

• •API functions live next to their features, not in a global services/ folder
• •Scales cleanly to 30+ feature modules while keeping shared HTTP client behavior
• •Full TypeScript type inference flows from request to component without casting

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