flutter-navigation_skill

Overview

This skill presents practical guidance for navigation and routing in Flutter apps, emphasizing go_router, deep linking, and named routes. It consolidates patterns, anti-patterns, and operational checks to make navigation predictable, testable, and maintainable. The recommendations target both single-screen flows and multi-tab apps.

How this skill works

The skill recommends using go_router as the primary routing mechanism for declarative, typed routes and built-in redirection. It explains how to configure platform deep links (AndroidManifest.xml and Info.plist), validate parameters in redirect logic, and preserve tab state with IndexedStack. It also highlights anti-patterns to avoid and suggests constants or code generation for route names.

When to use it

• Building new Flutter apps that need a maintainable, declarative routing system.
• Adding deep link support for Android and iOS to open specific screens from URLs.
• Creating multi-tab layouts where preserving tab state is required.
• Migrating from manual Uri parsing or ad-hoc route strings to a consistent routing approach.
• Implementing parameter validation or guarded routes before navigation.

Best practices

• Prefer go_router for modern, declarative routing and redirection hooks.
• Configure deep links in AndroidManifest.xml and Info.plist and test on device.
• Validate route parameters inside redirect or a route-level guard before navigation.
• Preserve tab state with IndexedStack rather than swapping Scaffold bodies.
• Keep route names as constants or use code generation to avoid hardcoded strings.
• Avoid manual Uri.parse-based routing logic; rely on the router’s parsing.

Example use cases

• Protecting a profile route by checking authentication in go_router redirect before pushing the page.
• Handling incoming marketing deep links that open a product detail page with validated product IDs.
• Implementing a bottom navigation with three tabs where each tab keeps its scroll position and internal state.
• Migrating an app that used Navigator.pushNamed with scattered strings to a centralized go_router setup.
• Using named route constants to generate typed route helpers for safer refactoring.