I haven't really followed Next.js and the related ecosystem closely, what does this project do exactly? If I look at Next.js docs [0], they have three options for self-hosting: using a Node server, using a Docker container or as an SPA. Is this project a wrapper around one of those or is it something else entirely? Or to perhaps ask differently, to me it seems you can already self-host Next.js, what's the value add of this specific project?

[0] https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/building-your-application/depl...

Not sure why this is posted as a Show HN. This project has been around for a long time and I don’t think OP is related in any way to it.

To clarify in the specific case of deploying to cloudflare workers, you can use cloudflares next-on-pages at the expense of a constrained "Edge" runtime.

- https://opennext.js.org/cloudflare#supported-nextjs-runtimes

You don't _need_ opennextjs to _not_ run on Vercel, but it does provide more flexibility than depending on Cloudflare alone (I don't know if there are any tradeoffs to consider as I haven't used it)

If you're new to this stack, I'd recommend taking some time with a toy app to get use to the architecture and frameworks, especially between running locally and deploying to a host. There are some differences that need to be aligned to get it working across all of them, especially when you introduce server actions.

This in interesting, but while OpenNext is agnostic about the hosting layer, it seems opinionated about the IaC layer. SST is great, but I still use CDK for everything and have no appetite to maintain a snowflake project with a different IaC tool than everything else.

I see that the docs do link to other projects built on top of OpenNext that support other tools, but they seem stagnant and stuck on old versions of OpenNext (which effectively means stuck on old versions of Next.js).

I get that the people behind the project have limited bandwidth, and if they're going to support a tool, they'd first and foremost support the one they use and maintain themselves, but still.

I've been surprised by the number of companies adopting nextjs as their defacto framework without concern for the uncomfortable reality that the framework is built to be hosted on vercel with self hosting largely supported as an afterthought. It's great that opennext exists, but it really shouldn't _have_ to exist (as I believe some of the maintainers have publicly stated)