Turbopack incompatibility with React Spectrum / React Aria

[demonesschurch]

Hi everyone,I am experiencing an issue when trying to use React Spectrum (and/or React Aria) with Next.js while running the Turbopack compiler (next dev --turbo).It seems there is an incompatibility between the two. The build fails or throws errors during local development when Turbopack is enabled, whereas it works fine with the standard Webpack compiler.Is this a known limitation with Turbopack's current bundling strategy, or are there any specific configurations/workarounds required to make React Spectrum work seamlessly with Next.js Turbopack?Thank you for your help!

[devongovett]

Yeah this is noted on the getting started page under next.js: https://react-spectrum.adobe.com/getting-started

Turbopack does not support plugins so style macros are not possible there. Does that explain the errors you saw or was it something else?

[demonesschurch]

Yes, Devon, that explains it perfectly!

When Turbopack hits those style macros, Next.js tries to fall back or triggers an unhandled Webpack mismatch error, which completely crashes the development server (next dev --turbopack).

Since Next.js 16 now enforces Turbopack by default, this incompatibility completely breaks the dev environment unless we completely remove React Spectrum S2 and switch entirely to native Tailwind CSS.

It would be amazing if Turbopack could gracefully handle or bypass this plugin limitation in the future, or if React Spectrum S2 could provide a build target that doesn't rely on bundler-specific macro plugins for pure Rust-based toolchains. Thank you for your help!

[snowystinger]

I don't see anywhere that it enforces Turbopack more than when we wrote those docs? You should be able to follow the instructions in the setup.

[demonesschurch]

Ah, I see! The confusion comes from a recent update: in Next.js 16, Turbopack is now enabled by default out of the box when you initialize a project using npx create-next-app@latest.

Because Next.js 16 automatically enforces Turbopack, the standard Webpack setup instructions from the documentation get bypassed or cause a configuration mismatch, which triggers the crash.

I managed to fix it on my end by completely removing React Spectrum S2 and moving entirely to native Tailwind CSS to keep the full Rust/Turbopack toolchain active. I just wanted to flag this behavior here since Next.js 16's new defaults will likely affect more developers trying to use React Spectrum S2 with new projects in the future.

Thanks a lot to both of you for the quick support!

[snowystinger]

Ok, but that's not correct or new.
Next.js 16 is a year old https://github.com/vercel/next.js/releases/tag/v16.0.0

Because Next.js 16 automatically enforces Turbopack

This just isn't true, you can use the --webpack flag as shown in the docs and in those release notes.

Running npx create-next-app@latest does not automatically use React Spectrum, so you would be expected to follow the instructions for how to add it.