Dynamic route works in dev but fails in production with next build

This is a classic Next.js static generation issue! The problem is almost certainly that your dynamic routes aren't being pre-rendered at build time. Here's what's happening:

The Root Cause:

In development mode (next dev), Next.js generates pages on-demand for every request. But in production (next build && next start), Next.js uses static generation by default, which means pages need to be either:

1. Pre-rendered at build time, OR
2. Configured to generate on-demand with proper fallback handling

Since you're using a catch-all route like [path].tsx, you need to implement getStaticPaths() (Pages Router) or generateStaticParams() (App Router) to tell Next.js which paths to pre-render.

The Solution:

For Pages Router ([path].tsx):

export async function getStaticPaths() {
  const paths = await client.fetch(
    `*[_type == "yourType" && defined(path)][].path`
  );

  return {
    paths: paths.map((path) => ({ params: { path } })),
    fallback: 'blocking', // or true, see below
  };
}

export async function getStaticProps({ params }) {
  const { path } = params;
  const data = await client.fetch(
    `*[_type == "yourType" && path == $path][0]`,
    { path }
  );
  
  return {
    props: { data },
    revalidate: 60, // Optional: ISR
  };
}

For App Router (app/[path]/page.tsx):

export async function generateStaticParams() {
  const paths = await client.fetch(
    `*[_type == "yourType" && defined(path)][].path`
  );

  return paths.map((path) => ({ path }));
}

Understanding Fallback Options:

The fallback property in getStaticPaths is crucial:

• fallback: false - Returns 404 for any path not generated at build time
• fallback: true - Generates pages on-demand, but requires loading state handling
• fallback: 'blocking' - Generates pages on-demand and waits before serving (no loading state needed)

Why You're Seeing Different Behaviors:

• /page1 showing empty: The page is rendering but getStaticProps isn't fetching data because the path wasn't pre-rendered
• /page1/childpage showing 404: Next.js doesn't know this route exists at all

For Catch-All Routes Specifically:

If you're using [...path].tsx to capture nested routes like /page1/childpage, make sure your params structure matches:

// For [...path].tsx (catch-all)
paths: allPaths.map((pathString) => ({
  params: { path: pathString.split('/') } // Array for catch-all
}))

// For [path].tsx (single segment)
paths: allPaths.map((pathString) => ({
  params: { path: pathString } // String for single segment
}))

The key takeaway: production builds require explicit path generation. Without getStaticPaths or generateStaticParams, Next.js doesn't know which dynamic routes to create at build time!