Navigation

How I navigated in SwiftUI with AppRoute and a small router.

Discover uses NavigationStack, a typed route enum, and RouterProtocol. ViewModels call router.push(...) instead of hiding navigation inside Views.

AppRoute

Every push destination:

enum AppRoute: Hashable {
  case home
  case detail(poi: POI)
}

Hashable so SwiftUI stores it in a navigation path and resolves navigationDestination(for: AppRoute.self).

A sealed list of screens, not string URLs. The compiler knows .detail needs a POI.

Navigation path

Each tab has its own stack and router:

@State private var homeRouter = AppRouter()
@State private var favoritesRouter = AppRouter()

AppRouter holds:

var path: [AppRoute] = []

func push(_ route: AppRoute) {
  guard path.last != route else { return }
  path.append(route)
}

NavigationStack(path: $homeRouter.path) binds the stack. Two tabs = two independent paths.

What I did

AppRoute enum + AppRouter class + RouterProtocol for ViewModels.

Why (then)

I wanted ViewModels to trigger navigation without importing SwiftUI navigation APIs everywhere. Tests could record push(.detail(poi:)) with a mock router.

What I’d reconsider

AppRouterView got busy with two stacks, factories, and navigationDestination. I might extract a small coordinator per tab if routes multiply.

RouterProtocol

ViewModels depend on the protocol, not AppRouter:

protocol RouterProtocol {
  func push(_ route: AppRoute)
  func pop()
  func popToRoot()
}

Wiring in AppRouterView

NavigationStack(path: $homeRouter.path) {
  container.homeFactory.makeView(router: homeRouter, namespace: zoomNamespace)
    .navigationDestination(for: AppRoute.self) { route in
      switch route {
      case .home:
        container.homeFactory.makeView(router: homeRouter, namespace: zoomNamespace)
      case .detail(let poi):
        container.detailFactory.makeView(poi: poi)
      }
    }
}

Factory creates the root. navigationDestination maps each case to a View.

Could I navigate from the View only?

Yes. NavigationLink(value: poi) in the list, no router. Fine for simple flows. I pushed navigation into ViewModels to match MVVM habits from UIKit and to test “user tapped row → detail route” without ViewInspector.

Coordinator, MVVM-C, or Router?

UIKit teams often use a Coordinator to own navigation. SwiftUI literature mentions MVVM-C.

I used RouterProtocol + AppRouter: same idea, smaller surface for three screens. A full Coordinator tree might help with deep links and modal flows I have not built yet.

Read next

• Dependency Injection
• MVVM