From b916a5560ea32b305f2e7d924d8733eaf92ecfac Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: sleitor <sleitor@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2026 02:50:21 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] fix(router-core): treat null return from beforeLoad as
 no-op for route context

When beforeLoad returns null, treat it the same as undefined (no-op)
instead of storing it as __beforeLoadContext: null. This is consistent
with how the context route option already handles null returns via
?? undefined, and prevents null from silently interfering with context
accumulation.

Closes #7110
---
 .changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md     |  9 +++++
 .../react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx  | 37 +++++++++++++++++++
 packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts      |  2 +-
 3 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 .changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md

diff --git a/.changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md b/.changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5399fc50176
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/fix-beforeload-null-context.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+'@tanstack/router-core': patch
+---
+
+fix(router-core): treat null return from beforeLoad as no-op for route context
+
+When `beforeLoad` returns `null`, it is now treated the same as `undefined` (no-op) instead of being stored as `__beforeLoadContext: null`. This is consistent with how the `context` route option already handles null returns via `?? undefined`, and prevents null from silently interfering with context accumulation.
+
+Fixes #7110
diff --git a/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx b/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
index d11f86420e6..d5e7b8d9e84 100644
--- a/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
@@ -2630,6 +2630,43 @@ describe('useRouteContext in the component', () => {
     expect(content).toBeInTheDocument()
   })
 
+
+  test('route context preserved when beforeLoad returns null', async () => {
+    const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
+      beforeLoad: () => null,
+      component: () => {
+        const context = rootRoute.useRouteContext()
+        return <div>{JSON.stringify(context)}</div>
+      },
+    })
+    const routeTree = rootRoute.addChildren([])
+    const router = createRouter({ routeTree, history, context: { foo: 'bar' } })
+
+    render(<RouterProvider router={router} />)
+
+    const content = await screen.findByText(JSON.stringify({ foo: 'bar' }))
+
+    expect(content).toBeInTheDocument()
+  })
+
+  test('route context preserved when async beforeLoad returns null', async () => {
+    const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
+      beforeLoad: async () => null,
+      component: () => {
+        const context = rootRoute.useRouteContext()
+        return <div>{JSON.stringify(context)}</div>
+      },
+    })
+    const routeTree = rootRoute.addChildren([])
+    const router = createRouter({ routeTree, history, context: { foo: 'bar' } })
+
+    render(<RouterProvider router={router} />)
+
+    const content = await screen.findByText(JSON.stringify({ foo: 'bar' }))
+
+    expect(content).toBeInTheDocument()
+  })
+
   test('route context (sleep in beforeLoad), present in the root route', async () => {
     const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
       beforeLoad: async () => {
diff --git a/packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts b/packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts
index 3e99c828936..a2b6d798cf6 100644
--- a/packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts
+++ b/packages/router-core/src/load-matches.ts
@@ -490,7 +490,7 @@ const executeBeforeLoad = (
   }
 
   const updateContext = (beforeLoadContext: any) => {
-    if (beforeLoadContext === undefined) {
+    if (beforeLoadContext === undefined || beforeLoadContext === null) {
       inner.router.batch(() => {
         pending()
         resolve()

From ee99b339b7f66fdf1703a2ab30a008396776a3c5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "autofix-ci[bot]" <114827586+autofix-ci[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2026 02:52:09 +0000
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] ci: apply automated fixes

---
 packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx | 1 -
 1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx b/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
index d5e7b8d9e84..daaa0656494 100644
--- a/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react-router/tests/routeContext.test.tsx
@@ -2630,7 +2630,6 @@ describe('useRouteContext in the component', () => {
     expect(content).toBeInTheDocument()
   })
 
-
   test('route context preserved when beforeLoad returns null', async () => {
     const rootRoute = createRootRoute({
       beforeLoad: () => null,