plugin-multi-tenant: navigating to an isGlobal collection flashes a blank, nav-less screen before the document loads

[jhb-dev]

Describe the Bug

When a collection is registered as a "global" via multiTenantPlugin (collections: { header: { isGlobal: true } }), clicking its entry in the admin sidebar flashes a blank, nav-less screen before the document editor appears.

It is not a full page reload — it is a soft navigation in which the collection list route commits blank (the entire admin shell/nav is torn down) for a beat, before the plugin's redirect resolves and it soft-navigates on to the document view. Non-global collections do not do this; they navigate straight to their list with the nav intact.

Root cause. An isGlobal collection's sidebar link targets the normal list route (/admin/collections/<slug>), exactly like any collection. The plugin injects GlobalViewRedirect as a global admin action, which runs during the list view's render and, for view === 'list', throws a server redirect() to the tenant's document. On a client-side (soft) navigation, a server redirect() thrown from a component that renders after the shell makes Next.js commit the list route empty (without the layout/nav) before following the redirect. That empty commit is the flash. The redirect target is a second route, so in dev it must also compile, stretching the blank frame to ~1s; in production it is briefer but still a visible blank.

Responsible code:

• v3 (3.x): the redirect is thrown here — GlobalViewRedirect/index.ts#L43 — using the list→document route from getGlobalViewRedirect.ts#L105-L112.
• main (v4): same behaviour, just wrapped in the framework adapter — GlobalViewRedirect/index.ts#L46 (server.redirect(...)) and getGlobalViewRedirect.ts#L106.

Affected versions: reproduced on v3 3.85.0, and the same list→document server redirect is present on main (v4) — so both are affected. It is not fixed on main.

Measurement — sampling location.pathname, nav visibility, and visible text on every animation frame while clicking a global vs. a normal collection:

GLOBAL (header/footer):
  t=0     ms  /admin                       nav=true   content
  t=1050  ms  /admin/collections/footer    nav=FALSE  BLANK   <-- flash
  t=2179  ms  /admin/collections/footer/ID nav=true   content

NORMAL (pages) — no blank frame:
  t=0     ms  /admin                       nav=true   content
  t=2308  ms  /admin/collections/pages     nav=true   content

Link to the code that reproduces this issue

payload/packages/plugin-multi-tenant/src/components/GlobalViewRedirect/index.ts

Line 43 in 29dd43c

redirect(redirectRoute)

Reproduction Steps

1. Scaffold with pnpx create-payload-app@latest -t blank.
2. Add @payloadcms/plugin-multi-tenant with a tenants collection and one collection marked isGlobal: true (e.g. header).
3. Create a tenant and its single global document.
4. Log into the admin and select the tenant in the tenant selector.
5. Click the global's entry in the sidebar.
6. Observe: the sidebar/layout disappears (blank screen) for a moment before the document editor renders. Compare with clicking a normal collection, where the nav never disappears.

Which area(s) are affected?

plugin: multi-tenant

Environment Info

Payload: 3.85.0 (list→document server redirect also present on main / v4)
Next.js: 16.2.6
Node: 22.19.0
pnpm: 11.1.3
OS: macOS (darwin arm64)

[itachi5747]

Hi @jhb-dev,
I’d like to take this on
The breakdown of the root cause is spot on handling the redirect via GlobalViewRedirect on the list route forces Next.js to commit the route transition empty before following the server redirect, tearing down the admin shell in the process.
I can work on updating the sidebar navigation link logic for isGlobal collections so they point directly to the target tenant document URL (/admin/collections//). This will bypass the intermediate list route and server redirect altogether, keeping the admin shell mounted during navigation.
Could you please assign this issue to me?
Thanks!