NavigateEvent: canIntercept property
Baseline
2026
Newly available
Since January 2026, this feature works across the latest devices and browser versions. This feature might not work in older devices or browsers.
The canIntercept read-only property of the
NavigateEvent interface returns true if the navigation can be intercepted and have its URL rewritten, or false otherwise
There are several rules around when a navigation can be intercepted. For example:
- You can't intercept cross-origin navigations.
- You can intercept
httporhttpsURLs if only thepath,query, andfragmentportions of the new URL differ from the current URL. - You can intercept
fileURLs if only thequeryandfragmentportions of the new URL differ. - For other URL types you can intercept the navigation if only the
fragmentportion differs.
See the spec for more explanation on when a Document can have its URL rewritten, including a table of examples.
Value
A boolean value—true if the navigation can be intercepted, false if not.
Examples
js
navigation.addEventListener("navigate", (event) => {
// Some navigations, e.g. cross-origin navigations, we
// cannot intercept. Let the browser handle those normally.
if (!event.canIntercept) {
return;
}
// Don't intercept fragment navigations or downloads.
if (event.hashChange || event.downloadRequest !== null) {
return;
}
event.intercept({
handler() {
if (event.formData) {
processFormDataAndUpdateUI(event.formData, event.signal);
} else {
doSinglePageAppNav(event.destination, event.signal);
}
},
});
});
Specifications
| Specification |
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| HTML # dom-navigateevent-canintercept-dev |
Browser compatibility
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canIntercept
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Legend
Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.
- Full support
- Full support
- Uses a non-standard name
- Has more compatibility info.