diff --git a/src/core/create_app.ts b/src/core/create_app.ts
index ca405dbc5..fdab1f935 100644
--- a/src/core/create_app.ts
+++ b/src/core/create_app.ts
@@ -22,8 +22,11 @@ function generate_client(routes: Route[], src: string, dev: boolean, dev_port?:
 		// This file is generated by Sapper — do not edit it!
 		export const routes = [
 			${routes
-				.filter(route => route.type === 'page')
 				.map(route => {
+					if (route.type !== 'page') {
+						return `{ pattern: ${route.pattern}, ignore: true }`;
+					}
+
 					const file = posixify(`../../routes/${route.file}`);
 
 					if (route.id === '_4xx' || route.id === '_5xx') {
diff --git a/src/runtime/index.ts b/src/runtime/index.ts
index 92fdd0e44..43e9ee4cd 100644
--- a/src/runtime/index.ts
+++ b/src/runtime/index.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ function select_route(url: URL): Target {
 	for (const route of routes) {
 		const match = route.pattern.exec(url.pathname);
 		if (match) {
+			if (route.ignore) return null;
+
 			const params = route.params(match);
 
 			const query: Record<string, string | true> = {};
diff --git a/src/runtime/interfaces.ts b/src/runtime/interfaces.ts
index 30d90252c..e20349e47 100644
--- a/src/runtime/interfaces.ts
+++ b/src/runtime/interfaces.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ export interface Component {
 export type Route = {
 	pattern: RegExp;
 	params: (match: RegExpExecArray) => Record<string, string>;
-	load: () => Promise<{ default: ComponentConstructor }>
+	load: () => Promise<{ default: ComponentConstructor }>;
+	ignore?: boolean;
 };
 
 export type ScrollPosition = {
diff --git a/test/app/routes/api/blog/contents.js b/test/app/routes/blog.json.js
similarity index 88%
rename from test/app/routes/api/blog/contents.js
rename to test/app/routes/blog.json.js
index 0a426905b..6d2b5cb96 100644
--- a/test/app/routes/api/blog/contents.js
+++ b/test/app/routes/blog.json.js
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import posts from './_posts.js';
+import posts from './blog/_posts.js';
 
 const contents = JSON.stringify(posts.map(post => {
 	return {
diff --git a/test/app/routes/blog/[slug].html b/test/app/routes/blog/[slug].html
index 98e9f7a21..a1c3d2341 100644
--- a/test/app/routes/blog/[slug].html
+++ b/test/app/routes/blog/[slug].html
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ <h1>{{post.title}}</h1>
 				return this.error(500, 'something went wrong');
 			}
 
-			return fetch(`/api/blog/${slug}`).then(r => {
+			return fetch(`/blog/${slug}.json`).then(r => {
 				if (r.status === 200) {
 					return r.json().then(post => ({ post }));
 					this.error(r.status, '')
diff --git a/test/app/routes/api/blog/[slug].js b/test/app/routes/blog/[slug].json.js
similarity index 100%
rename from test/app/routes/api/blog/[slug].js
rename to test/app/routes/blog/[slug].json.js
diff --git a/test/app/routes/api/blog/_posts.js b/test/app/routes/blog/_posts.js
similarity index 98%
rename from test/app/routes/api/blog/_posts.js
rename to test/app/routes/blog/_posts.js
index f3520d1e6..75aa0a1ea 100644
--- a/test/app/routes/api/blog/_posts.js
+++ b/test/app/routes/blog/_posts.js
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ const posts = [
 			<ul>
 				<li>It's powered by <a href='https://svelte.technology'>Svelte</a> instead of React, so it's faster and your apps are smaller</li>
 				<li>Instead of route masking, we encode route parameters in filenames. For example, the page you're looking at right now is <code>routes/blog/[slug].html</code></li>
-				<li>As well as pages (Svelte components, which render on server or client), you can create <em>server routes</em> in your <code>routes</code> directory. These are just <code>.js</code> files that export functions corresponding to HTTP methods, and receive Express <code>request</code> and <code>response</code> objects as arguments. This makes it very easy to, for example, add a JSON API such as the one powering this very page (look in <code>routes/api/blog</code>)</li>
+				<li>As well as pages (Svelte components, which render on server or client), you can create <em>server routes</em> in your <code>routes</code> directory. These are just <code>.js</code> files that export functions corresponding to HTTP methods, and receive Express <code>request</code> and <code>response</code> objects as arguments. This makes it very easy to, for example, add a JSON API such as the one <a href='/blog/how-is-sapper-different-from-next.json'>powering this very page</a></li>
 				<li>Links are just <code>&lt;a&gt;</code> elements, rather than framework-specific <code>&lt;Link&gt;</code> components. That means, for example, that <a href='/blog/how-can-i-get-involved'>this link right here</a>, despite being inside a blob of HTML, works with the router as you'd expect.</li>
 			</ul>
 		`
diff --git a/test/app/routes/blog/index.html b/test/app/routes/blog/index.html
index affe73fdd..d8deaf53e 100644
--- a/test/app/routes/blog/index.html
+++ b/test/app/routes/blog/index.html
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ <h1>Recent posts</h1>
 		},
 
 		preload({ params, query }) {
-			return fetch(`/api/blog/contents`).then(r => r.json()).then(posts => {
+			return fetch(`/blog.json`).then(r => r.json()).then(posts => {
 				return { posts };
 			});
 		}
diff --git a/test/common/test.js b/test/common/test.js
index ff7b735bc..911939450 100644
--- a/test/common/test.js
+++ b/test/common/test.js
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ run('development');
 Nightmare.action('page', {
 	title(done) {
 		this.evaluate_now(() => document.querySelector('h1').textContent, done);
+	},
+
+	text(done) {
+		this.evaluate_now(() => document.body.textContent, done);
 	}
 });
 
@@ -193,7 +197,7 @@ function run(env) {
 						});
 					})
 					.then(requests => {
-						assert.ok(!!requests.find(r => r.url === '/api/blog/why-the-name'));
+						assert.ok(!!requests.find(r => r.url === '/blog/why-the-name.json'));
 					});
 			});
 
@@ -219,7 +223,7 @@ function run(env) {
 						});
 					})
 					.then(mouseover_requests => {
-						assert.ok(mouseover_requests.findIndex(r => r.url === '/api/blog/what-is-sapper') !== -1);
+						assert.ok(mouseover_requests.findIndex(r => r.url === '/blog/what-is-sapper.json') !== -1);
 
 						return capture(() => {
 							return nightmare
@@ -228,7 +232,7 @@ function run(env) {
 						});
 					})
 					.then(click_requests => {
-						assert.ok(click_requests.findIndex(r => r.url === '/api/blog/what-is-sapper') === -1);
+						assert.ok(click_requests.findIndex(r => r.url === '/blog/what-is-sapper.json') === -1);
 					});
 			});
 
@@ -376,6 +380,17 @@ function run(env) {
 						assert.equal(title, 'Internal server error');
 					});
 			});
+
+			it('does not attempt client-side navigation to server routes', () => {
+				return nightmare.goto(`${base}/blog/how-is-sapper-different-from-next`)
+					.init()
+					.click(`[href="/blog/how-is-sapper-different-from-next.json"]`)
+					.wait(200)
+					.page.text()
+					.then(text => {
+						JSON.parse(text);
+					});
+			});
 		});
 
 		describe('headers', () => {
@@ -415,13 +430,13 @@ function run(env) {
 						'blog/what-is-sapper/index.html',
 						'blog/why-the-name/index.html',
 
-						'api/blog/contents',
-						'api/blog/a-very-long-post',
-						'api/blog/how-can-i-get-involved',
-						'api/blog/how-is-sapper-different-from-next',
-						'api/blog/how-to-use-sapper',
-						'api/blog/what-is-sapper',
-						'api/blog/why-the-name',
+						'blog.json',
+						'blog/a-very-long-post.json',
+						'blog/how-can-i-get-involved.json',
+						'blog/how-is-sapper-different-from-next.json',
+						'blog/how-to-use-sapper.json',
+						'blog/what-is-sapper.json',
+						'blog/why-the-name.json',
 
 						'favicon.png',
 						'global.css',