I have a requirement to serve pre-rendered pages to real users and make them interactive. The website uses React (Next.js).

Instead of returning an empty <div id="__next" />, and letting React render the components, the page returns the entire DOM tree inside that div. The problem here is that interactions on the page do not work anymore, probably because React is not creating the components.

A simple click on a menu does not expand the options, for example.

Is there a way to make React work on a pre-rendered page?

I installed React Developer Tools to check if I could see all the components, but I got stuck with Loading React Element Tree..., probably because React is not working properly. React Developer Tools works correctly on the original website.