The router is 'starting up' simply when it is required.  The only thing navigate is doing is loading a specific page. By default, the router should be loading your workspace.  In fact, app.root is just set to ```''```, which is also defined in the router to load the workspace.

My guess is it may be related to loading the app in a sub-directory?  It may be necessary to update app.root if you don't host it from the root directory, and make sure the router is aware of it.