Bootstrap 6 Nav

Nav

Documentation and examples for how to use CoreUI for Bootstrap's included navigation components.

Available in Other JavaScript Frameworks

CoreUI Bootstrap 6 Nav is also available for Angular, React, and Vue. Explore framework-specific implementations below:

On this page

Base nav

Navigation available in CoreUI share general markup and styles, from the base .nav class to the active and disabled states. Swap modifier classes to switch between each style.

The base .nav component is built with flexbox and provide a strong foundation for building all types of navigation components. It includes some style overrides (for working with lists), some link padding for larger hit areas, and basic disabled styling.

The base .nav component does not include any .active state. The following examples include the class, mainly to demonstrate that this particular class does not trigger any special styling.

To convey the active state to assistive technologies, use the aria-current attribute — using the page value for current page, or true for the current item in a set.

html

<ul class="nav">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Classes are used throughout, so your markup can be super flexible. Use <ul>s like above, <ol> if the order of your items is important, or roll your own with a <nav> element. Because the .nav uses display: flex, the nav links behave the same as nav items would, but without the extra markup.

html

<nav class="nav">
  <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</nav>

Available styles

Change the style of .navs component with modifiers and utilities. Mix and match as needed, or build your own.

Horizontal alignment

Change the horizontal alignment of your nav with flexbox utilities. By default, navs are left-aligned, but you can easily change them to center or right aligned.

Centered with .justify-content-center:

html

<ul class="nav justify-content-center">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Right-aligned with .justify-content-end:

html

<ul class="nav justify-content-end">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Vertical

Stack your navigation by changing the flex item direction with the .flex-column utility. Need to stack them on some viewports but not others? Use the responsive versions (e.g., .flex-sm-column).

html

<ul class="nav flex-column">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

As always, vertical navigation is possible without <ul>s, too.

html

<nav class="nav flex-column">
  <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</nav>

Tabs

Takes the basic nav from above and adds the .nav-tabs class to generate a tabbed interface. Use them to create tabbable regions with our tab plugin.

html

<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Pills

Take that same HTML, but use .nav-pills instead:

html

<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Underline

Take that same HTML, but use .nav-underline instead:

html

<ul class="nav nav-underline">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Underline border

Take that same HTML, but use .nav-underline-border instead:

html

<ul class="nav nav-underline-border">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Enclosed

Use the .nav-enclosed class to give your navigation items a subtle border and rounded styling.

html

<ul class="nav nav-enclosed">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Enclosed pills

Combine .nav-enclosed with .nav-enclosed-pills to achieve a pill-style appearance for each nav item, using pill-shaped borders and smoother outlines.

html

<ul class="nav nav-enclosed nav-enclosed-pills">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Fill and justify

Force your .nav’s contents to extend the full available width one of two modifier classes. To proportionately fill all available space with your .nav-items, use .nav-fill. Notice that all horizontal space is occupied, but not every nav item has the same width.

html

<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-fill">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Much longer nav link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

When using a <nav>-based navigation, you can safely omit .nav-item as only .nav-link is required for styling <a> elements.

html

<nav class="nav nav-pills nav-fill">
  <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Much longer nav link</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</nav>

For equal-width elements, use .nav-justified. All horizontal space will be occupied by nav links, but unlike the .nav-fill above, every nav item will be the same width.

html

<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-justified">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Much longer nav link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Similar to the .nav-fill example using a <nav>-based navigation.

html

<nav class="nav nav-pills nav-justified">
  <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Much longer nav link</a>
  <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</nav>

Either class also stretches an enclosed nav, which otherwise stays as wide as its links.

Variants

A theme class recolors a nav. Every link reads the theme’s foreground; what marks the active one follows the variant — a tint on the base nav, a solid fill on pills, the line on either underline.

html

<ul class="nav theme-success">
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>

html

<ul class="nav nav-pills theme-success">
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>

html

<ul class="nav nav-underline theme-success">
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>

html

<ul class="nav nav-underline-border theme-success">
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
  <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>

Working with flex utilities

If you need responsive nav variations, consider using a series of flexbox utilities. While more verbose, these utilities offer greater customization across responsive breakpoints. In the example below, our nav will be stacked on the lowest breakpoint, then adapt to a horizontal layout that fills the available width starting from the small breakpoint.

html

<nav class="nav nav-pills flex-column flex-sm-row">
  <a class="flex-sm-fill text-sm-center nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  <a class="flex-sm-fill text-sm-center nav-link" href="#">Longer nav link</a>
  <a class="flex-sm-fill text-sm-center nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  <a class="flex-sm-fill text-sm-center nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
</nav>

Regarding accessibility

If you’re using navs to provide a navigation bar, be sure to add a role="navigation" to the most logical parent container of the <ul>, or wrap a <nav> element around the whole navigation. Do not add the role to the <ul> itself, as this would prevent it from being announced as an actual list by assistive technologies.

Note that navigation bars, even if visually styled as tabs with the .nav-tabs class, should not be given role="tablist", role="tab" or role="tabpanel" attributes. These are only appropriate for dynamic tabbed interfaces, as described in the ARIA Authoring Practices Guide tabs pattern. See the tab plugin for dynamic tabbed interfaces. The aria-current attribute is not necessary on dynamic tabbed interfaces since our JavaScript handles the selected state by adding aria-selected="true" on the active tab.

Using menus

Add menus with a little extra HTML and the menu JavaScript plugin.

Tabs with menus

html

<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#" role="button" data-coreui-toggle="menu" aria-expanded="false">Menu</a>
    <div class="menu">
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Action</a>
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Another action</a>
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
      <hr class="menu-divider">
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Separated link</a>
    </div>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Pills with menus

html

<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Active</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#" role="button" data-coreui-toggle="menu" aria-expanded="false">Menu</a>
    <div class="menu">
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Action</a>
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Another action</a>
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Something else here</a>
      <hr class="menu-divider">
      <a class="menu-item" href="#">Separated link</a>
    </div>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
  </li>
  <li class="nav-item">
    <a class="nav-link disabled" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Customizing

CSS variables

Navs use local CSS variables on .nav, .nav-tabs, .nav-pills, .nav-underline, .nav-underline-border and .nav-enclosed for enhanced real-time customization.

On the .nav base class:

scss

$nav-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-gap: 0,
    --cui-nav-link-gap: .5rem,
    --cui-nav-link-align: center,
    --cui-nav-link-justify: center,
    --cui-nav-link-border-radius: var(--cui-radius-5),
    --cui-nav-link-padding-x: 1rem,
    --cui-nav-link-padding-y: #{$nav-link-padding-y},
    --cui-nav-link-font-size: inherit,
    --cui-nav-link-font-weight: inherit,
    --cui-nav-link-color: var(--cui-fg-2),
    --cui-nav-link-hover-color: var(--cui-fg-1),
    --cui-nav-link-hover-bg: var(--cui-bg-1),
    --cui-nav-link-active-color: var(--cui-fg-body),
    --cui-nav-link-active-bg: var(--cui-bg-2),
    --cui-nav-link-disabled-color: var(--cui-fg-4),
    --cui-nav-link-transition-property: #{color, background-color, border-color},
    --cui-nav-link-transition-duration: .15s,
    --cui-nav-link-transition-timing: ease-in-out,
  ),
  $nav-tokens
);

On the .nav-tabs modifier class:

scss

$nav-tabs-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-tabs-border-width: var(--cui-border-width),
    --cui-nav-tabs-border-color: #{$nav-tabs-border-color},
    --cui-nav-tabs-border-radius: var(--cui-radius-5),
    --cui-nav-tabs-link-hover-border-color: #{var(--cui-border-subtle) var(--cui-border-subtle) $nav-tabs-border-color},
    --cui-nav-tabs-link-active-color: var(--cui-fg-body),
    --cui-nav-tabs-link-active-bg: #{$nav-tabs-link-active-bg},
    --cui-nav-tabs-link-active-border-color: #{var(--cui-border-color) var(--cui-border-color) $nav-tabs-link-active-bg},
  ),
  $nav-tabs-tokens
);

On the .nav-pills modifier class:

scss

$nav-pills-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-pills-border-radius: 3rem,
    --cui-nav-pills-link-active-color: var(--cui-primary-contrast),
    --cui-nav-pills-link-active-bg: var(--cui-primary-bg),
  ),
  $nav-pills-tokens
);

Added in v5.0.0

On the .nav-underline modifier class:

scss

$nav-underline-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-underline-gap: 1rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-border-width: .125rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-link-active-color: var(--cui-fg-body),
  ),
  $nav-underline-tokens
);

Added in v5.0.0

On the .nav-underline-border modifier class:

scss

$nav-underline-border-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-underline-border-gap: .5rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-border-border-color: var(--cui-border-color),
    --cui-nav-underline-border-border-width: .125rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-border-link-padding-x: .5rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-border-link-padding-y: .5rem,
    --cui-nav-underline-border-link-color: var(--cui-fg-2),
    --cui-nav-underline-border-link-active-color: var(--cui-primary-base),
    --cui-nav-underline-border-link-disabled-color: var(--cui-fg-3),
  ),
  $nav-underline-border-tokens
);

On the .nav-enclosed modifier class, where .nav-enclosed-pills changes only --cui-nav-enclosed-border-radius:

scss

$nav-enclosed-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-nav-enclosed-padding-y: .125rem,
    --cui-nav-enclosed-padding-x: .125rem,
    --cui-nav-enclosed-bg: var(--cui-bg-3),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-border-radius: var(--cui-radius-5),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-padding-x: .875rem,
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-padding-y: .375rem,
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-color: var(--cui-fg-body),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-border-width: 1px,
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-active-color: var(--cui-fg-body),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-active-bg: var(--cui-bg-body),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-active-border-color: var(--cui-border-color),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-hover-box-shadow: var(--cui-box-shadow-sm),
    --cui-nav-enclosed-link-disabled-color: var(--cui-fg-2),
  ),
  $nav-enclosed-tokens
);

Tab pane variables:

scss

$tab-pane-tokens: defaults(
  (
    --cui-tab-pane-transition-property: opacity,
    --cui-tab-pane-transition-duration: .15s,
    --cui-tab-pane-transition-timing: linear,
  ),
  $tab-pane-tokens
);

Sass variables

Deprecated in v6.0.0

Sass variables set these defaults at build time and are removed in v7. The CSS variables above reach the same values without recompiling, and can be set on a single element.

scss

$nav-link-padding-y:                .5rem !default;

$nav-tabs-border-color:             var(--cui-border-color) !default;
$nav-tabs-link-active-bg:           var(--cui-bg-body) !default;