GC Design System Components
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Side navigation
<gcds-side-nav>

Also called: sidebar menu, lefthand nav, vertical navigation.

A side navigation is a vertical list of page links on the left side of the screen.

  • GitHub
  • Figma

Side navigation component preview

On this page

Coding and accessibility for side navigation

Place the side navigation in the page layouts

Implement the side navigation in the product layout so that it’s present on all pages.

Use the side navigation with other components

If using breadcrumbs, align the content hierarchy in both sets of links, so the components reflect a similar path through the site.

Examples Explore the different ways you can configure the component. Each example shows a working implementation and ready-to-copy code.

In this section

Essential attributes These attributes are needed for the component to function correctly.

label

The label attribute defines the label for the navigation landmark.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
</gcds-side-nav>

The menu-label attribute of the gcds-nav-group subcomponent defines the label for the nav group menu.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features">
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

open-trigger (gcds-nav-group)

The open-trigger attribute of the gcds-nav-group subcomponent defines the label for the collapsed button trigger.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features">
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

The href attribute of the gcds-nav-link subcomponent specifies the URL of the page the link goes to.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
</gcds-side-nav>

Optional attributes These attributes allow you to customize or extend the component’s behaviour and presentation.

close-trigger (gcds-nav-group)

The close-trigger attribute of the gcds-nav-group subcomponent defines the label for the expanded button trigger.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features" close-trigger="Close Features">
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

open (gcds-nav-group)

The open attribute of the gcds-nav-group subcomponent controls whether the nav group is expanded or not. By default, it is set to false.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features" open>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

The current attribute of the gcds-nav-link subcomponent indicates whether the page is current or not.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link current href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
</gcds-side-nav>

Slots The default slot allows you to inject custom content into the component’s primary content area, and named slots, into specific areas.

default

The default slot is for adding navigation groups and navigation links.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Why GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-link href="#">Contact us</gcds-nav-link>
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features">
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

home

The home slot is for adding the home link or site title.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-link href="#" slot="home">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>
</gcds-side-nav>

default (gcds-nav-group)

The default slot of the gcds-nav-group subcomponent is for adding the list of navigation links.

<gcds-side-nav label="Side navigation component preview">
  <gcds-nav-group menu-label="Features" open-trigger="Features">
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Review in both official languages side-by-side</gcds-nav-link>
    <gcds-nav-link href="#">Get form responses delivered securely</gcds-nav-link>
  </gcds-nav-group>
</gcds-side-nav>

The default slot of the gcds-nav-link subcomponent is for adding the navigation link content.

<gcds-nav-link href="#">GC Forms</gcds-nav-link>

Code builder

Generate an instance of the component you need by selecting its code properties.

  1. Explore by choosing different code values to generate the instance you want.

  2. Get the code and pull it into your environment.

  3. Add any copy you need to the component (like text for a label).

Note: The code builder uses English for all code elements, which follows standard practice.

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2026-05-20