Bottom Nav
Mobile tab bar. The active pill slides between tabs, the icon hops, and badges sit on the icon.
- Category: Navigation
- Licence: Charcoal UI Pro
- Built with: React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, Motion
- Dependencies: motion, clsx, tailwind-merge
Examples
Bottom Nav
API reference
| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
items | { value, label, icon, badge? }[] | — | |
value / defaultValue | string | — | |
onValueChange | (value: string) => void | — |
About Bottom Nav
Bottom Nav is the mobile tab bar: the active pill slides between tabs, the icon gives a little hop, and badges sit on icons for unread counts. It makes a web app feel native on phones.
Bottom Nav is a navigation component for React 19, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 and animated with Motion. It drops into Next.js, Vite, Remix or Astro through the shadcn CLI as a single file you own.
When to use Bottom Nav
- Mobile web apps and PWAs.
- Social and messaging apps.
- Shopping apps with cart badges.
- Any app with four or five main sections.
How it works
The pill is a shared layout element and the hop is a short spring on the icon. It respects safe-area insets, and each tab is a link with aria-current on the active one.
Links and buttons keep their roles, arrow keys move where a group is expected, the current item is marked with aria-current, and focus is always visible. With prefers-reduced-motion on, it holds still or settles instantly instead of animating.
Customizing Bottom Nav
Every prop is documented in the API reference above with its type and default. The ones you will reach for first are listed here.
Style it with className like any other element. It only uses your theme's tokens, so it follows light and dark mode without extra work.
- items ({ value, label, icon, badge? }[]).
- value / defaultValue (string).
Goes well with Bottom Nav
These navigation pieces share its tokens and motion language, so they sit together on one page without clashing.
- Dock: A macOS-style React dock whose icons swell with pointer distance and show labels
- Expandable Tabs: Compact React icon tabs where the active tab expands to reveal its label
- Floating Nav: A floating React pill nav that hides on scroll down and returns on scroll up
- Context Menu: A React right-click context menu that opens at the pointer and stays on screen
- Scroll Progress: A glowing React scroll progress bar for the page or any scroll container
Install Bottom Nav
npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/bottom-navBottom Nav is part of Charcoal UI Pro. One seat unlocks all 300 Pro components, 107 landing-page sections and 100 full templates, for every personal and client project, with updates included. Add the @charcoal registry once with your access token, then the command above copies bottom-nav.tsx into components/ui and installs clsx, tailwind-merge.
You own the file you install: no runtime package, no lock-in, nothing to keep in sync. Change it however your product needs.
See Charcoal UI Pro pricing · Pro setup
Frequently asked questions
- How do I install Bottom Nav?
- Bottom Nav is part of Charcoal UI Pro. Add the @charcoal registry to components.json with your access token, then run npx shadcn@latest add @charcoal/bottom-nav. It copies bottom-nav.tsx into components/ui and installs motion, clsx, tailwind-merge.
- Is Bottom Nav free for commercial use?
- Bottom Nav needs a Charcoal UI Pro seat, monthly or a one-time lifetime price. A seat covers unlimited personal and commercial projects, including client work, and every future Pro component.
- Does Bottom Nav work with Next.js?
- Yes. It is a client component for React 19 styled with Tailwind CSS 4, so it works in the Next.js App Router and Pages Router, Vite, Remix and Astro.
- Can an AI coding agent install Bottom Nav?
- Yes. Connect the Charcoal UI MCP server (https://charcoalui.com/mcp) to Claude Code, Cursor or any MCP client; get_component returns Bottom Nav's props and get_install_command returns the exact command.