Navigation

Every panel has a sidebar on the left and a topbar at the top. Anvil builds both from the panel, its pages and resources; you describe labels, icons, groups and order, not the HTML. Entries the user may not open are left out.

┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▣ Brand      │ ⌂ › Invoices › INV-2026-0042   🔍 Search ⌘K   🔔 🏢 ◐ (RK) │
│              ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⌂ Dashboard  │                                                          │
│ ☑ Inbox   3  │                                                          │
│ SALES        │                    page content                          │
│ ▤ Customers  │                                                          │
│ ▤ Invoices   │                                                          │
│ ▸ SETTINGS   │                                                          │
│ «            │                                                          │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Part	What it shows	Configured in	Page
Sidebar	one entry per page and resource the user may open	page / resource	Sidebar
Groups	headings and collapsible sections of the sidebar	Panel::navigationGroups()	Groups
Badges	a count or short text next to an entry	navigationBadge()	Badges
User menu	profile, own entries, logout	Panel::userMenuItems()	User menu
Topbar	breadcrumbs, global search, notifications, tenant, theme	page, resources, panel	Topbar and breadcrumbs

A complete example

use Anvil\Panel\Navigation\NavigationGroup;
use Anvil\Panel\Navigation\UserMenuItem;
use Anvil\Panel\Panel;

final class AdminPanel extends Panel
{
    public function id(): string { return 'admin'; }

    public function resources(): array
    {
        return [CustomerResource::class, InvoiceResource::class, UserResource::class];
    }

    public function pages(): array
    {
        return [ReportsPage::class, SettingsPage::class];
    }

    public function navigationGroups(): array
    {
        return [
            'Sales',
            NavigationGroup::make('Reports')->icon('bar-chart')->collapsible(),
            NavigationGroup::make('Settings')->icon('gear')->collapsed(),
        ];
    }

    public function userMenuItems(): array
    {
        return [UserMenuItem::page('settings')];
    }
}

final class InvoiceResource extends Resource
{
    protected string $navigationIcon   = 'receipt';
    protected ?string $navigationGroup = 'Sales';
    protected int $navigationSort      = 10;

    public function navigationBadge(): ?string
    {
        $overdue = $this->query()->where('status', 'overdue')->countAllResults();

        return $overdue > 0 ? (string) $overdue : null;
    }
}

Principles

• Derived, not declared: there is no separate menu definition. A new resource or page appears in the sidebar as soon as it is registered in the panel.
• Permissions decide: an entry is shown only if the user may open its target – the same check that protects the page. Hiding an entry never replaces that check.
• Escaped: labels, badges and group names are escaped; icons are Bootstrap icon names without bi-.
• Translations: labels are plain strings; return lang('…') for multilingual applications, see Extending Anvil.
• Remembered in the browser: the collapsed sidebar and collapsed groups are stored in the local storage of the browser, the theme in a cookie (anvil_theme); nothing of it on the server.