🏎️App Navigation
One page for how users move through the app: mobile bottom tabs vs drawer, desktop top tabs vs drawer, role-specific nav, and screens hidden from navigation (deep links only).
Navigation Groups and Screen Navigation Visibility stay as short pointers to this page. Those pages link here for the full navigation guide.
What this is / when to use it
Navigation is the chrome around your screens: the tab bar, the drawer, and the desktop top tabs. It is not the same as screen visibility (who may open a screen) or data restriction (which rows they see).
Use this page when you are deciding:
Tabs vs a drawer on phones
Top tabs vs a drawer on desktop
Different menus per role
A screen that should exist but not appear in the menu (Select Items, a success content page, a deep-linked form)
When not to use navigation as a security control: hiding a screen from the menu does not hide it from a crafted URL if the user is allowed to open it. Use screen visibility and private apps for access.
Before you start
You have more than one screen.
You know the primary role’s “home” screen.
You have decided public vs private. Public apps still have nav; they just have no login chrome.
Build it
Open Edit Navigation (builder, Screens rail or the nav editor).
Choose the mobile pattern: bottom tabs or drawer.
Choose the desktop pattern:
TOP_TABSorDRAWER(DesktopNavigationType).Drag screens into the order users should see. First item is what most users treat as home unless you set a Profile landing screen.
Optionally create navigation groups (section labels in the drawer).
For each role that needs a different menu, configure that role’s visible screens. See Roles and navigation.
For picker / success / wizard screens, turn Hide from navigation on. Give them an opener (button, form redirect, relation). See the how-to Open Screens That Are Hidden From Navigation.
Preview phone and desktop. Publish.
Every control
Mobile nav
Bottom tabs / drawer
Phones and the “show mobile view on desktop” preview.
Desktop nav
TOP_TABS / DRAWER
Large-device chrome.
Screen order
Drag list
Tab / drawer order.
Navigation group
Label + member screens
Drawer section headings.
Hide from navigation
On / off
Screen stays in the app, omitted from chrome.
Role menu
Per-role screen set
Different tabs for Client vs Staff.
Bottom tabs work with a small set of top-level screens (about 3–5). More than that belongs in a drawer, or in tabs plus hidden deep links.
Hide from navigation
Turn Hide from navigation on for picker, success, and wizard screens. The screen stays in the app and is omitted from the tab bar and drawer. Users reach it from a button, a form redirect, a relation picker, or a published URL. Hiding a screen is not access control — use screen visibility and private apps for that.
What users see
Mobile bottom tabs. A bar at the bottom. Extra screens go into an overflow if you add too many — prefer fewer tabs.
Mobile drawer. A menu icon. Groups appear as headings.
Desktop top tabs. A horizontal bar. Long lists wrap or overflow; prefer a drawer when you have many roles and many screens.
Desktop drawer. Persistent or hamburger, matching the mobile mental model.
Hidden screens. No tab. Users reach them from a button (go_to_screen), a form submit redirect, a relation picker, or a published URL that includes the screen slug.
Limits and plans
Hide-from-nav is not access control.
Role menus still require the user to be in that role in the Users database.
Custom domain and slug changes do not reset nav, but they do change deep-link URLs. See Publish & share.
Everyday chrome screens (Home, Search, My Queue, Activity, Profile) are normal nav citizens. Put Home first and Profile last unless you have a reason not to.
Example
A mixed portal:
Home
First tab
All signed-in roles
My requests
Tab
Client
Work queue
Tab
Staff
Add request
Hidden
Opened from Home primary CTA
Choose scopes (Select Items)
Hidden
Opened from the form relation
Legal (Content)
Drawer group “Account”
All, also marked public
Staff and Client do not share the same tab set.
Fix problems
Screen missing from tabs
Hidden, or role menu excludes it
Check hide-from-nav and role config.
Users open a hidden screen from a stale link
Visibility still allows them
Tighten screen visibility if that is wrong.
Desktop looks like a phone
Large device view is MOBILE
Set DESKTOP.
Two nav docs disagree
Groups / visibility pages are stubs
This page is canonical.
Related
Next: Add New Screen or Types of Screens. Screen who-can-open rules: Screen Visibility.
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