​
Overview

By default, Nova’s main left-side navigation menu displays all of your application’s dashboards, resources, and any custom tools you have registered.

When rendering the main menu, Nova will order your dashboards according to the order in which they are returned by the dashboards method within your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider class.

Nova will also automatically group your resources under the default “Resources” menu section according to the group property defined in the Resource class. In addition, any custom tools you have registered will be listed in the order they are defined within your application’s NovaServiceProvider.

​
Customizing the Main Menu

While Nova’s default main menu is sufficient for most applications, there are times you may wish to completely customize the menu based on your own preferences. For that reason, Nova allows you to define your own main menu via the Nova::mainMenu method. Typically, this method should be invoked within the boot method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider class:

app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\Menu;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

/**
 * Bootstrap any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::mainMenu(function (Request $request) {
        return [
            MenuSection::dashboard(Main::class)->icon('chart-bar'),

            MenuSection::make('Customers', [
                MenuItem::resource(User::class),
                MenuItem::resource(License::class),
            ])->icon('user')->collapsable(),

            MenuSection::make('Content', [
                MenuItem::resource(Series::class),
                MenuItem::resource(Release::class),
            ])->icon('document-text')->collapsable(),
        ];
    });
}

​
Customizing the User Menu

Nova also allows you to customize the “user” menu found in the top-right navigation area. You can customize Nova’s user menu by calling the Nova::userMenu method. This method is typically invoked within the boot method of your application’s App\Providers\NovaServiceProvider:

app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\Menu;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

/**
 * Bootstrap any application services.
 */
public function boot(): void
{
    parent::boot();

    Nova::userMenu(function (Request $request, Menu $menu) {
        if ($request->user()->subscribed()) {
            $menu->append(
                MenuItem::make('Subscriber Dashboard')
                    ->path('/subscribers/dashboard')
            );
        }

        $menu->prepend(
            MenuItem::make(
                'My Profile',
                "/resources/users/{$request->user()->getKey()}"
            )
        );

        return $menu;
    });
}

By default, Nova is configured to display a “logout” link in the user menu. This link may not be removed.

Nova’s user menu only supports MenuItem objects. Using MenuSection or MenuGroup inside the user menu will throw an Exception.

​
Appending / Prepending to the Menu

You may call the append and prepend methods on a Menu instance to prepend or append new items to the. These methods are typically most helpful when customizing the user menu, since you often do not want to completely replace the existing menu:

app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\Menu;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use Laravel\Nova\Nova;

// ...

Nova::userMenu(function (Request $request, Menu $menu) {
    return $menu
        ->append(MenuItem::externalLink('API Docs', 'http://example.com'))
        ->prepend(MenuItem::link('My Profile', '/resources/users/'.$request->user()->getKey()));
});

Menu sections represent a top-level navigation item and are typically displayed with an corresponding icon representing the types of items in the menu. You can create a new menu section by calling the MenuSection::make method. This method accepts the name of the menu section and array of menu groups / items that should be placed within the section:

app/Providers/NovaServiceProvider.php
use App\Nova\Dashboards\Sales;
use App\Nova\Lenses\MostValuableUsers;
use App\Nova\License;
use App\Nova\Refund;
use App\Nova\User;

// ...

Nova::mainMenu(function (Request $request, Menu $menu) {
    return [
        MenuSection::make('Business', [
            MenuGroup::make('Licensing', [
                MenuItem::dashboard(Sales::class),
                MenuItem::resource(License::class),
                MenuItem::resource(Refund::class),
                MenuItem::externalLink('Stripe Payments', 'https://dashboard.stripe.com/payments?status%5B%5D=successful'),
            ]),

            MenuGroup::make('Customers', [
                MenuItem::lens(User::class, MostValuableUsers::class),
            ]),
        ]),
    ];
});

Instead of displaying a list of links, you may indicate that a menu section should just be a large, emphasized link to another location. To accomplish this, you may invoke the path method when defining the menu section:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::make('Dashboard')->path('/dashboards/main');

For convenience, if you are only creating a menu section to serve as a large, emphasized link to a Nova dashboard, you may invoke the MenuSection::dashboard method:

use App\Nova\Dashboards\Sales;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::dashboard(Sales::class);

Since you will often be creating links to Nova resources, you may use the resource method to quickly create a link to the appropriate path for a given resource:

use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::resource(User::class);

Similarly, you may create links to Nova lenses via the lens method:

use App\Nova\Lenses\MostValuableUsers;
use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::lens(User::class, MostValuableUsers::class);

Menu sections that are defined as collapsable do not support also being a link. Calling path on a menu section when it’s collapseable will result in no link being shown.

You can customize the icon displayed for your menu section by invoking the icon method when defining the menu section:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::make('Resources', [
    // items
])->icon('briefcase');

Nova utilizes the free Heroicons icon set by Steve Schoger. Therefore, you may simply specify the name of one of these icons when providing the icon name to the icon method.

You may add visual badges to your menu section by calling the withBadge method on your MenuSection and specifying the options for the badge:

use App\Models\Issue;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;
use Laravel\Nova\Badge;

// ...

// Passing a string directly
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadge('New!', 'success')
    ->icon('document-text');

// Passing a Laravel\Nova\Badge instance directly
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadge(Badge::make('New!', 'info'))
    ->icon('document-text');

// Using a closure to resolve the value
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadge(fn () => Issue::count(), 'warning')
    ->icon('document-text');

​
Conditional Badges

Using the withBadgeIf method, you may conditionally add a badge only if a given condition is met:

use App\Models\Issue;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;
use Laravel\Nova\Badge;

// ...

// Passing a string directly...
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadgeIf('New!', 'info', fn () => Issue::count() > 0);

// Passing a Laravel\Nova\Badge instance...
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadgeIf(Badge::make('New!', 'info'), fn () => Issue::count() > 0);

// Using a closure to resolve the value...
MenuSection::make('New Issues')
    ->path('/resources/issues/lens/new-issues')
    ->withBadgeIf(fn() => 'New!', 'info', fn () => Issue::count() > 0);

​
Collapsable Menu Sections

You may make your menu sections collapsable by invoking the collapsable method when defining the menu section. For convenience, Nova will remember the open state for the section between requests:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuSection;

// ...

MenuSection::make('Resources', [
    //
])->collapsable();

Sometimes you may need another logical level between your menu sections and menu items. In this case, menu groups are the perfect solution. Menu groups allow you to group menu items under their own emphasized heading:

use App\Nova\Dashboards\Sales;
use App\Nova\License;
use App\Nova\Refund;

// ...

MenuSection::make('Business', [
    MenuGroup::make('Licensing', [
        MenuItem::dashboard(Sales::class),
        MenuItem::resource(License::class),
        MenuItem::resource(License::class),
        MenuItem::externalLink('Stripe Payments', 'https://dashboard.stripe.com/payments?status%5B%5D=successful'),
    ]),
]);

​
Collapsable Menu Groups

You may make your menu groups collapsable by invoking the collapsable method on the group. For convenience, Nova will remember the open state for the group between requests:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuGroup;

// ...

MenuGroup::make('Resources', [
    //
])->collapsable();

Menu items represent the different types of links to areas inside and outside of your application that may be added to a custom Nova menu. Nova ships with several convenience methods for creating different types of menu items.

First, to create a link to an internal area of Nova, you may call the link factory method on the MenuItem class:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::link('Cashier', '/cashier');

​
Resource Menu Items

Since you will often be creating links to Nova resources, you may use the resource method to quickly create a link to the appropriate path for a given resource:

use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::resource(User::class);

​
Filtered Resource Menu Items

To create a link to a Nova resource with a predefined filter applied, you can use the filter method, passing in an instance of the filter and the value it should receive. Since filters can be used with multiple resources, you must also pass a name for the menu item, since it cannot be automatically generated:

use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use \App\Nova\Filters\NameFilter;

// ...

MenuItem::filter('Filtered Users', User::class, NameFilter::make(), 'Hemp');

​
Using Multiple Filters With Filtered Resource Menu Items

You may also pass multiple filters to a resource menu item. For instance, let’s imagine you wanted to create a menu item that linked to your User resource, showing users that have an email ending in @laravel.com and that also have a status of active:

use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use \App\Nova\Filters\EmailFilter;
use \App\Nova\Filters\StatusFilter;

// ...

MenuItem::filter('Filtered Users', User::class)
    ->applies(EmailFilter::make(), '@laravel.com')
    ->applies(StatusFilter::make(), 'active');

​
Passing Constructor Parameters to Filtered Resource Menu Items

Nova filters may also receive constructor parameters to enable convenient re-use of your filters across resources. To pass the parameters when creating a filtered resource menu item, just provide them to the filter’s make method:

use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use App\Nova\Filters\ColumnFilter;

// ...

MenuItem::filter('Active Laravel Users', User::class)
    ->applies(ColumnFilter::make('name'), 'Hemp');

​
Lens Menu Items

Similar to resource items, you may create links to Nova lenses via the lens method:

use App\Nova\Lenses\MostValuableUsers;
use App\Nova\User;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::lens(User::class, MostValuableUsers::class)

​
Dashboard Menu Items

You may also create a link to any of your custom Nova dashboards by calling the dashboard factory method:

use App\Nova\Dashboards\Main;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::dashboard(Main::class)

To create a link that directs the user to a location that is totally outside of your Nova application, you may use the externalLink factory method:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::externalLink('Documentation', 'https://nova.laravel.com/docs')

To specify an external link should open within a separate tab, you may call the openInNewTab method on your menu item:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
// ...

MenuItem::externalLink('Documentation', 'https://nova.laravel.com/docs')->openInNewTab();

You may also call the method helper to pass in the HTTP method, request data, and any HTTP headers that should be sent to your application when the link is clicked. This is typically useful for items like logout links, which should be POST requests:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

MenuItem::externalLink('Logout', 'https://api.yoursite.com/logout')
    ->method(
        'POST',
        data: ['user' => 'hemp'],
        headers: ['API_TOKEN' => 'abcdefg1234567']
    )

You may add visual badges to your menu item by calling the withBadge method on your MenuItem and specifying the options for the badge:

use App\Nova\Dashboards\Issue;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use Laravel\Nova\Badge;

// ...

// Passing a string directly
MenuItem::dashboard(Issue::class)
    ->withBadge('New!', 'info')

// Passing a Laravel\Nova\Badge instance directly
MenuItem::dashboard(Issue::class)
    ->withBadge(Badge::make('New!', 'info'))

// Using a closure to resolve the value
MenuItem::dashboard(Issue::class)
    ->withBadge(fn() => 13, 'danger')

​
Conditional Badges

You may also conditionally add badge only if the condition is met.

use App\Nova\Issue;
use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;

// ...

// Passing a string directly
MenuItem::resource(Issue::class)
    ->withBadgeIf('New!', 'info', fn() => Issue::newModel()->count() > 0)

// Passing a Laravel\Nova\Badge instance directly
MenuItem::resource(Issue::class)
    ->withBadgeIf(Badge::make('New!', 'info'), fn() => Issue::newModel()->count() > 0)

// Using a closure to resolve the value
MenuItem::resource(Issue::class)
    ->withBadgeIf(fn() => 'New!', 'info', fn() => Issue::newModel()->count() > 0)

​
Authorizing Menu Items

You may use the canSee method to determine if a menu item should be displayed for the currently authenticated user:

use Laravel\Nova\Menu\MenuItem;
use Laravel\Nova\Http\Requests\NovaRequest;

// ...

MenuItem::link('Cashier', '/cashier')
    ->canSee(function (NovaRequest $request) {
        return $request->user()->can('manageCashier');
    })

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