admin_navigation

Drupal core now ships with a modern left-aligned Navigation
module that replaces the legacy Toolbar with a collapsible vertical sidebar.
The original contributed
module was merged into core (Drupal 10.2+ and 11) and is the foundation
Admin Navigation builds on — core ships the structure, this module adds the
polish.

Admin Navigation adds the ergonomic options, layout
choices and quick-access shortcuts that make day-to-day administration
noticeably faster. Toggle between sidebar and top-bar layout with one click,
drop a configurable Admin Tools menu on the Drupal logo, group items to
reclaim horizontal space, and block third-party CSS or JS that breaks the
toolbar — all from a single settings page.

Features

Sidebar ↔ Top bar toggle with a live visual preview on the
settings page. Switch the entire core Navigation between a vertical left
sidebar (default) and a horizontal top bar with one radio.
Top-bar polish (only when position = top): smooth
horizontal layout that respects core spacing tokens, popovers that drop
below their trigger, nested submenus that fly out to the right
with viewport-edge correction, automatic overflow detection with a
"more" button that slides hidden items into view when the toolbar
is too narrow, and portal-to-<body> so
position: fixed flyouts work even when an ancestor uses
transform.
Hide duplicate popover headers in top mode: when a popover
duplicates the trigger label (e.g. the Structure popover starts
with a Structure link), enable this and the parent button becomes
a direct link instead — saving a click.
Sticky behaviour control: keep the toolbar pinned to the
viewport while scrolling (default) or anchor it to the top of the page.
Auto-hide empty top bar: hides the
<aside class="top-bar"> when all its regions contain
only hidden elements — prevents a stray empty bar artefact when other
modules inject hidden buttons there.
Mobile-friendly: below 769 px the module falls back
to core's native sidebar so phones get the same experience that ships with
Drupal core.
Right-to-left support: every directional value uses
logical CSS properties, so RTL sites work out of the box.

Admin Tools dropdown (submodule)

Hover the Drupal logo to reveal a configurable dropdown with the most-used
admin shortcuts. Items are fully customizable from the settings page —
drag to reorder, edit labels, enable/disable, add custom links to routes or
external URLs. Two display styles for items with children:
inline expansion or a sub-popover with a Back
button mirroring core's Create → Article navigation.

Out of the box it bundles:

Index — link to /admin/index
Flush all caches (with eight granular sub-actions):
CSS & JS, plugins, render, routing & links, static, twig, views,
theme registry, plus the catch-all flush-everything.
Run cron
Run updates
Logout

All cache-flush routes are CSRF protected, redirect back to the page you
came from, and require administer site configuration.

Top-bar item grouping (submodule)

Bundle several top-bar items under a single parent dropdown to reduce
horizontal overflow on narrower laptops. Pick a parent (e.g.
Structure) and pick the children that should live inside its
dropdown via a custom drag-and-drop UI on the settings page. Full keyboard
support at runtime (Enter/Space, Arrow keys, Escape, Tab).

CSS / JS conflict blocking (submodule)

Many contrib modules ship CSS with global selectors like
aside { float: right; … } or nav { … } that
inadvertently break the new toolbar (which IS an <aside>
containing <nav> elements). Admin Navigation scans every
installed module's libraries on demand, auto-detects files containing
problematic selectors, and lets you disable any CSS or JS file with one
checkbox — only for users with toolbar access, so the front-end keeps the
original styles intact.

Post-Installation

After installing, visit
Configuration → User interface → Admin Navigation
(/admin/config/user-interface/admin-navigation). Every feature
lives there as a vertical tab — the tabs only appear for the submodules you
have enabled, so the page stays clean.

General — sticky behaviour and hide-empty-top-bar toggle.
Position (admin_navigation_position) — sidebar
or top bar, with a live visual preview and top-bar-only options.
Conflicts (admin_navigation_conflicts) —
per-module list of CSS/JS files with a "Recommended to block" section at
the top.
Grouping (admin_navigation_grouping) —
drag-and-drop UI to bundle items under parent dropdowns.
Admin Tools (admin_navigation_tools) — enable
the logo dropdown, choose the nested-items display style, edit the items
table.

Required permission: Administer admin navigation. Changes
take effect on the next page load — render cache is invalidated
automatically on save.

Additional Requirements

Drupal core 10.2+ or 11
Core Navigation module enabled. The
contrib Navigation
module was merged into core, so on Drupal 10.2 and later it ships
out of the box — just enable it from
Extend. It is still experimental in core, so Drupal will show a
one-time confirmation page when you install it.

No external libraries, no contrib dependencies. The submodules only depend
on the base module (and Grouping / Admin Tools depend on Position so
the shared JS helpers are available).

Recommended modules/libraries

Navigation
(now in core, experimental) — the module Admin Navigation enhances.
Any third-party module whose CSS conflicts with the toolbar pairs well
with the Conflicts submodule (scan + auto-suggest + one-click
block).

Similar projects

Admin Toolbar
targets the legacy Toolbar core module that
Navigation replaces. Admin Navigation targets the new
Navigation module instead. The two are not
interchangeable: pick the one that matches the core module you actually
have enabled.

Admin Toolbar Admin Navigation Targets core module toolbar (legacy) navigation (Drupal 10.2+ / 11) Position top only top or sidebar Quick admin actions admin_toolbar_tools admin_navigation_tools Conflict detection — admin_navigation_conflicts Item grouping — admin_navigation_grouping Search admin_toolbar_search roadmap (admin_navigation_search) Status stable experimental beta

Supporting this Module

Issues, feature requests and patches are welcome on the
project page.

Community Documentation

Documentation, screenshots and changelog live in the project's
Git
repository. The architecture (thin parent module + four focused
submodules) is summarised in README.md.

Roadmap

admin_navigation_search — type-to-filter inside the top
bar.
Right, bottom and floating positions.
Theme variants (dark, compact).
More accessibility polish (ARIA live regions on flyouts).