useSelectedLayoutSegment

useSelectedLayoutSegment is a Client Component hook that lets you read the active route segment one level below the Layout it is called from.

It is useful for navigation UI, such as tabs inside a parent layout that change style depending on the active child segment.

"use client";

import { useSelectedLayoutSegment } from "next/navigation";

export default function ExampleClientComponent() {
  const segment = useSelectedLayoutSegment();

  return <p>Active segment: {segment}</p>;
}

"use client";

import { useSelectedLayoutSegment } from "next/navigation";

export default function ExampleClientComponent() {
  const segment = useSelectedLayoutSegment();

  return <p>Active segment: {segment}</p>;
}

Good to know:

• Since useSelectedLayoutSegment is a Client Component hook, and Layouts are Server Components by default, useSelectedLayoutSegment is usually called via a Client Component that is imported into a Layout.
• useSelectedLayoutSegment only returns the segment one level down. To return all active segments, see useSelectedLayoutSegments

Parameters

const segment = useSelectedLayoutSegment(parallelRoutesKey?: string)

useSelectedLayoutSegment optionally accepts a parallelRoutesKey, which allows you to read the active route segment within that slot.

Returns

useSelectedLayoutSegment returns a string of the active segment or null if one doesn't exist.

For example, given the Layouts and URLs below, the returned segment would be:

Layout	Visited URL	Returned Segment
app/layout.js	/	null
app/layout.js	/dashboard	'dashboard'
app/dashboard/layout.js	/dashboard	null
app/dashboard/layout.js	/dashboard/settings	'settings'
app/dashboard/layout.js	/dashboard/analytics	'analytics'
app/dashboard/layout.js	/dashboard/analytics/monthly	'analytics'

Examples

Creating an active link component

You can use useSelectedLayoutSegment to create an active link component that changes style depending on the active segment. For example, a featured posts list in the sidebar of a blog:

"use client";

import Link from "next/link";
import { useSelectedLayoutSegment } from "next/navigation";

// This *client* component will be imported into a blog layout
export default function BlogNavLink({
  slug,
  children,
}: {
  slug: string;
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  // Navigating to `/blog/hello-world` will return 'hello-world'
  // for the selected layout segment
  const segment = useSelectedLayoutSegment();
  const isActive = slug === segment;

  return (
    <Link
      href={`/blog/${slug}`}
      // Change style depending on whether the link is active
      style={{ fontWeight: isActive ? "bold" : "normal" }}
    >
      {children}
    </Link>
  );
}

"use client";

import Link from "next/link";
import { useSelectedLayoutSegment } from "next/navigation";

// This *client* component will be imported into a blog layout
export default function BlogNavLink({ slug, children }) {
  // Navigating to `/blog/hello-world` will return 'hello-world'
  // for the selected layout segment
  const segment = useSelectedLayoutSegment();
  const isActive = slug === segment;

  return (
    <Link
      href={`/blog/${slug}`}
      // Change style depending on whether the link is active
      style={{ fontWeight: isActive ? "bold" : "normal" }}
    >
      {children}
    </Link>
  );
}

// Import the Client Component into a parent Layout (Server Component)
import { BlogNavLink } from "./blog-nav-link";
import getFeaturedPosts from "./get-featured-posts";

export default async function Layout({
  children,
}: {
  children: React.ReactNode;
}) {
  const featuredPosts = await getFeaturedPosts();
  return (
    <div>
      {featuredPosts.map((post) => (
        <div key={post.id}>
          <BlogNavLink slug={post.slug}>{post.title}</BlogNavLink>
        </div>
      ))}
      <div>{children}</div>
    </div>
  );
}

// Import the Client Component into a parent Layout (Server Component)
import { BlogNavLink } from "./blog-nav-link";
import getFeaturedPosts from "./get-featured-posts";

export default async function Layout({ children }) {
  const featuredPosts = await getFeaturedPosts();
  return (
    <div>
      {featuredPosts.map((post) => (
        <div key={post.id}>
          <BlogNavLink slug={post.slug}>{post.title}</BlogNavLink>
        </div>
      ))}
      <div>{children}</div>
    </div>
  );
}

Version History

Version	Changes
v13.0.0	useSelectedLayoutSegment introduced.